I am thinking of trying regular table sugar to see how that works as it is cheaper and always in the house, but who knows. I like the convenience of just dropping in the single drop, filling and capping. So, to answer your post, I use store bought beer bottles all the time.
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I use a combination of table sugar and Coopers drops. I found the drops overcarbed my NEIPAs, but worked well with my dark beers. I weighed a sample of drops and came up with an average of 3.4g. A rounded 1/2 teaspoon of sugar averages 3.2g. while a level 1/2 teaspoon averages 2.0g. So, I use a level tsp. in my NEIPAs and when I run out of drops will use a rounded in my darks. YMMV.
redrocker says: Not sure who told you that the store-bought beer bottles cannot be reused.
I read this in a book in about 1990 regarding getting started in homebrewing. I found that Corona Extra bottles (the transparent ones) had good heft. I had only one or two that burst because I’d over-primed at bottling. I had so many of them that I trashed them when I moved from Virginia to my present location. I wish to helsinki that I’d saved them for when I give away a few bottles to those new to drinking homebrewed beer. I won’t be handing my amber PET longnecks to those who have no idea as to why we who pay a buck-plus for a bottle would want that bottle returned.
From House of Ales: I use 1/2 teaspoon of table sugar in each 12-ounce bottle. Works great for me.
I measured the volume of a 16-ounce PET bottle and found it to be eighteen ounces. A simple calculation shows that I’d use ¾-ounces of table sugar for carbonation. I prefer to bulk-prime so I won’t be enjoying one or two flat beers five weeks after bottling. One member here says he uses 0.8-ounces of corn sugar per every gallon to be bottled. I’m going to follow his lead and do the same. If I get 6.5 gallons (as an example) to bottle, I’d use 5.2 ounces of dextrose. A five percent reduction to protect against over-carbonation would be 4.94 ounces of dextrose. I have an electronic scale used to measure-out the powder charges in my reloaded ammunition; measures in grams, ounces and grains. To weigh in grains gets me down to 1/7000 of a pound; down to 1/453.6 of a pound if weighing in grams. That’s probably accurate enough…
I never have any flat beers carbonating this way. 1/2 teaspoon table sugar per 12 ounce bottle. Never a bottle bomb either. And I bottle straight out of the primary too.
I started looking for and buying PET bottles whenever I could find a seller who had them. I now have 115 bottles of 500cc capacity. My last purchase of 24 had three extras in it. One got squished a little in shipping and has a permanent crease in its side. I won’t use that one, thus lowering my inventory to 114 bottles. I have plenty of caps that have a tapered ring inside that gets forced into the mouth of the bottle when the cap is tightened-down. These are found on two-liter bottles of sugar-free, caffeine-free cola from Walmart. I’ve got hundreds of them in different colors. Put one color on your bottles of Porter and another color on your bottles of Pale Ale. Simple.
All I need now is the time to brew, bottle and cap. Driving for FedEx Ground is the best job I’ve ever had in thirty years as a truck driver. Easy runs, light loads and fat paychecks. Just no time to do much of anything while away from work.
I have several from singular purchases of A&W rootbeer at Dollar Tree. I look for them every time I go there. I usually don’t find them. But I have the 114 ambers that will hold 18 ounces (534 cc) when filled to about two inches from the mouth. 114 bottles at 18 ounces per is 16.03125 gallons. That’s a lot of bottling…
I started thinking about using carbo drops instead of bulk priming. I weighed a handful of them on my powder scale, which will go down to 1/1000th of an ounce. I found the nominal mass to be 3.5 grams, or 1.75 grams for a carbo drop cut in half with my Walmart pill cutter.
5 gallons of beer uses 0.8 ounces of priming sugar per gallon, which is 22.6 grams per gallon. Twelve ounces is 0.09375 gallons. 22.6 grams x .09375 gallons is approx 2.12 drops (approx 7.5 grams) per longneck. The blurb on the back of mr. beer/Cooper’s carbo drops indicates that one drop is to be used for a 12-ouncer. Who’s correct? Me and my elementary school math skills? Or Cooper’s-- the guys who make both malt extract and carbo drops?
Just for fun, I calculated that four ounces (113.4 grams) of priming sugar can be replaced with 32.4 carbo drops. Use 32.5 or 33; it’s up to you…
I can’t speak to the math (nor do I want to ) but from experience, one carbonation drop per 12oz bottle is my m.o. That usually gives me a pretty run-of-the-mill 2.3-2.5 co2 level, give or take. Good enough for most beer styles. If you were bottling a Saison or trying to mimic a British Ale then maybe more or less than one drop would be necessary.
I bought some a while back and put one each into 12 oz bottles of Porter. Now I only did a few because I had a little beer left over after putting the rest in kegs, so this was no large scale experiment. But I found them way undercarbed, so my experience mimics your math.
If I was priming an entire batch there is no way I would use them. I would just use the sugar I already have figured out.
Interesting. I’ve used them quite often and never noticed any that were so obviously under carbonated.
The simplicity of dropping one in per bottle and then bottling right from the fermenter tap with a short piece of hose makes this the only way I’ll ever go through the bottling process. A case of beer packaged in 10 minutes with nothing but the piece of hose to clean, or just throw away.
Mine are Coopers diy beer from AU. I just weighed three of them at 3.483, 3.338 and 3.370 G each. That’s actually a little more variation than I would have expected. Looks like about maybe 4% so not meaningful to the brewing process, I just expected them to be closer.
I like the simplicity idea, but I would prefer more resolution if I was going to do that on a regular basis. Meaning, it’s easier to raise or lower the carbonation level with measured out sugar than it is cutting up pieces of the pills. I also wonder what is all the vehicle that they are using to carry that sugar? The physical volume is far greater than what you would have if you measured out sugar and added it to the bottling bucket. So what else is in there?
The back of the bag tells what’s in the drops. Indicates the ingredients are “Sugar, Glucose (Wheat).” There’s also information about the energy in the drops, the saturated fats, the carbohydrates and the sodium. None of that means a dam-ned thing to me. I just want a simpler way to carb my beer.
Now I’m thinking about dissolving a sufficient number of drops in warm water and using that to prime. Probably an avenue for infection, so maybe not…
I wrote that I was thinking about dissolving carbo drops into water for priming. Never said I’d do it. I’ve been a trucker for over thirty years. I know everything there is to know about huge amounts of fuss for little to zero gain…
) but from experience, one carbonation drop per 12oz bottle is my m.o. That usually gives me a pretty run-of-the-mill 2.3-2.5 co2 level, give or take. Good enough for most beer styles. If you were bottling a Saison or trying to mimic a British Ale then maybe more or less than one drop would be necessary.