Bottle Conditioning Tab Trouble

[delucr]

I made a 5 gallon batch of IPA and I wanted to split it and dry hop half to see how different the beer would taste. I thought bottle conditioning tabs would be an easy way to do this and allow me to experiment with carbonation levels as well. The packaging on the tabs I got recommends 3, 4, or 5 tabs for low, med, high carbonation respectively. So I did a mishmash of 3 & 4 tabbed bottles. It's been 4 weeks for the straight to bottle half and 3 weeks for the dry hopped half and both sets have a lot of tab sediment in them. The straight to bottle beer has a lot less and I reason it's due to less yeast coming out of suspension compared to the dry hopped that I racked off to a secondary. In the case of the dry hopped bottles I can still see whole chunks of tablet left.

Do these things just suck or more probably was their operator error?

 

[BrewerBear]

Could you explain a little more in detail the procedure you used?

 

[boscobeans]

I use carbonation drops (Cooper's) and they are hard solid lumps of sugar, like rock candy. They have always been consumed by the yeast within a week at about 70 degrees. This is with beers that have been both crystal clear and as cloudy as can be. Never a problem as far as I can see with not enough yeast in the bottle.

bosco

 

[delucr]

BrewerBear,

Not sure what details you are looking for but I'll fill in a few of the gaps.

I let fermentation go for 14 days in the primary. Sanitized bottles an then dropped 3 or 4 tabs in each bottle (hard-candy-esq) and racked straight from my fermentation bucket on top of the tabs and capped. I started the racking cane high and lowered it with the liquid level in the bucket. After racking 12 bottles I then racked the rest to my keg and dry hopped for a week. I then repeated the process for the remaining beer. The bottles were then stored in my basement at 65-72 degrees depending on outside temps. The dehumidifier in my basement keeps it a little warm for typical basement temps.

Anything you need to know?

 

[BrewerBear]

The minimash comment was what I was not sure about. You may put them in a little bit warmer place and see if that helps.I would think they should be ready by now,but beer has it's own schedlue sometimes.I have used the carb drops a couple times(keep some around for just in case)