How to use carbonation drops for brewing beer and cider

Using Carbonation Drops A Guide to Easy Beer & Cider Bottling

A common way to bottle beer or cider is to add sugar to each bottle individually using a spoon or by batch priming. That can be messy or take a bit of time. For faster bottling times, many brewers use carbonation drops to make bottling quick and error-free. Once the beers have been sealed with a drop safely inside, the process of secondary fermentation begins as the yeast eats the sugar in the drops. Too easy!

🤔What are Carbonation Drops?

Key Takeaway:Pre-measured Doses of Sugar

---

What are the ingredients of carbonation drops? Sugar. That's it, sucrose or dextrose is the only ingredient. So there is no difference between a carbonation drop and a measured dose of sugar. The entire reason for using them is simply for ease of use. The science behind them is based on priming: the yeast consumes the sugar, producing carbon dioxide (CO2) as a byproduct. In a sealed bottle, this CO2 dissolves into the beer, creating carbonation.

Using drops ensures that each bottle is given the same sugar dosage, which allows for a consistent brew and helps prevent 'gushers'. Because the drops are just simple sugar and used at low volumes, they leave no 'off-tastes' in your beer. Popular brands like Coopers Carbonation Drops and Mangrove Jack's are reliable and widely available.

🍾How Do You Use Them?

Key Takeaway:The Easiest Step in Brewing

---

It's actually probably the easiest part of making beer! Once you have added the beer to your sanitized bottles, all you need to do is literally drop a carbonation drop into each bottle. Instantly, you are done. Easiest instructions you will follow all week! You then cap the bottle so that carbonation can commence and the CO2 becomes trapped inside.

🔢How Many Drops Per Bottle?

Key Takeaway:Dosage Depends on Bottle Size & Style

---

It's not an exact piece of maths but here are the standard practices:

• 1 drop for a standard 330ml to 375ml (12 oz) bottle. This dosage also works well for bottles up to 500ml for a standard level of carbonation.
• 2 drops for a 750ml bottle (your standard "long neck" or wine-size bottle).
• For anything bigger like a one-litre bottle, you may wish to consider 2 and a half drops or possibly 3, but you're risking over-sugaring your beer, which may cause beer gushers.

Style matters: Ales generally need less sugar than lagers. For a standard ale, one drop per 375ml is perfect. For a highly carbonated style like a Belgian Ale or German Hefeweizen, you might consider slightly more, but proceed with caution to avoid over-carbonation.

⏱️How Long Do They Take to Work?

Key Takeaway:Carbonation is Quick, Conditioning Takes Time

---

The same amount of time as simply adding sugar does! Basically, carbonation will take place fairly quickly, a matter of days. However, a good length of time is then needed to let your beer condition properly and we recommend an absolute minimum of 2 weeks for that (we won't begrudge you a taste tester one though eh?). At three weeks your beer should be beginning to become quite drinkable, but as usual, we suggest you wait till that fifth week if you can be so patient.

A wee bit of advice: when you do your first taste, lower your expectations and secondly, make sure you have chilled your bottle in a fridge overnight. The lower temperature helps the CO2 stay dissolved in the beer and can reduce excessive fizz when you open the bottle. Don't believe me? Open a warm brew that's had a little too much sugar added...

💊Tablets vs. Drops

Key Takeaway:An Alternative with More Ingredients

---

You can also use 'carbonation tablets' or (conditioning tablets) for bottling, which is a different way to carbonation glory. The tablets usually contain dextrose, dry malt extract, and heading powder, which is clearly different from using sugar for fermentation. Given the ingredients, they will add more flavour and body to your beer. The usage is typically 3, 4, or 5 tablets per 12-ounce bottle for low, medium, or high carbonation. Popular brands are Muntons' 'Carbtabs' and Brewer's Best Conditioning Tablets.

🦠Do I Need to Sterilize Them?

Key Takeaway:No, It's Not Necessary

---

No, you do not need to take such a step. If you take the drops straight from a freshly opened packet and use clean hands, you should be absolutely fine. No one ever sterilizes their sugar when brewing so we don't see any reason to do this. I have a bag of sugar that I keep in my brewing shed. It's in a plastic container but it's manky - I've never had any issues with using sugar that's not sterilised. You just don't need to do it.

💡Final Tips & Tricks

Key Takeaway:Quick Pointers for Success

---

• You can use drops to carbonate apple cider. The measurements are the same. Just as with beer, be wary of over-carbonating the cider.
• Remember that Priming sugar and corn sugar are both simply dextrose.
• If you choose not to use drops, we recommend a sanitized kitchen funnel to reduce mess.
• You can use drops with your ginger beer as well! And though we've never tried it, maybe your hard seltzer.
• You can use a Soda Stream machine to carbonate your beer, but be careful!

Leave a Comment advice about beer brewing, carbon dioxide, carbonation drops, cider, conditioning tablets, coopers, ginger beer, mangrove jack's, yeast

⇒ A guide to home brewing beer (or else just ask your dad how to do it)

A simple guide to home brewing beer

You want to know how to make great homebrew right?

This free guide will help you on your way to make great tasting beer in your own home or garden shed.

It will:

• Take you through step by step the brewing processes
• Point out some easy mistakes to watch out for
• Suggest some tips and tricks for you to try

It’s a must-read before you build that microbrewery in your shed!

If you're about to take the brewing plunge and brew your first batch of homebrew beer, you're already a champion!

If you take the time to do it well you will be rewarded with a refreshingly delicious beverage.

A strong start to your 'brewing campaign' will give you the confidence that brewing homebrew is actually fairly easy and you might continue with it as a hobby.

It should be considered a sport, but for the purists...

There's definitely a lot to learn, so if you are a first-time beer brewer, you might want to have a gander at these basic brewing tips before you begin.

1. That starter beer kit your partner gave you for Christmas is not enough

While the beer kit you were given for Christmas by your loving wife or partner will help you on your way to making a good home brew beer, you can do better.

Kits that only come with sugar or dextrose alone will contribute to a beer that's weak in the sense that it will seem thin in terms of its 'mouth feel'.'

Fun fact: You can add two kits together to make a nice beer!

Think of mouth feel as that sense of 'full heartiness' that you get from that first mouthful of a well-deserved beer. In response to this need, the home brewer should consider adding more malt - either liquid or dry malt.

For the dry malt, a 'brew enhancer' pack is what you need.

In this writer's experience, making a homebrew beer kit without the enhancer most definitely results in a weak beer, so make sure your starter brewing kit comes with it or at the least, head to your local brew shop and grab a packet.

It shouldn't cost more than ten bucks and it's worth the extra expense.

You should also get some hops!

While malt kits come with 'pre-mixed' hops, you may wish to consider adding extra hops to your brew.


There are plenty of different kinds of hops, and for best results match the kind of beer you are brewing to the hops known to best complement that style.

You can add hops at any time you like. Do try Riwaka!

Delicious beer hops - it's easy to add them to your brew

2. You'd best first brew a dark beer like an ale than a lager

The truth is that the darker the beer, the more forgiving it will be in the home brewing process.

It's very easy to make a mistake with your first home brew so a basic beer style that's good to drink and is also easy to take care of is the brew you are after.

While you should feel free to start with a lager, and yes, many beer kits do come with lagers, bear in mind that lagers need to be cooled rather more quickly than an ale or stout and they can also require a bit more yeast in the fermentation process.

3. In the cold, cold night

Fermentation is a process that requires just the right kind of temperatures. Different temperatures brew different kinds of beers.


A constant temperature is also very important as the yeast can react to a temperature variance in ways that are not good for tasty beer!


So when doing your first brews, make sure it can be done in a warmish area and one that's going to keep that temperature fairly constant.


A very rough guide is that you should aim to brew lagers between 10-14 degrees and get those ales done between 18-21 degrees.

4. You don't need to bottle straight away, just because the fermentation bottle has stopped bubbling

If the bubbles in the airlock appear to have finished, this is not necessarily a sign that the fermentation process has halted. It's quite likely that there's still some fermentation quietly happening in the plastic fermenter drum or carboy.

So let that play out a while longer.

Be patient.

It could be that you let your beer rest longer than the written instructions that came with your beer kit. When you've given your beer a fair chance, cold crash (if you are able to) and then bottle away.

5. Don't bottle your beer too early!

Simply put, don't bottle your beer too early. This basically point four repeated.

If you bottle before fermentation has completed, you could be in for some trouble with gushers and exploding beer.

Did you ever see that Breaking Bad episode where Hank woke up in the middle of the night thinking he was being shot at but in reality, it was just his home brew exploding?

That's what happens if you bottle your beer too early. And trust me, it's a real pain to clean up.

Don't be like Hank Schrader, let your beer rest in the fermenter just a little bit longer. There's a real likelihood your beer will taste better for it.

6. Using a hydrometer will help you develop your home brewer's 'Sixth Sense'

When used correctly, a hydrometer will help you to work out when your beer batch has finished fermenting.

If you get the same reading twice in a row, the fermentation process has likely finished - but if I was me,

I'd leave it just a couple of days before I'd bottle. Trust me on this one.

You can also use the hydrometer to work out the alcohol content of your beer. Make sure you take your readings!

Going through this exercise really improved my understanding of part of the science behind making beer.

7. Good things come to those who wait

Yep, this is the second time you are going to have to be a patient brewer.

Once you've managed to get your precious liquid gold into your well-sterilized bottles we can only imagine how keen you are to sample your efforts. You're going to have to wait. The instructions in your beer kit may suggest you need to wait two or three weeks.

Believe them.

Let your beer have time to make those bubbles.

You will be rewarded with a better tasting beer. If you can't wait, get yourself busy with a second brew and at the very least, give your equipment a good clean.

So you're ready to brew? It's time for the beginner's guide ...

This simple guide will take you through making your first batch of beer, step by step, guiding you through like an angel sent from the Beer Gods themselves...

There can be nothing more rewarding after a hard day's work than a delicious homemade beer.

This beginner's guide is a 'how to' for using beer kits. There is no boiling of the wort wizardry here, just home brewing 101 tips.

The brewing of beer is an act of scientific exploration. It's the science of fermentation, bacteria and microscopic fungus commonly known as yeast. It's also about good old home economics and it's a little bit about applying some common sense.

If you follow this beer making advice (and of course give due consideration to the instructions that come on the can of malt - due consideration, not slavish attention!) you probably won't stray too far from producing a beer that you will enjoy to drink.

You are ready to make beer!

I'm going to assume you have a brand new beer extract kit for making beer. Your loving partner may have given it to you for Christmas (mine did!) or maybe you got there yourself out of curiosity.

You have all the ingredients and supplies to hand:

• A can of malt extract with some yeast (and it's not an old can).
• Some brewing sugar, dextrose or a brew enhancer (we really recommend the enhancer).
• You will have all the equipment, a lot of which can be picked up from a home brew store or home improvement store. You'll have a giant plastic bottle or possibly a 30 litre drum or 5-gallon glass carboy). Be ready to make about 23 litres of beer.
• You have access to boiling water and also to cold water. You might even have bought some beer hops to add to your wort.
• You'll have a clean working space such as a clean kitchen bench and you'll have enough time to not be interrupted. When I brew from home brew kits I do it after dinner when the kids are in bed and the dishes are done.
• If you're a pro, you might have a really good pH meter to test your mash.

It's now time to clean and sanitize your beer making equipment

Your beer wort needs a warm and clean environment in which to start fermentation.

That means all that horrible bacteria that are lurking on your stirring spoon and on the inside of your fermenter drum or carboy bottle needs to be thoroughly cleaned and then sanitized.

Your homebrew starter kit should have provided you with a sachet of a cleanser and also a sanitizer (people often refer to this process as sterilization, just go with it).

Use it.

Leave your drum to soak for as long as possible (even though it's new, it's likely had all the equipment stored inside it if it's a drum, so heaps of opportunity for beer bugs to find a spot to launch an attack on your wort in there).

If you are going to be a backyard beer brewing, this probably is the start of your habit of cleaning and sanitizing all your equipment every single time you make beer.

There are plenty of beer-making methods. We can do it in four easy steps.

Step 1 - Malt Up

If you're smart, you may have already put your opened tin of extract malt into a pot of boiling water so that it's warmed up and can be easily poured into your fermenter.

Just like this picture here.

If brewing during winter, I leave it sitting on the top of my closed fireplace, this works quite well.

At this point, I like to put on some fancy surgical gloves so as to avoid the mess that's probably about to happen all over your kitchen bench.


It probably helps to keep things clean. Gosh knows where my hands have been!

Add your extract malt with 3 litres of boiling water to your fermenter. Stir with a sterilized stirring device until it's all dissolved.

Your brew kit probably came with a beer enhancer, now is the time to add it and dissolve as well.

Step 2 - Water is the essence of aqua

It's time to add the water. I like to use the garden hose so I carry the fermenter to the kitchen back door and go for gold. The water in NZ where I'm from is very clean and drinkable.

If the water is of poor quality where you come from, you may wish to find a better source of water, at the least boil it maybe. The basic rule is if you can handle drinking a glass of water from it, that's your source for your beer batch.

Fill your fermenter to 6 gallons of water or to the 23 litre mark. Stick with that, your malt kit recipe has been designed with exactly this amount of water in mind. If you add too much water, you will dilute your beer.

Adding less water may result in a stronger beer but at the potential risk of changing the kind of beer you are making. Your beer may possibly feel a bit too sugary or dry to taste.

Step 3 - Time to pitch the yeast

It's time to add the yeast. This is called 'pitching'. Seasoned pros will tell you to never use the yeast that comes in your starter kit or with your can of malt as it may be old or damaged or whatever.

I'm thinking you just want to make some bloody beer so throw it into your fermenter and worry about that kind of issue when it actually occurs.

I have never had any issues with the yeast that's come from a yeast kit - however, I totally recommend using the popular Safale 05 Yeast as it's tried and true.




Wait!

Make sure the temperature of the water is close to in line with the instructions on the tin of malt - you want to give the yeast a chance to activate so don't put it in or 'pitch' it if you're out of whack.

Pro tip: You may want to have chilled the wort and then aerated it with oxygen.

That said in my experience just pitch the yeast into the drum or carboy when you're ready. But be warned, only pitch your yeast when you've added the extra cold water - if you pitch your yeast directly into the boiled wort, you will kill the yeast and you will not have fermentation occur at all.

You'll learn that temperature is critical when making beer at many stages of the process.

Step 4 - 'Hop' to it, my little bunny

You're nearly done!

If your beer kit came with some hops or you were smart enough to procure some, chuck them in now, maybe half the packet.

This is called dry hopping.

Some might recommend adding the hops 5 days into the fermentation process but we say just get on with it.

Close up the fermenter, make sure the drum or cap is on firmly. Add your airlock with water inside (some really keen people use Vodka to keep bugs out! Which is crazy as you're trying to make alcohol, not waste it).

You'll use this airlock to keep track of fermentation by observing the CO2 bubbles as they are released during fermentation. A failure to see bubbles does not mean fermentation is not happening.

It could simply mean you didn't tighten the drum cap firmly enough.

Step 5 - Let fermenting beer lie - be patient

It is now a waiting game.

Once you've put your beer in a suitable place where the temperature will be fairly consistent, leave her alone.

Set and forget...



Taking a hydrometer reading

Well not quite - if you have a hydrometer, take a reading and write it down somewhere.

You will need the record to be able to work out when fermentation is complete and also work out the alcohol content ABV of your beer (see the link above for how to do the equation).

A loose guide to knowing when fermentation has usually completed when the bubbles have finished passing through the airlock. You can also use your hydrometer. If you have two consistent readings over two days, primary fermentation is complete. You can use this final reading to determine your ABV level.

Once you are fairly confident this is the case, you can begin to think about bottling your beer.

That said:

This is an occasion where you might want to consider completely ignore the instructions on the can and leave your brew in the fermenter for about 2 weeks. Leaving your beer to brew a few days more is important!

While at face value fermentation is complete, the yeast will still be interacting with everything and this extra time will greatly improve the quality of your beer.

So the short summary on how to make your home made beer:

1. Add your malt from the can to 3 litres of hot water
2. Add any brew enhancer or dextrose as well as any hops. Stir it all up.
3. Fill fermenter to 23 litres or 6 gallons and let it cool.
4. Pitch in your yeast
5. Add the airlock, firmly seal the drum
6. Ensure fermentation is complete.
7. Bottle when ready but it's best to let your brew sit for a while

So that's the rough guide to brewing beer from a kit. As you can read, it's a pretty straightforward exercise and you don't need a Bachelor of Food Technology to get it right.

So now it's time to bottle your beer

So once you are sure that fermentation is complete and you've let your beer sit for at least a week after the bubbles have stopped coming through the airlock, then you're ready to bottle your homebrew.

What equipment you need to bottle your beer

• Enough bottles. If you have done 23 litres of beer then you would need 30 x 750 ml bottles. Plastic or glass, it doesn't matter
• Bottle caps
• A bottle capper
• sanitizing agent, such as sodium percarbonate
• A big bucket or receptacle for soaking bottles in
• Ordinary sugar (sucrose)
• Teaspoon spoon (not a brewing spoon)

What kind of bottles can I use for bottling?

You can use plastic or glass.

I use glass so I can recycle and feel good about saving the planet (yes, I'm a hero, send me a medal or some beer).

If you truly hate planet Earth you can use plastic but be warned, they break easily, especially if you re-use them.

The beauty of using plastic bottles is that if they over carbonate due to non-complete fermentation or excessive priming sugar they will only split and not explode.

If you've ever seen a beer bottle explode spontaneously, you'll know what a damn mess it makes with glass shards everywhere!

Not to mention it could be pretty awful if you were standing next to one at the time it blew...

You should also bear in mind that not all glass bottles are intended to be used for home brewing so may not be strong enough for both the fermentation process and the capping process so choose wisely - maybe even practice on the odd bottle to make sure it won't crack when you do the capping.

Yes, it's time to bloody sanitize again

Just like you did when you brewed your beer batch, you are going to need to sanitize the beer bottles.

This is because the second round of fermentation is going to occur and again the yeast needs an opportunity do to its thing, free of microbes that could be lurking on the inside of the bottles.

It's this secondary fermentation that puts the CO2 in your beer and cleans up the remaining sugars.

So get all your bottles in the receptacle that you are going to soak them in. I use a plastic washing basket that's big enough to hold all the bottles I need. I then get some sodium percarbonate and add it to a cup of boiling water so it dissolves quickly.

I then add it to the basket and then get the garden hose and fill it up to the brim.

You will need to wrangle your bottles as they will try and float. Push them down with your hands and make sure they are all submerged so they all get the sanitizer in them.

They say you only need a minimum of 10 minutes to let them soak but having been burned before with a contaminate getting into my beer, I make sure there's little chance at the bottling stage.

I leave them in to soak for a few hours and in direct sunlight if possible for as they say, sunlight is the best disinfectant.

If all that seems just too difficult and you are time short, you just get a bucket and fill it with your sterilizer powder. You can then just dunk the bottles in, give them a quick swirl, drain the water back into the bucket.

The beauty of many sanitizers is that they are 'no rinse'.

Whatever you do, when you're happy, drain your bottles and place them where you wish to do the bottling. I often do it on the picnic table in the backyard where there is plenty of space. A clean kitchen bench is handy too.

Frankly, there's a pretty handy cheat if you can't be bothered - but your bottles in the dishwasher on the hottest wash setting. I find this method works really well.

Filling the bottles with beer and sugar

There are two ways you can add the sugar to your beer - you can prime the whole batch in one go by adding your liquid sugar into the fermenter or you can add sugar to each bottle individually.

The former is our preferred method as in our experience, it's less mucking around,

Some brewers like to siphon the fermented beer into a second drum in the belief that there will be less sediment in your beer.

While many beer brewers will suggest that you use a slightly heaped teaspoon of sugar for each bottle, I personally try and do a little less as some of my beers in the past have been over carbonated, due I think to too much sugar being put in.

I like to use a small funnel to add the sugar in - it's quicker and less messy than trying to get the sugar in using just a spoon!

You are then ready to add the beer. Simply place the bottle under the tap of your drum and you are good to go. Be wary of fast flowing beer. Fill the bottles to a level that you would normally expect to see for commercial beer.

That's about 40 mm from the top. As I understand it, that will assist with optimum secondary fermentation.

If you have a bottling wand, feel free to use it! Place it inside the tap. You'll need to be firm with it and also be aware that they can suddenly fly out with an open tap - meaning you'll lose beer.

So for that reason, I'd never wander away from the drum when there's a bottling valve in play.

It's also capping day

When you've filled all your bottles it's now time to cap the bottles. That process should be self-explanatory and relative to the kind of bottle capper you have.

The key thing to remember is to check that each cap as made a satisfactory seal. If you can hear hissing from a bottle, the seal was not done correctly. Remove the cap and try again with a new cap.

I also mark all the seals with a Vivid or Sharpie so that I know what the particular batch is. This is pretty important when you have different batches and different kinds of beers on the go!

You may wish to give the successfully bottles a gentle tip or to make sure that all the sugar is in the liquid and has a chance to dissolve. This is also an opportunity to inspect for broken seals.

Bottling beer can be a time-consuming exercise so either make sure you can be free from interruptions or you can choose to bottle in small groups e.g. 5 bottles at a time when you have a spare moment. This won't cause any problems.

You cannot, of course, do bottling piecemeal if you have batch primed as the beer will keep fermenting on the added sugars.

Proper storage of your beer

It's often best to initially store your beer in a warm place. This will encourage secondary fermentation to commence (this is sometimes described as bottle conditioning).

The ideal temperature range is between approx 18 - 25°C for 5 to 7 days.

After that period, you should leave them in a much cooler place with a temperature range between approx 8 - 12°C. You should then leave the beer for a total minimum of three weeks since the bottling date before some well-deserved consumption.

You should not easily dismiss this advice about the correct temperature storage of your beer.

I had an experience last year when in the middle of winter I just bottled the beer and left it in the shed for about a month. When I when to crack open the first beer, there was no fizz, just cold flat beer. No fizz on the second or third either.

I thought I had ruined my beer somehow. 'Had fermentation actually occurred'? I wondered.

Of course, it had. The problem was the freezing cold. I brought the beers inside and left them in my warm living room. I waited a week, and boom I had fizzy beer. #winning.

The longer you wait, the better your beer will be.

Here's a boatload more tricks and tips and mistakes to watch out for when brewing beer

Do I have to sanitize my brewing equipment every time I make beer?

I thought we went through this. Yes, you do bloody have to clean, sanitize and sterilize your beer brewing equipment, right down to the bottle caps and stirring spoon.

There are plenty of tricks and cheats you can do to product quality tasting beer but the one thing you can't escape from is the proper cleaning, sanitizing and sterilization of your beer gear.

There's a difference between sanitizing and sterilizing.

Sanitizing is a technical term that means a certain allowable amount of microbes to survive on the surface of your equipment. Sterilizing is like sanitizing, but it removes all the microorganisms (the bugs and germs that will ruin your beer).

Think of washing your hands with hot water and soap as sanitization as it kills a few bugs but not all and is an acceptable means of cleaning your hands.

If you want to kill all the bugs on your hand so the skin is sterile with no bugs on it anywhere, then I suggest you boil your hands in water...

For the most part, the typical home brewers don't need to sterilize, only sanitize. The chemicals commonly used for homebrew brewing are made to sanitize.

Now we've got those definitions clear, there are several methods that you can try to 'sterilize' your gear.

We'll note a couple in detail:

You can drown everything in bleach

A cheap and cost-effective way to get your gear free of bugs is to drown your gear in bleach.

But what is bleach?

Bleach is usually a solution of chemicals such as sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide and they act as an oxidizing agent.

They are great for all kinds of things such as removing bad smells, making your whites whiter and your brights brighter and for home brewing. A popular American brand of bleach is Chlorox but there are hundreds of brands of bleach you could use.

Use sodium percarbonate as a sanitizing agent

Using sodium percarbonate is our preferred method as it works well, no rinse is required and it's very easy to order in bulk online.

If you've ever tried to buy sodium percarbonate from a specialist beer brewery shop, you'll know that you can get a small bottle or container of it that will cost you a small fortune.

If you can buy it in bulk from online supplier, you'll do well to nab some as using it will effectively bring down your cost per brew.

To use sodium percarbonate you simply add it to water. I like to add hot or ever boiling water to the drum so as to get the action of the chemical happening pretty quickly. The boiling water also helps kill off any nasty bugs hiding about as well.

A home brand with sodium percarbonate.

Here's another trick, this chemical is basically what you might know as Tide or Napisan or any product that's brand name tries to use the word 'oxy' as in oxygen cleaning or oxidization agent.

Chances are you already have some in your home laundry so feel free to use that. I have done so several times with no problems whatsoever. Non scented house brands are awesome.

Other methods of sanitisation and sterilization

• Applying heat - use your oven for a good dry heat.
• Boiling in water using your gas burner
• Use an autoclave or pressure cooker (this seems like a bit of over kill though)
• An ordinary house dishwasher machine can be used for sanitation such as killing germs inside the beer bottles by way of the hot temperature.
• PBW - powdered brewing wash is a popular choice amongst brewers

How can I tell if my beer fermented properly?

Fermentation is the name of the game when making beer. If you don't have fermentation, you simply don't have beer. You have just have a 23-litre bucket of watery malt.

Home brewers can face fermentation issues and a common problem is that fermentation has not begun. A typical sign is that there are no bubbles coming through the airlock. Is this really a sign of a lack of fermentation?

The first thing to beer in mind is that it can take at least 15 - 24 hours before the bubbles start gurgling through the airlock, longer if it's cold.

Don't go drowning your sorrows just yet if the bubbles haven't started. If you think that your beer hasn't started brewing there's some problem solving you can do.

If you are using a glass fermenter you can look for a dark scum that rings around the water level mark.

Or check for signs of foam.

If using a plastic drum you might be able to see through to check for the scum. Another trick is to take out the airlock and try and peek through the hole to identify scum or foam. If it's there, fermentation is happening.

You could also check the gravity by using a hydrometer. I'll assume you know how to use one. The beer has usually finished fermenting if the final gravity reading is 1/3 to 1/4 of the original gravity. This, of course, means you took a reading when you first prepared your beer.

If you have the same reading 24 hours apart - that's your final reading and an indication that the fermentation is finished.

Remember, don't bottle your beer just yet, let it mellow for a bit longer. The longer the better your brew will probably be.

Testing for correct pH Levels

Beer brewers who think like scientists will test that their beer is within the ideal pH range for beer brewing.

A beer with a pH balance that is is outside the range of 5 - 5.5 ph, give or take will not produce the best results.

You can test for pH using paper strips or for a very accurate result, use a digital pH tester.

We recommend the Milwaukee digital tester brand, it's a popular seller.

So why wasn't there any bubbles in the airlock?

That's a fair question to ask. It could be that there was a leak that allows the CO2 to escape (to teach you to suck rotten eggs, those bubbles in the airlock are carbon dioxide gas, the by-product of fermentation).

You may have not tightened the drum enough or possible not screwed in the tap properly. It's a good idea to check this is the case before you worry too much.

If you didn't see any signs of fermentation it could be that it's too cold to brew. Is your batch of beer in a warm enough place? If you're brewing during summer months, it's probably not too cold.

If you've left your beer in a cold place in the shed, then it may be. If this is the case then you might want to consider moving your fermenter.

You could consider wrapping it with blankets. This is a handy trick and will help to keep the chill off your beer. I suspect this trick works best if the beer is already warm enough to brew...

Here's some problem solving tips for when you don't see airlock bubbles:

• Check for leaks that allow the CO2 to escape - tighten the drum
• Look for foamy residue
• Look for scum residue
• Make sure the temperature is appropriate for the kind of beer you are making
• Consider using a heat pad to ensure a consistent temperature

5 mistakes every novice beer maker should watch out for

1. Wash, wash away your sins

We actually mean sterilize. Sterilize the heck out of everything you use. If you're starting out as a home brewer, your kit should contain a cleansing and sterilizing agent. You NEED to make sure that at the very least your drum is fully clean and sterilized before your start your brewery process.


There is nothing more disappointing than going to bottle your brew and recognizing the scent of a bad brew that has been contaminated by nasty bugs.

2. Temperature

It would be a mistake to think that home brewing is basically a 'set and forget' process. It's not. Well, it can be and a key part of that is making sure that where ever you leave your beer to ferment that it's a place that has the desired temperature and that it is a constant temperature.

Don't leave your beer outside on the back porch to do its thing! Leave it wrapped in blankets in your garden shed if you have to, but make sure it's in a generally constantly heated place.

My work colleague leaves her beer brewing in the bathtub!

I recommend these thermometers to help with your brewing.

3. Those bubbles...

Just because the bubbles have stopped bubbling through the airlock, it doesn't mean the fermentation process is complete. It would be a real shame for your bottled beer to start exploding if you haven't given the beer a chance to finish the process. Use a hydrometer to ensure the fermentation is finished before you at least consider getting that beer into glass bottles.

Hint, wait some more time as well.

4. Running before you can walk

Get the basics of beer brewing down first. Before you run off and try and make the most fanciest beer you can that features some imported yeast from England and three different kinds of hops, learn the principles of beer making.

You will enjoy your first few brewing experiences if you keep them simple. Then you can start to branch out into more complicated recipes and practices.

5. Not keeping records of what you did


If you write down what you did, what you used, when you did it and why you'll have a good basis on which to make judgments about your beer brewing failures and successes. If you find that you've pulled off a stunner of a beer, you might be able to figure out just exactly how that happened. 

It could be the difference between remembering that you used a certain kind of hops in your brew!

6. You drink your beer way too early

Patience my young Padawan. It is a mistake for sure to drink your beer too early. Post bottling, your beer needs time to carbonate. It also needs time to chill and do its thing. The fermentation process is in a sense a simple chemical reaction but there is a complex relationship going on with the beer's ingredients that need time to sort themselves out.

The patient beer drinker who leaves his beer at least three weeks before indulging will be a better beer maker for it. If you can make it to 5 or 6 weeks before you taste, the better your beer should taste.

Cehck out our guide to making ginger beer. Or Seltzer even!

Leave a Comment advice about beer brewing, enhancer, tips for beginners

Two instructions on the beer kit can you can safely ignore

Rules are meant to be broken and so are the beer making instructions that you will find on a beer kit.

Think of an ordinary cake recipe.

If you follow its instructions to the letter, you'd likely get an OK tasting cake.

But a cake making expert will see that same cake recipe and see room for improvement and change things up and make a great tasting cake.

And it's the same with the instructions that come with an extract beer kit. If you make your beer following the can's instructions, you will simply make beer.

When a beer making expert sees those same instructions, they see opportunity to basically ignore those instructions and apply some tried and true beer making methods instead!

Let's have a look some of the things that standard set of instructions might say something like.

Bottle when the specific gravity is the same after two readings

If you are a first time brewer, you could be forgiven if you were wondering what specific gravity means. It's the reading taken with a hydrometer that demonstrates that alcohol is displacing water. If you have two readings the same a day a part, no more displacement is occurring and thus, fermentation is finished.

Right?

No.

While the yeast may have stopped making alcohol, the yeast is still doing it's job.

It is cleaning up what we will call the 'left overs'. Here's the instructions your beer kit does not give you.

Let your beer 'chill out' in the drum a bit longer.

While the bubbles may have stopped coming out the airlock, some pretty handy chemical reactions are still occurring and they will help make your beer taste even better.

Bottling too early (such as immediately post having two consecutive identical specific gravity readings) deprives your beer of this vital part of the secret to making good beer.

Don't drink your beer after a week, no matter what the instructions say

And here's the second reason to ignore your beer kit's instructions. They often suggest you can drink your beer after a week!

What?

Have you ever actually done this?

I have and I can tell you that a beer that has been conditioned for only a week is the roughest beer to drink around.

What happens when you bottle beer is that a secondary fermentation takes place.

This is when the beer is carbonated for the second time, the difference being, the carbon dioxide is trapped inside the beer bottle. 

While that is happening, the yeast is once again cleaning up the beer for you. Let the beer sit for a minimum of three weeks so that it is at its best for drinking.

So there are two reasons to ignore the beer kit's instructions and they basically come down to time. There is no need to rush your beer making experience. Let the beer sit for a week after fermentation has obviously finished and then let your beer condition even longer than what the instructions suggest. 

You can of course always choose to ignore the advice in my step by step guide to brewing beer!

Leave a Comment advice about beer brewing, beer kit, beer kits, home brew

11 best brewing tips for beer kits

11 best brewing tips for beer kits in 2020

Beer is beer, and the principles behind making it will never change.

No matter the year, you still want to get the best quality beer you can make with your beer kit and so here’s the best tips and tricks we have to help you make great tasting beer. 

While often seen by many beer snobs as the ‘stupid homes schooled cousin’ of those who make all grain beer, those snobs are simply wrong. You can make great beer with kits. 

This is a great guide for first time novice beer brewers but seasoned pros may find a nugget of gold to help you make better homebrew!

1. You need to run a lean clean machine

You've chosen your beer kit and are ready to begin. The first thing you are going to do is ‘Keep it Clean’. This was the same for 1917 and it will be for 2117. If you are making beer, you gear needs to be cleaned and sanitised.

Your fermenter and the gear you use to prepare your wort must be in a tip top state of

cleanliness. 

Sure, you can get away with not cleaning your beer bottles but you can’t get away without having a clean and sanitised fermenter. Sure, the Vikings who made lager in oak barrels in caves had never heard of using sodium percarbonate but you have and you need to use it to prevent your beer getting infected.

The best part about using sodium percarbonate?

You’ve probably already got some as it’s found in ordinary laundry soak! 

I’ve had brews get infected and I know it was my fault as I did two kit brews and the same time and both got infected. I am a 1000 percent sure if I had of done a proper job of cleaning my gear (including stirring spoons and washing my hands) I would not have ruined 80 bucks worth of malt and hops. That said, don’t stress too much about accidental contamination….

2. Brewing temperature will have a massive effect on your beer

Fermentation is a process that requires just the right kind of temperatures and the right kind of times. Different temperatures suit the differing kinds of beers. A very rough guide is that you should aim to brew lagers between 10-14 degrees, and get those ales done between 18-21 degrees. 

A constant correct temperature is also very important as the yeast can react to a temperature variance in ways that are not good for tasty beer! So when doing your first brews, make sure it can be done in a warmish area and one that's going to keep that temperature.

I often use blankets to ensure that the beer is kept at a fairly even temperature. 

A correct level of headspace will benefit your beer.

3. Be a patient beer brewer

Your wort will take about a week to properly ferment. You can tell when fermentation has finished by taking readings with a hydrometer. When you get two or three consecutive days of the same reading, fermentation is probably complete. 

And if you are properly following the instructions of the beer kit (don’t), you might think it was time to bottle your beer.

It’s not. Wait another week.

While the yeast may have eaten all the sugars, it will move on to other parts of the wort and in doing so it will clean up your beer, helping to remove unwanted products of the fermentation process. The yeast will slowly drop to the bottom of the fermenter thus improving the clarity of your beer. 

4. Hops are like the magical ingredient of beer

If you just used malt and sugar and yeast you would get beer. Add hops and you get BEER! Different hop varieties suit different kinds of beer. After hundreds of years developing beer, there are now some well-established rules of thumb for what kinds of hops brewers should use. This guide to using hops will help you find the hops that’s right for you.

5. Want clearer beer? 

Trying using gelatin as a fining agent. It combines with the 'leftovers' of the beer brewing process and they fall to the bottom of the fermenter thus clearing the beer.

You can add it any time after fermentation and word on the street that it actually works best when the beer is quite cool. A common timing is to add it a couple of days before you intend to bottle your beer.

But just remember gelatin can come from the hoof of a horse, so if you are trying to make a beer suitable for vegans, think again.

6. Change up the yeast?

Making lagers can be a tricky business as they don’t have a strong flavour that can mask problems like a strong stout can.

A way to improve the chances of a successful lager brew, you may want to consider discarding the standard yeast that comes with a beer kit you might want to order the lager yeast known as WL833 - it's a popular yeast for lager brewing and is proven amongst the beer brewing industry.

7. The sweet taste of success

When bottling your beer, ensure that you use the right amount of sugar. If you use too much, you will no doubt suffer the pain of beer gushers. These happen when you open the beer and whoosh! It blasts out like a volcano going all over the place. 

Another handy trick to reduce the chance of a gusher beer is to have chilled your beer for at least a couple of hours before you intend to drink it.

I have personally experimented this with a troublesome batch and cooling your beer before you consume it definitely reduces the chances to too fizzy beer.

Using carbonation drops is a handy way to make sure you get the right amount of sugar in the bottles.

8. Oxygen exposure can impede the bottle conditioning of your beer

Too much oxygen in the bottle can give the beer a quality that you may not want in your beer. Too much oxygen can allow any organisms left in the beer to flourish, giving an unwanted vinegar-like quality. While not a massive risk, you can reduce the change of it by using a beer bottling wand.

By adding it to the tap of your beer you are able to easily fill your beer without causing too much oxygenation. Make sure you firmly install the wand as I’ve had personal experience where I haven’t and spilt beer all over my garden shed floor when the damn thing fell out….

Bottling wands also make bottling easier and faster as the valve at the bottom means you do not need to turn the tap on and off for each bottle when filling. 

If you don’t use a wand, we suggest you fill your bottles by angling them so the beer pours down the side of the bottle to reduce agitation.

9. Use a beer enhancer

There’s no easier way to making better beer kit beer. Beer enhancers are made of basic ingredients, being a mix of fermentable and non-fermentable. They usually contain a mix of dextrose and maltodextrin. 

Such beer enhancers work by the dextrose being the food for the yeast and are thus used in the fermentation process. Some beer enhancers also have hops added to match the kind of beer style so if you are ordering from an online store, check that the particular enhancer's hops matches the kind of beer you are trying to make. 

If you want a good creamy mouth feel, beer enhancers that have a high percentage of malt or DME will do the trick. This is because you are adding more ‘unfermentables’ in your beer.

The more malt you add, the 'creamier' your beer will be. This is in the sense that your beer will be more viscous, making it feel thicker in your mouth

10. Storage temperature is also important 

Once you have bottled your beer, that’s not the end of the matter. It's often best to initially store your beer in a warm place. This will encourage secondary fermentation to commence (this is sometimes described as bottle conditioning). The ideal temperature range is between approx 18 - 25°C for 5 to 7 days. After that period, you should leave them in a much cooler place with a temperature range between approx 8 - 12°C. 

You should then leave the beer for a total minimum of three weeks since bottling date before some well-deserved tasting.

11. Note what you did down

Keeping a record of what you have been brewing will give you an insight into what has worked, what didn’t and what your personal preferences are.

12. pH Levels

If you've become a bit of a pro, you might want to consider using a ph meter to test your beer for accurate and optimum pH levels.

Leave a Comment advice about beer brewing, beer kits, tips for beginners, tricks and tips

How to make beer in less than 20 minutes

If you've ever heard anyone go on and on about 'brewing day' and the 'perfect hoppy IPA' they made, you could be forgiven for thinking that making beer takes all day and only the keenest enthusiasts make beer.

But if you don't have all day to muck around and you don't need a milk stout but just want beer, let me assure you that you can make beer in 20 minutes.

That's right, you can make beer in 20 minutes if you're organized.

Here's how to make beer in 20 minutes

Boil the kettle

Take your fermenter. 

Sanitise it with sodium percarbonate. Rinse. 

Add your can of malt to the fermeneter. 

Add your beer enhancer.

Add the boiled water from the kettle

Stir it. 

Add hops. 

Add water to the 23 litre level. 

Pitch the yeast. 

Put the fermenter in a warm place. 

Congratulations, you have made beer in less than 20 minutes.

Now store it properly for 3 weeks and then enjoy with my regards.  

Leave a Comment advice about beer brewing

What is the best beer brewing kit for beginners?

Did you ever hear your dad tell the story about how he tried to make homebrew in his glory days at university and it was just rubbish?

It was probably because the beer kits in his day were not really up to scratch. There was this strange stigma about making beer at home and there seemed to a 'turn your nose up' attitude to it.

Don't let this 30 year old stigma concern you.

Thankfully, the standard of beer kits is pretty good in this modern era and there's a massive range to choose from. We've been brewing with beer kits for a few years now, and frankly we've yet to have a dud kit.

So with that in mind, what is the best beer kit for beginning beer brewers?

There's a couple of things to think about.

The first is what kind of beer you may want to make. Our judgement is that if this is your first beer, you will want to get in there and just make beer.

Which is the point, we get that.

However you might not know that lagers are harder to get right that ales due to temperature and storage issues. For this reason (so to avoid any disappointment) we would recommend you do try an ale. 

That said, the difference in ale from lager quality isn't something to worry about too much. 

Ales are good tasting beers and there are plenty of beer kits that you can choose from. 

We are personally really into brewing nut brown ales. This is an old English style beer that originates from the dank and dirty pubs of London and beyond. 

Arguably one of the original working man's beers, a well brewed nut brown ale is a worthy beer for anyone that appreciates a cold beer after a hard day's yakka.

We recommend the Black Rock Nut Brown Ale kit for the beginner's choice beer kit. We've used this kit many times and it always produces a handy drinking beer.

You could also try out the Munton's Connoisseur Nut Brown Kit. Its reviews on Amazon suggest that it is an ideal brewing kit for beginners if prepared with some DME or dry malt.

So, maybe you're still of the mind to try your hand at brewing a lager?

In our view, lagers are what the make the world go round. 

There's not much better than after a hot day in the sun mowing the lawns that raising a glass of cold lager to your mouth and emptying its contents down one's throat. 

It's even better if it's your own beer!

So what's a good first lager to brew?

Lagers can be a challenge to make as they need lower temperatures during fermentation to achieve the desired result. 

Since lagers are light in body it is very easy to tell a lager that has been fermented at too warm a temperature as they may taste too fruit or spicy due to too much ester production. This is why we suggested early that you may wish to try your hand at an ale first. 

But whatever, we say learn lagers by brewing lagers.

The very first lager I ever made was a Black Rock Lager with beer enhancer and Dr Rudi Hops. I have no idea who Doctor Rudi is but he sure helped make a good beer! 

You could think of this kit as being your 'standard brewing' kit - nothing too fancy or ambitious but you can be confident they will help you produce good beer.

You’ll also find that Cooper’s DIY Lager is well worth a crack – we do recommend you add some hops of course! We did a great brew of a Cooper's larger with the combination of both Moteuka and Saaz hops. 

Here's our review of a Coopers' lager kit.

If you want to try a beer kit that could be perceived as having a bit more quality, you could consider brewing with the Williams Warn Bohemian Pilsner beer kit. 

This kit is described as having “a rich, complex maltiness and a crisp finish”. Our brew largely lived up to this claim so we would be happy to recommend this kit to the learner brewer.

A handy thing about this kit is that if comes with a yeast that is tailored for the beer (being the Fermentis Saflager W34/70 lager yeast) whereas some of the kits like the Black Rock range have the same yeast across their whole range. 

The choice is of course yours. 

And the end of the day, you just need to start brewing. We all need to start somewhere and grabbing a quality beer kit for your first batch of beer will help give you a great insight into the beer making process. 

Our brewing guide has plenty of tips and tricks to keep you on the right path to brewing delicious beer. 

We offer you one piece of advice that you would be very wise to heed, always, always sterilize your fermenter and beer equipment. 

Leave a Comment advice about beer brewing