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Is It better To Use Carbonation drops Or Priming sugar? Brewing your own beer at home has never been easier. You can find recipes, equipment, and ingredients all on the internet! But when it comes to carbonating (sometimes referred to as priming) your beer, there are a few different methods you could use. Is it better to use carbonation drops or priming sugar?
Both Carbonation Drops and Priming Sugars will successfully carbonate your beer and for beginners starting to brew beer for the first time, it is a simple solution to reduce one of the variables in the brewing process. However, using Priming Sugars provides a much greater degree of control over the degree of carbonation and the type of sugar that can be used.
Additionally, the priming sugar can be used to add to the depth of flavor to the brew, particularly when more unusual ingredients are used to carbonate the brew. These include things like honey, molasses, and treacle. The other disadvantage of Carbonation drops is that they are more expensive than sugar and they take longer to carbonate.
What Are Carbonation Drops Made Of?
Carbonation drops have a similar consistency to hard boiled lollies and are essentially the same thing, balls of boiled hard sugar. They are designed specifically to carbonate bottles quickly and easily without the need to measure them out. A single carbonation drop is designed to carbonate a 375ml bottle of beer and for a 750ml bottles you would need to add two drops.
However, if you are using different-sized bottles than this carbonation drops would need to be cut into small pieces. As carbonation drops tend to shatter it is difficult to cut them into smaller portions accurately. In these circumstances, it is recommended that sugar be used instead.
Too large a quantity would result in over-carbonation which can be problematic because in extreme cases it can cause pressure to build up causing lids to pop off which has the potential to cause harm to bystanders. However, in less extreme cases it causes you to lose a large portion of the contents of the bottle as over carbonation will often cause the beer to overflow out of the bottle. Under carbonation results in the beer being flat.
How Long Does It Take For Carbonation Drops To Work?
When using Carbonation drops I would allow at least 3 weeks for the beer to carbonate properly. The rate of Carbonation with drops is generally slower than with sugar because it takes longer for it to dissolve. Some members of forums have indicated that some beers take months to fully carbonate with beers such as stouts taking the longest.
During this period the bottles need to be stored at room temperature, 68 to 77°F (20-25°C) to ensure that beer is adequately carbonated. During this period do not store the beer in the fridge or outside in a shed or garage if you live in a region that is cold, as cool temperatures will reduce the rate of yeast activity and therefore the rate of carbonation.
Carbonating With Sugar
There are two main ways to carbonate with sugar, the first way is to add sugar directly to each individual bottle, the second option is to prime the entire batch, this can be done by adding a sugar solution or sugar crystals.
Adding sugar directly to an individual bottle is a relatively straightforward process if you have a calibrated spoon that is designed specifically for the task. These can be purchased from Amazon to see the latest price click here.
The main advantage of adding sugar directly to the bottles is that it is not necessary to transfer the beer to a second vat provided that you are careful not to disturb the sediment at the bottom of the vat. The disadvantage is that there is some risk that you may miss a bottle or add sugar twice if you are not systematic about the addition of the sugar.
The recommended addition rates for refined white sugar is provided in the table below
| Bottle Size | Grams/Ounces | Teaspoons* |
| 330 ml | 3.6 g/0.12 oz | 1/2 tsp |
| 500 ml | 5.4 g/0.19 oz | 1 1/2 tsp |
| 750 ml | 7.2 g/0.25 oz | 1 tsp |
Adding sugar to the entire batch is another common method used to prime your beer. There a couple of advantages in doing which are as follows;
- It increases the variety of sugars that can be added as it is easy to add things like honey or molasses. This provides a greater degree of control over the flavor of the final brew.
- It gives a greater degree of control over the degree of carbonation because you are able to adjust the sugar level more precisely as it is impractical to adjust the quantity slightly when adding sugar individually using a standardized spoon.
The amount of sugar required for a specific brew can vary depending upon the style of beer. For example, a Stout requires significantly less carbonation than a Belgium Strong Gold Ale. The second reason is that the type of sugar can affect the quantity required as the % of fermentable constituents in a sugar can vary. The third reason the requirement of sugar may vary is due to the temperature of the brew itself.
Carbon dioxide is soluble in water to a small degree in water, however, the extent of that solubility is dependent upon the temperature with carbon dioxide becoming less soluble than as the temperature increases.
To make the calculation easy there are a number of online calculators available online that make it easy to calculate. One example of a calculator from the Northern Brewing Company, which is useful because provides a suggested degree of carbonation for a range of beer styles. An example of its output is provided in the picture below for reference.
