Coopers carbonation drops and a 500ml beer bottle

[theisdahl]

Hello from Denmark,

Could anybody please give my a little advise?

My first brew ever, is 2 days old , sitting in the fermenter -and i have just bought 40 Brown glass beer bottels with flip-top (500ml.)

So my question is:

I bought the Coopers carbonation drops; But how many Will i need to add per 500ml. When i'm going to be botteling them later this week?

The beer is the Muntons Gold Indian Pale Ale.

Thanks

 

[unionrdr]

Well,it might be easier to go to the cooper's forum & ask PB2,their resident tech head. But it's like 330ml-375ml is one drop. 740-750ml is two. They generally recommend 8g of priming sugar per liter. So you're looking at 1 to 1.5 drops per 500ml bottle.

 

[theisdahl]

Thank you very much.

 

[Toga]

1 coopers drop per 355ml (12 oz ) bottle is just about perfect. If you have 500ml bottles 1.5 should be just fine. I would recommend batch priming rather than the drops as cutting them in half would be a pain.

 

[theisdahl]

1 coopers drop per 355ml (12 oz ) bottle is just about perfect. If you have 500ml bottles 1.5 should be just fine. I would recommend batch priming rather than the drops as cutting them in half would be a pain.

Hi Toga,

Could you explain batch priming?

What it means and how to... I'm so newbe in this homebrew beer world. But loving it already.

Thanks

 

[unionrdr]

you basically siphon your beer into a bottling bucket (bucket that holds up to 7 gallons or so) with a spigot to which you can attach a long piece of tubing with a bottling wand. You heat 2C of water in a small saucepan. Then you pour in a measured amount of dextrose (corn sugar). Stir it in till it clears & cool it off. You can use the priming sugar calculator at brewheads.com. You then pour it into the bottling bucket while you're siphoning the beer into it. Then,when you're done,stop the siphon & stir lightly a few times.
Just understand you measure the priming sugar by weight,not volume.

 

[paraordnance]

I always used 2 drops per Grolsch bottle with good results. I bottle couple from each batch just to see whats aging does to my beers and they always seems to be carbed just right. No bottle bombs and 1 drop seems like just not enough

 

[BeerEagle]

I always used 2 drops per Grolsch bottle with good results. I bottle couple from each batch just to see whats aging does to my beers and they always seems to be carbed just right. No bottle bombs and 1 drop seems like just not enough

I think it's very style-dependent. The Cooper's drops are hard to cut into accurate halves. I use one in a 500ml bottle of English Ale and two for a lager.

They are convenient, but the batch priming will give better, more accurate carbonation for the style that you are brewing.

 

[unionrdr]

Bulk priming worked faster in our last 2 batches as well. Mine was bottled 8 days & it was carbed great,& flavors/aromas were real nice. Although the flavors improved slightly in another week.

 

[theisdahl]

Okay decided not to go with the Cooper's "carbonation drops". To much hassle to half them for a 500ml bottle to put 1,5 in each bottle.

So, since I don't have a second fermentor. I'm thinking about desolving 85grams of sugar in 250ml. boiling water. Then add the 250ml sugar-water in 40 bottles. And bottle the beer from my fermenter into the bottles with the sugar-water.

Does this make any sense? (I don't have a second fermenter)

THANKS.

 

[unionrdr]

If you divided it evenly between the # of bottles you know you'll need for the whole batch,yes. But you really need to put together a bucket for bottling & secondary. Made my life way easier for less than $20USD.

 

[theisdahl]

If you divided it evenly between the # of bottles you know you'll need for the whole batch,yes. But you really need to put together a bucket for bottling & secondary. Made my life way easier for less than $20USD.

You are completly right.
If my first batch of beer is good ;0)
I'll get a second fermenter straight away.

Thanks

 

[unionrdr]

didn't intend to mean you have to do it this way. It's just a lot less math & educated guessing. I use the ale pale that has the mug of beer,grapes,wine bottle & glass depicted on the front. It'll hold some 7-7.5 gallons or so. But it's shorter than the Brewer's Best ale pale with the big "B" dripping on the front. It'll have a bit less head space when you use it as a secondary vessel.
I put an Italian spigot on it from the LHBS (the whit & red ones) that has a small diameter spout to mount the tube on that has your bottling wand on the other end. I have a Firmtech bottling wand for this set up. I made it for dual purpose to save on the amount of stuff I need piling up.