Homemade Carbonation Drops

[irish_goat]

http://www.examiner.com/article/how-to-make-your-own-carb-tabs

Read this article and thought it seemed like a good idea. I'm always mindful of rousing up too much trub when I'm transferring to the bottling bucket plus there's the added risk of oxidation. Might take a bit of tweaking to get the amount of sugar per drop right but I think it could work well. Could make bottling a very quick process anyway.

Mini ice cube tray £4.79 from China.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Random-One-96-Cavities-Ice-Cube-Mold-Tray-Mini-Diamond-Cube-Container-DIY-Food-/181174566291?pt=UK_Babay_Baby_Feeding_Cups_Dishes_Cutlery_LE&hash=item2a2ed87d93

[DEMPSEY]

My son gave me a pack of coopers drops and they are handy for the few bottles I need to fill after filling the corney

[irish_goat]

They are very handy but the problem with the Coopers ones is that they're designed for 345-375ml bottles. So you need 1 and half for 500ml, and that just gets messy. Plus they're expensive for what is essentially just sugar.

I was thinking of making DME ones too.

[LordEoin]

1.5 for a 500ml is indeed messy, but over carbonated anyway.
1 per 500ml = 6grams per liter = fine

[Ciderhead]

+1, plus time

[Bzfeale80]

Nice find goat! By the way when reading the article it should be noted that the person writing it is using fahrenheit temperature measures! See http://www.food-info.net/uk/colour/caramel.htm & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caramelization for more info

[LordEoin]

apple drops work well in cider, but they make it a bit green...

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

A better approach is to use a large (e.g. 100ml ) dispensing syringe.

Make a priming solution with a specific amount of sugar, and at a specific volume, then dispense into bottles 5ml or 10ml at a time.

Works a treat, and because the sugar is already dissolved, it will carb very quickly. (4-5 days for my last batch).

Way more precise than carb drops, faster, priming solution is sterile & O2 free, and you can use any adjunct you like for the priming.

[johnrm]

Syringe is the way to go.
Carb drops are convenient, Period.
Plus you can easily vary the carbonation per bottle.

[Eoin]

Spoons and syringes are just gagging to spread infections...syringe seems like a good idea, but I don't think it is at all personally.

Bulk priming is normally the way to go.

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

Spoons and syringes are just gagging to spread infections...syringe seems like a good idea, but I don't think it is at all personally.

Bulk priming is normally the way to go.

Store the syringe full of star san. Wait for infections.

I normally use batch priming too, but its just getting a bit too messy for me in my cramped brewhouse, and it does expose it to O2, unless you have a cool setup where you can purge the racking vessel with CO2.