Carbonation (Beer Pills) and Gluten Intolerance.

UDV · Apr 4, 2008

Launcelot posted something on a different thread that's sort of important to me, and I think I had to ask if anyone had an answer for it because I couldn't find anything that was specifically about this.

Launcelot said:
My best recomendation for in-bottle carbonation is to purchase the sugar tablets that are available for it, keeps you from having to do the math that first time out.

My Significant Other, has a gluten intolerance which means she cannot drink any kind of beer, or any beverage that has any kind of malted sugar present in it. Honey is perfectly fine, but having read through the labels of three or four different kinds of carbonation tabs, it seems that all of them contain Dextrose (corn sugar) and that is fine, but all of them also have small quantities of malt sugar which means she can't tolerate them at all. I only noticed this until after I purchased 250 tablets which I will have to use for the beer I am finishing up.

Is there a carbonation-tab that is made without any kind of malted sugar? I know this is a sort of weird and very-small-niche specific but I did want to make at least a few batches carbonated and the consensus I found was 3/4 cup of dextrose into the newly racked container prior to bottling. Is this accurate?

ucflumberjack · Apr 4, 2008

most people go with 2/3 cup before bottling and it helps if you add a cup of water and get a quick boil so its melted thoroughly. add that solution the the bottling bucket and rack onto it. i dont usually stir or swirl at all and havnt had problems. the 2/3 cup rule is for 5 gallons and i think it carbonates it to 2.2 volumes.

UDV · Apr 5, 2008

So just to be clear, boil 2/3 a cup of water to almost boiling, insert dextrose and mix well and then throw that with the must before bottling, yes?

It is sort of bumming me out that I can't find anything that doesn't have malted sugars that's 'as easy' to use.

wildaho · Apr 5, 2008

I've used the tablets before but damn! are they expensive compared to plain old corn sugar! They don't give much leeway on dosage either

It's best to measure the corn sugar by weight rather than volume for consistency's sake. 5oz (140 grams) of sugar will give a little over 2 volumes of CO2 in five gallons. Depending on the source of your sugar, by volume that can be anywhere from 2/3 cup to 3/4 cup. It all depends on the grind.

Boil the 5oz of sugar in 1 cup of water to make sure it's all melted and just dump that into your bottling bucket before adding your must.

Here's a handy little calculator to help figure out how much corn sugar to use. There's also some links there to other info on priming.

Hope this helps!

Zem · Apr 5, 2008

Hey UDV,

just a whats up--I am also gluten intolerant. Look around in the "beer honey" boards for me, I hope to be working on more GF beers and ales this summer. Akueck is also planning some GF projects fat some point and I hope to learn a little from his progress for my future brews.

Just thought I'd throw a heads up your way.

`Z

akueck · Apr 5, 2008

I primed my first batch of GF beer with a combination of cane sugar, maple syrup, and molasses.

I added the tasty sugars since the sorghum I used does ferment fairly dry and I wanted a little extra oomph in the flavor. Next time though I think I'll stick with plain cane sugar since the math got weird trying to figure out how much molasses to add... (though if I may toot my horn, the carbonation came out perfectly. :icon_king: )

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Carbonation (Beer Pills) and Gluten Intolerance.

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