priming

[williamoid]

hi all, heres one. what`s better for priming bottles. sugar or carbonation drops? i was given coopers carb. drops with my hb kit.
cheers,
willie.

[stevezx7r]

I've seen the carbonation drops but haven't used them. AFAIK, they do the job well, but, so does T+L....if it aint broke....

[Waffty]

Not used them either but can't imagine for one momement that they anything other than brewing sugar or DME in a handy tablet & may be that's the point i.e tablets are handy, deliver a measured dose etc. Where as sugar/DME is a little hit & miss, when it comes to getting it in bottles.

Darren.

[maxashton]

They're too expensive. Just use sugar. Decide how much sugar you need to prime with, add water to make up 120mls, microwve it until it boils, then add 3ml per bottle to your 40 bottles.

[macleanb]

Yeah, the drops are all about convienience (can never spell that) they're nice and clean and simple.

However thay are expensive, and they arent flexible (will that be one lump or two sir).

Priming needn't be a chore, and there are several alternatives:

1. Boil up required amount of sugar/dextrose/DME (or combination thereof) and add to your bottling bucket (if you have one - just another FV with a tap) and rack beer onto solution - no measuring required.

2. Again boil up, but this time add to the FV a couple of hours before racking/bottling and give a gentle stir - leave to settle, then bottle. I dont like this method, as I suspect my technique for "gentle" is none too good, and I end up bottling soup. However I think this is proably the most ergonomic method if you can get the stir right.

3. Again boil up (this is maxashton technique, and often my preferred) and add a few ml to each bottle. You can do the math yourself, just choose a small amount of liquid <= 200ml for a 5 gal batch and divide this by the number of bottles - I use 200ml = 5ml, maxashton uses 120ml = 3ml - we both reckon on having 40 500ml bottles to prime). I have both a 20ml and a 50ml syringe, using these its very very quick to do.

4. Old faithful. Get your sugar and a teaspoon, put your fingers round the top of the bottle to act as a sort of funnel and add your teaspoon/ half teaspoon of sugar to the bottle. I've tried this, its a bit messy for me (but then I'm a bit cack handed in most things). Also I think its a bit innaccurate, but probably not so bad.

[paulturner1974]

i use macleanb's number 4 but instead of using my hand as a funnel i got a little funnel from wilkinsons 29p works a treat no hit and miss and no mess!!

[macleanb]

I found that because my botles werent fully dry, the funnel picked up water, and began to collect sugar round the spout, then it got messy and.....