[hmbrewing]

Hi Everyone,

Not a frequent poster here, but I've decided to post a review of Prime Dose Carbonation Tablets. When I was considering purchasing these tablets I couldn't really find much in terms of detailed user feedback. So I hope this may help a few of you who are on the fence. I purchased a bottle of Prime Dose a couple of months ago with the intentions of using it in a stout. I ended up fermenting about 5.50 gallons and wanted to keg the first 5 and bottle the rest. I thought it would be a great way to quickly and easily bottle the roughly leftover .50 gallon. Here is my experience.

Prime Dose has the tagline of "carbonate like the pros!". Cost is $20 per bottle for 200 tablets. Your usage rates for normal carbonation (roughly 2.4 volumes if I had to guess) is 2 tablets per 12oz bottle and 4 tablets for 22oz bottle. You simply drop them into your bottles, fill with beer, and cap. Super simple.

Kegging/Bottling Day:

After kegging my first 5 gallons I then sanitized roughly 6 bottles. I have a spigot on my fermenter, so I was easily able to attached my bottle filler to the fermenter. Right before I filled, I dropped 2 tablets into each bottle, fill and cap. Again, super simple. Almost immediately, the tablets opened up and began to release the sugar and yeast. So far so good! I ended up with 5 full bottles and placed them in my fermenting room at 70 degrees.

1 Week Later:

Time to check on those bottles! I grab one and notice something very weird and strange floating on the top of the beer? It does NOT look appealing at all. Then I realize - it's the gel cap from the tablet. You have to be kidding me. After some google searching I see that there are other users who are also experiencing this. Supposedly, the company that manufactures these claims they had a problem in 1% of their batch where the gel caps would not dissolve completely. Only 1%? Really? I work in manufacturing and I know exactly what that means - it's either 10% or it's the entire lot. They are definitely down playing the number of tablets affected. Just my opinion so don't hammer me about it. After some continued searching I see that some users are vigorously shaking the bottles in an effort to get the capsule to fully dissolve. At this point I have nothing to lose, so back down to the fermentation room for some vigorous shaking! I shake all 5 bottles. No more gel capsule! They seemed to have dissolved! Or so I thought.

An additional week later:

Time to crack open a bottle (after it had been refrigerated of course). Prior to opening, I do not see any signs of the capsule. So I open it up and pour it into my glass - just to watch a gelatinous mess plop right into my glass. Absolutely disgusting! It didn't dissolve at all - instead - it just sank to the bottom. What the hell. So, I grab a strainer and proceed to pour my beer from one glass, through the strainer, into another glass. There it is sitting in the strainer - a gelatinous goo that almost looks like a newborn jelly fish. Yuck! Talk about being turned off. I could NEVER pour this beer for a guest and expect them to drink it after they see what plops out of the bottle. At least - not until I've filter it through a strainer.

OK...so...I got that out of the way. You get the point. They have a problem with the gel capsule that needs some serious fixing.

Carbonation:

Newborn jelly fish aside - I actually found the carbonation level to be developing nicely. It had only been 2 weeks and I do know that these capsules take a little longer. But from what I could tell - you could see how evenly and nicely the beer was carbonating. So they got that right for sure - whatever the mixture of sugar and yeast is - it works and I can tell that these tablets will give very consistent and repeatable results each and every time.

Taste:

The beer is delicious and from what I can tell, the tablets have NOT affected the flavor in any negative way at all. No off flavors, no excess sweetness - nothing - nice and clean.

In summary: the only flaw is also the BIGGEST flaw - the capsule not dissolving properly. Whenever I crack open the remaining bottles, I will have to pour it through a strainer. Luckily, this beer can take the extra frothiness that comes from that. Not sure it would be OK to put an IPA through that. If I offer up the bottled version to a guest - no way I can pour it in front of them. It'll come with the caveat of "sit right here and wait while I pour it for you". That's actually tougher than you think as many guests like to follow me to my beer room to check things out. Or - maybe I'm the only one to drink the remaining 4 bottles seeing as how it'll be on tap shortly anyway. Yeah...that's probably the answer.

I am now stuck with 190 tablets of which I have NO intention of ever using again. That's a shame - because so far this product is definitely delivering on the promise of "consistent and repeatable levels of CO2".

Back to boiling priming sugar on my stove. A technique which has never let me down.

Cheers!

[majorvices]

Thanks for the review!

[yso191]

Yep, good to know.  I try to keep my beer free of boogers.

[Lazy Ant Brewing]

For my last two batches of stout, I've used one Domino sugar "dot" per 12 oz bottle as an alternative to boiling a sugar solution, cooling it and adding it to the bottling bucket and I'm happy with the results. Great carbonation and faster.

I started doing this after having uneven carbonation on a previous batch of ale using the customary method. To give the accurate info on my carb problem, I did have one minor departure from standard procedure. I was using a Mr. Beer fermenter and so did not rack the beer from a primary into a bottling bucket. I added the cooled priming solution and stirred it gently, waited 1/2 hour for it to go into solution and bottled. I had done this before with ok results, but not this time.

Some of the bottles were totally flat and other were gushers. Obviously, I either didn't get it mixed well enough or it settled out in the half-hour interval before I bottled it.

So far the Domino sugar dots are working great, and I'll continue to use that method as long as I like the results. Took six bottles to a party and everyone liked the brew including one guy that is also a homebrewer.

Perhaps it won't work for all styles or for those who may be more particular than me.

At 68 F one dot will produce about 2.5 volumes of CO2 in a 12-oz bottle according to Northern Brewer's priming sugar calculator.

[Stevie]

I check the baking aisle any time I go to a new grocery store, still have yet to find the appropriate size. Bought some coopers drops, but paying $6 for 60 bits of sugar is just dumb.

[reverseapachemaster]

I don't know that I would even want the gel to dissolve into the beer. I'm perfectly fine boiling cheap table sugar for my bottling needs.

[majorvices]

I bought some of the prime tabs to bottle condition a barley wine that I don't feel like moving - its in a stainless keg in the basement. I played around with cutting the tabs open on one end and pouring the solution into each bottle and it is a pretty easy alternative so I will probably go that route.

[mattybrass]

I have a barleywine that's ready to be bottled. I might try the domino's dots route with a little champagne yeast sprinkled in each bottle since this beer has been aging for a few months already.

[klickitat jim]

For my last two batches of stout, I've used one Domino sugar "dot" per 12 oz bottle as an alternative to boiling a sugar solution, cooling it and adding it to the bottling bucket and I'm happy with the results. Great carbonation and faster.

I started doing this after having uneven carbonation on a previous batch of ale using the customary method. To give the accurate info on my carb problem, I did have one minor departure from standard procedure. I was using a Mr. Beer fermenter and so did not rack the beer from a primary into a bottling bucket. I added the cooled priming solution and stirred it gently, waited 1/2 hour for it to go into solution and bottled. I had done this before with ok results, but not this time.

Some of the bottles were totally flat and other were gushers. Obviously, I either didn't get it mixed well enough or it settled out in the half-hour interval before I bottled it.

So far the Domino sugar dots are working great, and I'll continue to use that method as long as I like the results. Took six bottles to a party and everyone liked the brew including one guy that is also a homebrewer.

Perhaps it won't work for all styles or for those who may be more particular than me.

At 68 F one dot will produce about 2.5 volumes of CO2 in a 12-oz bottle according to Northern Brewer's priming sugar calculator.

Are there different sizes? What is the weight of your dots?

[ram5ey]

I don't bottle condition any more, but I had the best success with the coopers carbonation drops. Well as fall as going for speidel to bottle.

[Lazy Ant Brewing]

According to the  description,   the box, contains 198 cubes with a total net weight of 1 lb. or 2.29 g/cube.  The box also says that 1 cube = 1/2 tsp. of sugar.

I sanitize my bottles in batches of seven, and pick up a cube with fingers that are damp or possibly a bit wet with sanitizer, and drop it in the bottle.  When all seven bottles have a cube, I fill them, cap them and repeat the process.

While the dots are fairly uniform in size --they are not perfect cubes-- occasionally one will want to stick a bit as I'm putting it in the bottle. I just "cram" it in and go on.  To date, I've not had a single spoiled brew.

I think the cost for 198 dots was a bit more than $2.00 at Wally World, and for the ease of using worth it to me.

[micsager]

First off, let me say that from the beginning, I have force carbed in kegs.  It's how I started.  Never really bottle conditioned.  But now that wew are doing 1bbl batches, there was always a half gallon or so left int he fermenter after filling six kegs.  So, I bought a jar of prime dose and always have some sanitized bottles ready.  Of the 8-10 times I have used prime dose, I have NOT noticed any residue from the gel capsule.  But, It's always been a month or so before I have even opened any of those bottles. 

[Black Sands Brewery & Supply]

I don't bottle condition any more, but I had the best success with the coopers carbonation drops. Well as fall as going for speidel to bottle.

+1 for the coopers drops. Always consistent reults.


I used the prime dose to attempt to carb my wedding gift beers and i had major consistency issues. I'm guessing due to how much yeast was still around when i bottled the different beers. My HG belgian stout 10% abv that i used 3787 on were all super over carbonated even with just 1 dose pill per 12 oz bottle.

my 2 cents is the prime dose pils have dextrose AND yeast in them so over carb can be an issue if you have a low attenuation beer...

[erockrph]

I don't bottle condition any more, but I had the best success with the coopers carbonation drops. Well as fall as going for speidel to bottle.

+1 for the coopers drops. Always consistent reults.

+2 - I use them for all my small batches that get bottle-primed.

[dkfick]

I've pretty much gone through a bottle of the prime dose now... I have not had any issues with the gel capsules not dissolving.  I will admit I brew often enough I'm not like rushing to open a bottle after I brew a batch... I generally let it sit a good 3 weeks bottle conditioning... I will also add I have not done a whole batch I generally only bottle condition a few bottles if all the beer doesn't fit in my keg.