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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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• 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!

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11 tips and tricks for when using carbonation drops:

11 handy tips and tricks for when using carbonation drops on bottling day

1. 60 carbonation drops, will be enough drops for one 23 litre brew.
2. 1 dop for a 300 - 500 ml bottle, two for anything over 750 mls.
3. Once you have added the drops and bottled the beer, it will take about 7 days to condition. This is the bare minimum before which you can drink your beer. The patient beer brewer should wait about 3 weeks before sampling their brew but we know you won't listen...
4. Beware over priming your beer. If you add too much sugar or dextrose, too much CO2 will be produced by the yeast and it will have nowhere to escape. It will escape in the form of a 'beer bomb' when you open your beer and it will gush out the next of the bottle like a geyser and go all over the place and you will have committed a cardinal sin, wasting beer!
5. You can use drops to carbonate apple cider as well as beer. The measurements are the same to get the same amount of carbonation.
6. Different temperatures will play on how well the carbonation process goes. The yeast in beer generally enjoys a warmer temperature to do its thing - so if you are questioning whether the drops didn't produce enough CO2, bear in mind there are other factors at play such as being too cold! Beer should be kept warm for a few days after adding the sugar. Then move to a cool place. 
7. If you do choose to not use drops and just wish to add granulated sugar to the bottle, we recommend the use of an ordinary kitchen funnel as it speeds things up and helps reduce the mess of sugar going everywhere. You could also consider batch priming your brew. 
8. We once tried using jelly beans as a substitute for carbonation drops. The results were quite interesting! Basically, you can use any form of sugar lollies for carbonating beer - as long as it fits down the neck of the beer you'll be right! You can also use honey!
9. We've used Mangrove Jack's drops many times and had no problems so are very happy to recommend their use.
10. You can use carbonation drops with your ginger beer as well!
11. If you are buying drops online, say Coopers Drops from Amazon, we suggest you order at least a couple of packets - that way the cost for delivery becomes more effective by price per unit.
    
    

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Do I need to use carbonation drops for brewing?

Do I need to use carbonation drops for brewing?

Usually I would try and sell you something when you come to this site but at the end of the day, we are all beer lovers so when some asks if they NEED to use carbonation drops, we're not going to say yes and then try and get you to buy some via this amazingly awesome beer site.

No.

Not this day*.

Today we give nothing but advice!

Do you need to use carbonation drops when bottling beer? 

The answer is no.

All they are is sugar rolled into a ball. Sweet, tasty sugar balls.

You can use sugar from the kitchen instead. I like to use a funnel and a teaspon and boom, the sugar is in the bottles, ready for beer to be added and capped.

But, you can of course use carbonation drops when bottling your homebrew.

This is for the reason of efficiency and convenience. Droping a carbonation drop into a bottle is a very fast method and can be less messy.

You also know precisely how much sugar you are adding to your beer.

It does however cost a lot to buy carbonation drops. In fact, in NZ a bag of carbonation drops (good for one bottling day) cost more that a 1KG bag of ordinary sugar!

You could try and buy them in bulk to make it more cost effective but I have yet to find any drops sold in bulk lots.

So do the maths and use the sugar and funnel method.

Or you could try another handy method and priming your brew with sugar.

Or you could just use jelly beans...

* We lied, just a lil bit.

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