Bottles And Smarties

[Donasay]

I have some smarties candy left over from Halloween, and they are selling it super cheap at the CVS down the street from my house. I don't bottle much, usually about a 6 pack worth each batch, the rest goes in a keg, I have been buying carbonation tabs and they work fairly well, but somewhat expensive for what they are. I was thinking I might be able to get away with putting a smartiies or two into a bottle to carbonate, anyone else have experience doing this or think it might be a good idea.

These are smarties:

Each one of those little sugar tabs could possibly carbonate a beer, they seem to be about the right amount.

 

[Jekster]

Corn sugar isn't that expensive at all. I doubt you would save that much money if any and I'd be worried about them leading to odd taste in my beer. I haven't ever tried it though and cannot speak from experience.

 

[RoaringBrewer]

Is this a joke?

If its serious...

I can think of two potential drawbacks:

1) The smarties obviously have some fruity flavoring in them - while corn sugar or carb tabs are totally neutral. You may taste this in the beer...

2) If the smarties have any type of preservatives or weird chemicals in them, it could possibly kill the yeast, and kill carbonation...

If you don't want to spend the $$$ on expensive carb-tabs, you can always just go for table sugar... corn sugar shouldn't be very expensive either and you can measure a teaspoon or so easily. Especially if you are only bottling a 6er now and then.

 

[Donasay]

I would call it more of a musing, than being serious, but the ingredients in smarties are:

Ingredients include: dextrose (may contain corn syrup solids and/or maltodextrin), citric acid, calcium stearate, artificial colors.

And they each weigh about a gram so maybe 2 tablets for a bottle. By the way, you can get them for 99cents for a 2 pound bag. Talk about convienent and cheap.

 

[Orfy]

Calcium Stearate is used as in waterproofing fabrics, cement, stucco, and explosives. It is also a releasing agent for plastic molding powders, ...

Since no Exposure limits have been established for Calcium Stearate by OSHA & ACGIH, we recommend that our product should be treated as a nuisance dust 15 ..

.......................

 

[Tenchiro]

Try it on a few bottles (6 or so) and see what happens.

 

[RoaringBrewer]

.......................

I was just going to say... "I don't really know what calcium stearate is, but it doesn't sound good..."

 

[Orfy]

It's actually fine.

I'm just playing devils advocate and making a point that information can easily be googled!

 

[Professor Frink]

Maybe it'll make it taste like Leinenkugel. I think that beer tastes like smarties.

 

[the_bird]

God, I love Smarties, I could eat those all day... I'm perturbed that Cassie didn't bring any home last night...

 

[El_Borracho]

maltodextrin isn't fermentable, or so I was told by member Austinhomebrew.

I use it (a pack of smarties) in the mornings to replenish my liver's missing glycogen..

 

[mrkristofo]

It's actually fine.

I'm just playing devils advocate and making a point that information can easily be googled!

Sure, it's possible. Sucrose is just fructose and dextrose. Problem is most of these sugars have been treated with invertase, leaving L-glucose and L-fructose, but L-glucose actually inhibitits fermentation.

But you know what, try it. It's not gonna work well, may contaminate the flavors of your beer, and you'll definitely get razzed for it, but, it's science.

 

[b767fo]

Am I the only one seeing the connection?
Homer - "I want a six-pack of Skittlebrau.....


Obviously what we have here is "Smartiebrau"!

 

[SuperiorBrew]

Send me the smarties and ill send you all the bags of priming surag that I never used from kits I made.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Give it a shot. I'm guessing that most of the perceived flavor from Smarties comes from the citric acid. It's certainly not the most ideal method of priming your beer, but it's inventive, cheap, and it seems like it could work.

 

[Orfy]

I wouldn't use them on a full batch due to the amount of Calcium Stearate possibly making them insoluble.

But if you want to try it why not do a test on a few bottles.

 

[Dinbin]

OK, now you have to do it. At least one six pack. I mean, who could resist a Smartiebrau?

Even if it tanks, your loss is minimal and you will have contributed to the ever growing knowledge of beer.

 

[Seabee John]

OK, now you have to do it. At least one six pack. I mean, who could resist a Smartiebrau?

Even if it tanks, your loss is minimal and you will have contributed to the ever growing knowledge of beer.

...not to mention we all get a good chuckle.

 

[Donasay]

...not to mention we all get a good chuckle.

Hey, I am not putting chuckle candy in my beer, that would just be gross. Plus the neighbors gave out enough chuckles on Halloween, those gummy things are pretty gross. But I am going to keg an IPA this weekend, and as usual to get the extra headroom in the keg I am going to bottle 6 bottles for storage, I will put various numbers of smartees in each bottle and let you guys know how my Skittlebrau comes out in about 2 weeks.

 

[Seabee John]

Hey, I am not putting chuckle candy in my beer, that would just be gross. Plus the neighbors gave out enough chuckles on Halloween, those gummy things are pretty gross. But I am going to keg an IPA this weekend, and as usual to get the extra headroom in the keg I am going to bottle 6 bottles for storage, I will put various numbers of smartees in each bottle and let you guys know how my Skittlebrau comes out in about 2 weeks.

My apologies for sounding like an @$$. It was not my intent. It was poor attempt at pointing out how wide the range of materials and ingenuity we use in this craft (albeit I'm far from calling myself a craftsman when it comes to brewing) I guess it's like (again this is another poor choice or comparison) the woman brewing beer with her own "special" yeast strain. Who'da thunk it? That's how we get better at what we do. We try new stuff, and some of it weather it works or fails, is worth a chuckle.

I wish you the best of luck with the smarties!

 

[Donasay]

My apologies for sounding like an @$$. It was not my intent. It was poor attempt at pointing out how wide the range of materials and ingenuity we use in this craft (albeit I'm far from calling myself a craftsman when it comes to brewing) I guess it's like (again this is another poor choice or comparison) the woman brewing beer with her own "special" yeast strain. Who'da thunk it? That's how we get better at what we do. We try new stuff, and some of it weather it works or fails, is worth a chuckle.

I wish you the best of luck with the smarties!

I too was joking about the chuckles, they are a disgusting type of candy, I don't know if you have seen them, but think of giant gummy lifesavers, but more waxy. I don't even think they fit inside a beer bottle.

For all I know I might be walking around with smartie bottle bombs, and have to go to the hospital. They might have made it to the hospital in time, but the amublance drivers have been known to get into fights over chuckle candies.

 

[JustDave]

Goodbye Carbtabs, hello Smarties!

Good luck with this and let us know how it works out!

 

[malkore]

I suspect smarties contain some corn starch to hold them together too.

and the tartness...

I wouldn't do it.

 

[(nevin)]

Science!!! Go for it.

For some reason I'm picturing it happening like the guys from mythbusters dropping mentos into diet coke bottles (obviously won't happen that way, but funny to imagine).