Using Jolly Ranchers instead of Carb Drops

[UnderPressure]

I plan on making some fruit flavored wheat beers to be ready this summer. I made a watermelon wheat last year using Brewers Best Watermelon extract. It turned out pretty well, considering it was my second brew.
An idea hit me last weekend while using the Coopers Carb Drops. They're pretty much just pieces of unflavored candy, so why not get a bag of Jolly Ranchers to use in place of the drops? Is there any reason why this wouldn't work?
Assuming the carb drops are made of about 4.2g of pure sugar, and each Jolly Rancher has 3.6g of sugar it doesn't work out to be exactly 1 J.R. per bottle. But otherwise, would this be a good idea?

 

[Clonefarmer]

I plan on making some fruit flavored wheat beers to be ready this summer. I made a watermelon wheat last year using Brewers Best Watermelon extract. It turned out pretty well, considering it was my second brew.
An idea hit me last weekend while using the Coopers Carb Drops. They're pretty much just pieces of unflavored candy, so why not get a bag of Jolly Ranchers to use in place of the drops? Is there any reason why this wouldn't work?
Assuming the carb drops are made of about 4.2g of pure sugar, and each Jolly Rancher has 3.6g of sugar it doesn't work out to be exactly 1 J.R. per bottle. But otherwise, would this be a good idea?

Try it on one bottle for kicks at least. Wrap it up in a plastic bag just in case . Post results!

 

[broadbill]

I'm not sure I buy the assumption that since jolly ranchers look like carb drops, they must act the same way. But hey, if you want to experiment...go for it and report back!

 

[CoalCracker]

Novel idea. However I think that the jolly rancher will only slightly carb and then stay a large sticky glob on the bottom of the bottle. Making the task of cleaning them hell..

 

[skibb]

maybe you can melt the jolly rancher (boiling water?) and add that solution to the bottle

 

[Jakeedaman21]

I am going to have to give this a try on my next batch...

 

[Revvy]

Your best bet would be to do the calculations of how much you need, and melt it down in a double boiler with water and bulk prime, as if you were using priming sugar, or even honey, with 2 cups of water.

I posted a break down of how to do it in my bottling thread.

The October 2010 Basic Brewing radio was all about alternative priming methods, and the guest (who btw, although he is a minister, from michigan, and is an expert on bottling, is NOT ME, but the coincidence is freaky) offers info on calculating how to prime with strange things.

October 28, 2010 - Alternate Priming Sugars
Home brewer Drew Filkins shares his technique of using alternative ingredients to put the bubbles in his brew.

Click to Listen-Mp3

Hydrometer readings and sugar content charts from HomeWinemaking.com http://www.home-winemaking.com/winemaking-2b.html

Here's what I'm doing with my Sri Lankin Stout, bottling with Jaggery Mollasses.

The October 2010 Basic Brewing radio was all about alternative priming methods, and the guest (who btw, although he is a minister, from michigan, and is an expert on bottling, is NOT ME, but the coincidence is freaky) offers info on calculating how to prime with strange things.

I'm working on the calculation for using Date Palm Syrup from Bangladesh to prime my Sri-lankin stout. Using the podcast info

Basically what you need to do is look for the sugar or carbhydrate amount in the syrup and the serving size, they are defining it by.

You also want to first calculate how much corn sugar you would normally use to carb to whatever style you are aiming for, then convert that to grams. Then based on the amount of sugar (OR CARBOHYDRATES if sugars is not listed, which on some products labels they don't) per whatever serving size they give, you then will know how much of the stuff to use..


Ie, my stout I want to carb to 2.45 volumes of co2, which measures out to 4.3 oz of corn sugar at 70 degrees.

That works out to 121.9 grams....

I am planning on carbing it with some Jaggery Mollasses that I found at a bangladeshi market.

I found online via google, that it contains 12 grams of sugar/tablespoon. So to get to 122 grams I need about 11 tablespoons.

That works our to about 5/8 of a cup. I will add that to enough water to get to 2 cups and boil it.

If you CAN'T find any nutritional info (which by law I thought it has to be posted somethwere) you're going to have to fudge it...you can treat it as mollasses, or honey and use the recommended measurment. I have a chart in my bottling thread that shows honey, maple sugar et al.

More info on post 5 of this;

Bottling tips....

Hopes this helps!!!! As you can see Filkins uses the corn sugar amount, NOT the table sugar amount for his calculations. So that's what Idid with my sri lankin stout and the beer carbed up perfectly.

 

[maltbarleyhops]

great idea. it makes me immediately think of a cherry wheat. carbed with those sinful cherry jolly ranchers.......

 

[USMCYoder]

I know they talked about using JR's on the Jamil Show a while back for flavoring a light wheat beer. It sounds interesting. I am brewing a blood orange witbier in a week and I would love to throw some interesting flavors into a couple bottles.

 

[Johnnyhamer]

Can anyone report back on this?

 

[UnderPressure]

Yeah. I did it. It worked... I added one Jolly Rancher per bottle to an American wheat beer. It added a noticeable amount of flavor for this style. It was a little under carbed. I might find a way to use one and a half candies per bottle next time. Anyway, it worked pretty well. I only did five bottles (one for each flavor) and I had consistent results among all five.

 

[shadows69]

That's amazing! Did the whole jolly rancher dissolve at pouring time from the bottle? I assume you just added one candy in the bottle at bottling time? That really opens up some new doors. Good job!

 

[UnderPressure]

That's amazing! Did the whole jolly rancher dissolve at pouring time from the bottle? I assume you just added one candy in the bottle at bottling time? That really opens up some new doors. Good job!

Yeah, I added one candy to each bottle. They all completely dissolved. There was no gunk on the bottom or anything like that. Like I said, It worked pretty well. But, I think somewhere between one and two candies per bottle would yeild a better result. Maybe melt the proper amount for the batch in some boiling water, and treat them like priming sugar. I might try Skittles next. I love Skittles. Reinheitsgebot be damned!

 

[Johnnyhamer]

Might crush them first

 

[Schumed]

I'm totaling doing this with a wheat I just made...I'll report back

 

[BigGoat]

Could use 22oz bottles and use 3 jolly ranchers. Just a thought.

 

[Johnnyhamer]

Could use 22oz bottles and use 3 jolly ranchers. Just a thought.

Was wondering the same thing. Might go with 2.5 though

 

[SpentGrains]

Yeah. I did it. It worked... I added one Jolly Rancher per bottle to an American wheat beer. It added a noticeable amount of flavor for this style. It was a little under carbed. I might find a way to use one and a half candies per bottle next time. Anyway, it worked pretty well. I only did five bottles (one for each flavor) and I had consistent results among all five.

Hmm, think I'm going to have to try this...

 

[GrogNerd]

Life Savers are ≈9grams of sugar, so ½ per bottle

 

[SpentGrains]

Pixie sticks
Gummy bears
Fruit snacks
M&M chocolate stout
Warheads
Candy corn (you either love it or hate it)

The possibilities are endless.

Caramel apple pop apfelwein.

 

[cheezydemon3]

I can, without even doing it!!!!!

The amount of fake fruit flavor overpowered and ruined each beer individually!!!!!!!

Never in my life will I do this (from the guy who carbed one batch with Hershey's kisses)

 

[edmanster]

I did it to my kombucha and didn't carb well with only 1 per and the taste couldn't compete so well with the sourness of it.. might try again sometime..