Avoid Brewers Best Carb Tablets

[jrc64]

Just a heads up to all. I recently kegged around 3.5 gallons of pumpkin ale and bottled another gallon or so using the Brewers Best carb tabs (these are the little ones). Well, I would agree with all of the negative reviews. After 3 weeks we popped them open and experienced a very skunky, flat beer!! Dumped all the bottles out! The kegged portion was execellent however.

 

[LabRatBrewer]

I had much better results with the Coopers tabs. (In full disclosure I only bottle a few bottles occasionally, mostly I keg). Here are the ones I liked:

 

[BlackGoat]

makes sense when bottling a few bottles, but for a batch it just takes two seconds to make a corn sugar solution in the microwave and dump it into the bottling bucket. Seems that carb tabs would take longer and be more of a hassle.

 

[unionrdr]

I hate those little pill size tablets. Takes 4-6 per bottle to get half decent carbonation. The cooper's ones are way better. but I still have a bag I never used after going with bulk priming.

 

[jrc64]

I had much better results with the Coopers tabs. (In full disclosure I only bottle a few bottles occasionally, mostly I keg). Here are the ones I liked:

Yeah, several people have great things to say about the Coopers.

 

[jrc64]

makes sense when bottling a few bottles, but for a batch it just takes two seconds to make a corn sugar solution in the microwave and dump it into the bottling bucket. Seems that carb tabs would take longer and be more of a hassle.

My general rule of the house is anything over 2.5 gallons goes into the keg for force carbonation, Anything under 2.5 gets the carb tabs in the bottle. just easier for small bottled batches.

 

[jcoxen]

Has anyone used Prime Dose capsules? How well do they work? How do they compare to Cooper's drops?

 

[LabRatBrewer]

Has anyone used Prime Dose capsules? How well do they work? How do they compare to Cooper's drops?

I have not, but here is a thread about the Prime Dose capsules:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/prime-dose-capsules-454828/

 

[b-boy]

I'm not a fan of the tablets. I've have limited success with them. I like priming sugar. It always seems to work and I get consitency bottle to bottle.

 

[planetscott]

I had much better results with the Coopers tabs. (In full disclosure I only bottle a few bottles occasionally, mostly I keg). Here are the ones I liked:

Ditto.

Funny, when I used the Brewer's Best, even when I would use just 2 of the tabs, the beer would over carbonate. I hated those things......However, it got me to start kegging so in a way, I love those things!

 

[ArcaneXor]

After 3 weeks we popped them open and experienced a very skunky, flat beer!! Dumped all the bottles out!

I am not a fan of the carb tabs, either, but if the beer was skunky, there was something else going on as well. Skunkiness is the result of exposure to bright light, especially UV light.

 

[jrc64]

I am not a fan of the carb tabs, either, but if the beer was skunky, there was something else going on as well. Skunkiness is the result of exposure to bright light, especially UV light.

These bottles were n the basement far from any light at all. Not sure what happened here.

 

[planetscott]

These bottles were n the basement far from any light at all. Not sure what happened here.

You sure it was skunky and not another off flavor? My understanding is skunk comes from light and no other sources. If I am wrong, someone please correct me. If it is flat, it could be oxidized. Regardless, those carb tabs suck!

 

[unionrdr]

Skunked, or "light struck" beer happens when UV light breaks down the hop lupulins into pretty much the same thing as skunk spray.