Carbonation drops for 5lt mini keg

Dazzelknight · Feb 12, 2021

Hi All
I’m about to prime and bottle my first brew this weekend. It’s a simple Yorkshire bitter and I’m going to be using crafty Fox’s carbonation drops. I’m going to prime 1 drop per 500ml bottle, iv also got two 5lt doom bar mini kegs that iv happily emptied. I hear these kegs can be a little lively, so as anybody used drops in these kegs and if so how many drops would you recommend.
Help would be appreciated.

Burtsbeets · Feb 12, 2021

There is a thread here:

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/priming-a-mini-keg.65610/
Got some good answers there.

Fil said:
its Upto 20g for the priming charge with the minikegs iirc, any more and you risk ballooning the kegs

So upto 12g for low conditioned ales, 15-16g for moderate condition, and 20g for lagers etc..

and remember if highly conditioned pre chilling before serving is advised to avoid foaming

Found this in there.

I'm sure some people may have a dorect answer, but this is a good start.

Dazzelknight · Feb 12, 2021

Thanks. It’s saying 12 to 15g of table sugar is about right. Iv not go a clue what 1 carb drop holds and isn’t glucose less potent then table sugar ?. Think I might just prime them with 12g of table sugar and hope I don’t get a foam party. 🤔

Awfers · Feb 12, 2021

This might be of help to you, it includes links to carbonation calculators: 3 Methods For Carbonating A Homebrew Keg | E. C. Kraus

Dazzelknight · Feb 12, 2021

It’s calculated to 12.5g of table sugar. Unless someone can give me the amount of drops to use il just go with the granulated sugar !
Thanks for reply

LeeH · Feb 12, 2021

Well it’s 1-2 drops per 500ml bottle. 1 drop low carb and 2 high carbonation in my limited experience from bottling.

So work it out from that, style dependent.

Awfers · Feb 12, 2021

Looking at the description of Fox's Carbonation Drops, what I can find online is 80 drops = +/- 160g. So that's 2g of dextrose (?) per drop. Assuming these are simply compressed dextrose, you could exchange it gram for gram with regular dextrose.

Since you know that you are inserting 1 drop per 500ml bottle, and assuming you are filling 500ml per bottle, then that means you need +/- 2 drops (4g) per litre. So if it's 5 litres.............. I'll let you do the maths.

Dazzelknight · Feb 12, 2021

Awfers said:
Looking at the description of Fox's Carbonation Drops, what I can find online is 80 drops = +/- 160g. So that's 2g of dextrose (?) per drop. Assuming these are simply compressed dextrose, you could exchange it gram for gram with regular dextrose.

Since you know that you are inserting 1 drop per 500ml bottle, and assuming you are filling 500ml per bottle, then that means you need +/- 2 drops (4g) per litre. So if it's 5 litres.............. I'll let you do the maths.

I also presumed this but having done a little reading and watching YouTube the consensus seems to be these kegs are a little “lively” and read that the narrow neck of the bottle compared to the the large flat space of the keg is the reason. As a newbie it baffles me, so wondered if anybody has experimented with carb drops in these kegs for best results 🤷‍♂️

Awfers · Feb 13, 2021

I have never used drops, but rather grams of priming sugar. I do not know what the ingredients of those drops actually is, I am guessing it is compressed dextrose.

Normally, when you were bottling, you would be using 10 of the drops per 5 litres of beer.

Using this tool: Beer Priming Calculator | Brewer's Friend and with 5 litres of beer, aiming for a Volume of CO2 being 1.5 @ 20°C, you would need 14g of Dextrose, or +/- 7 of your drops.

I do not know if that is too much for your mini keg, but 1.5 is sort of the "minimum" for an English style ale.

I think you are going to have to bite the bullet and see.

Gerryjo · Feb 13, 2021

Just go with table sugar as opposed to carbonation drops as it's no different and a lot cheaper.

Dazzelknight · Feb 14, 2021

Thanks for the feedback guys, iv now got 3 kegs so I’m gonna do a 5/6/7 drop trial and see what turns out best 👍🏽

Awfers · Feb 17, 2021

Have there been any explosions yet?

Dazzelknight · Feb 17, 2021

All good so far ! ,,, She’s working from home so iv popped a pan on her head and a few sandbags round her work station 💥

Tezz · Feb 24, 2021

Dazzelknight said:
Thanks for the feedback guys, iv now got 3 kegs so I’m gonna do a 5/6/7 drop trial and see what turns out best 👍🏽

Any update? I think I used 5 in my Geordie Lager which is now down the drain as it was flat as anything. Good hiss when i popped the keg but on drinking there was no fizz at all.

Bottles seem fine

Dazzelknight · Feb 24, 2021

Tezz said:
Any update? I think I used 5 in my Geordie Lager which is now down the drain as it was flat as anything. Good hiss when i popped the keg but on drinking there was no fizz at all.

Bottles seem fine

Iv still got them conditioning,, il let you know in 2/3 weeks 🤞🏼... flat or not, it will get drunk 🥴

Naresh Dhokia · Jul 21, 2024

I am brewing Tom Caxton extra strong bitter. Instructions say: ' Add a maximum of 85gms per 5 UK Gallons pressure barrels '. Does this mean the total amount quoted? Or is it, 85gms × 5 Gallons? Please help me out, I am stuck, confused with the instructions provided. I will greatly appreciate your king help. With king regards.

RichardM · Jul 21, 2024

Naresh Dhokia said:
I am brewing Tom Caxton extra strong bitter. Instructions say: ' Add a maximum of 85gms per 5 UK Gallons pressure barrels '. Does this mean the total amount quoted? Or is it, 85gms × 5 Gallons? Please help me out, I am stuck, confused with the instructions provided. I will greatly appreciate your king help. With king regards.

It means 85 grammes in a 5 gallon keg but that sounds like too much to me. Kegs don't require anywhere near as much priming sugar as bottles. 85g sounds about right for 5 gallons in bottles.

Naresh Dhokia · Aug 2, 2024

Dear sir,
Thank you so much for your kind help and tome, I sincerely, greatly appreciate it. Truly grateful to you. With kind regards. God bless you. 👍 👌

fluketamer · Aug 3, 2024

just scale up like others have said. but to me the whole point of the drops is that they are premeasured and easier. thats why it costs more than regular priming sugar. so why waste the drops on mini kegs. just use primign sugar. or even table sugar. im pretty sure the banes of table sugar priming is another of those homebrew myths that is false.

Carbonation drops for 5lt mini keg

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