In all brewing books that I have read it is drilled into us that cleaning and sanitation are some of the most important and critical steps for a successful home brew.
I usually bottle condition and use the method of boiling the dose sugars in a cup of water for 15 minutes to sanitize before adding to the beer in a bottling bucket. Tis has worked well for me but I am about to start brewing small 1.5 gallon batches and am looking into the use of carbonation tables of sugar that are added to the bottle instead. I am totally confused by these tablets in terms of contamination preventions. How is it that using this method does not contaminate each bottle of beer? Have these carbonation tables been radiation sterilized? If they aren’t they must have some contamination organisms on their surface which could introduce contamination. How is it that using these tablets don’t contaminate the bottled beer?
I have used the carb drops for years in my bottles and have only had one batch go bad. Of course it was the last batch and I am hesitant to go back but bottling is good for me so I can have two batches at the ready, one in a keg and one in bottles. While I never thought that the drops were the reason for the issues, that could certainly be.
Could these tablets have microorganisms on the surface? Absolutely. Is it likely that these would be able to grow and produce off flavors in a fermented beer? No.
Brewing is done under sanitary conditions, not sterile. There are microbial contaminants everywhere, but the pH, ABV, hops, and quantity of yeast we pitch is enough to outcompete these microbes. We do our best to minimize the introduction of unwanted microbes, but the beer and brewing process takes care of the microbes that do touch your beer.
Additionally, sugar is extremely hygroscopic, meaning that it will pull moisture out of things that come into contact with it. This means that any microbes that are on a sugar tablet would tend to be dried out and inactive. They aren’t in a condition where they’re primed and ready to take over your beer.
I have been using the carb drops for the lst few years and, knock on glass, I have not had a batch go bad on me yet. I prefer the drops over the tablets to be honest.
IMO you are overthinking the issue. Drop in the carb tablets and don’t worry about it. If need be you can always scale down your priming mixture to match the batch.
Yeah, pure sugar is a comparatively hostile environment for microorganisms.
I’ve also always assumed that the producers have to follow food safety regs for production, which should keep the bugs to a minimum.
by the time the beer is done fermenting, the alcohol, and especially the low pH, makes it very resistant to infection. I have frequently put foraged, uncleaned and unsanitized mushrooms in beer and never had a problem.
I appreciate everyone’s input on my carb candy concerns. So reading between the lines the real concern about contamination is really mostly for the time period post boil to fermentation driven pH change and alcohol accumulation? This makes me wonder if you really need to boil the priming sugar solution that we put into the bottling bucket other than to dissolve all the sugar for even distribution with the beer in the bucket.
If you’re making a solution, you probably want to boil to kill anything that might be in the water and, as mentioned above, not so much what’s in the sugar. I bottle and years ago, to simplify (and perfect) my process, stopped making a solution and started dosing 1/2 tsp. sugar to each bottle with a small funnel before filling. Always works for me.
I use the sugar that’s in the canister on the kitchen counter, and I don’t necessarily trust it to be completely sanitary - so I boil the syrup. If I opened a fresh bag and used it, I’d feel different.
The only reason to boil it IMO is to get it to dissolve and sanitize the water. With tabs there’s no,water.
I just don’t use my bare fingers for the carb drops. Either gloved or with tweezers. FIgure they are sanitary until I make them not so.