Cooper's Carb Tabs

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matt1776

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Question: I'm bottling an Irish Red in 22 oz bottles. I'm planning on using two Cooper's Carb Tabs per bottle. Any thoughts on how long it will take? One thread mentioned 3 days (seemed weird) another mentioned 3 weeks.

I'd appreciate any insight as these will be given to a wedding party and I want to make sure they are properly carbonated.

Thanks in advance,
Matt
 
It doesn't really matter what type of sugar you use to prime with, whehter it's prime tabs, honey, dme, table or corn sugar.

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.

Stouts and porters have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to carb up..I have a 1.090 Belgian strong that took three months to carb up.

Temp and gravity are the two factors that contribute to the time it takes to carb beer. But if a beer's not ready yet, or seems low carbed, and you added the right amount of sugar to it, then it's not stalled, it's just not time yet.

Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience." ;)

If a beer isn't carbed by "x number of weeks" you just have to give them more time. If you added your sugar, then the beer will carb up eventually, it's really a foolroof process. All beers will carb up eventually. A lot of new brewers think they have to "troubleshoot" a bottling issue, when there really is none, the beer knows how to carb itself. In fact if you run beersmiths carbing calculator, some lower grav beers don't even require additional sugar to reach their minimum level of carbonation. Just time.
 
Revvy,

Thanks for the info. I've always waited two weeks and that usually seemed to be enough. This should only be about 6%abv, so maybe I'll sample after two and a half.

Matt
 
Anybody had specific experience with the tabs? I've never used them before.:confused:
 
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