BeehiveBrewer

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Hey all! I just finished my first batch in 10 years or so. An American Wheat that turned out pretty well.

I was wondering how much air to leave in the bottle and how it affects the carbonation?

I experimented and filled some all the way up, and varied it down to about an inch of airspace in a 12 oz bottle.

I also bottle primed. I did 1/2 tsp per bottle in half, and 3/4 tsp in the other half. I've been told that the bottles with 3/4's tsp may be in danger of blowing up? What do you think? The final gravity was 1.014

Thanks
Eric

fritz_monroe

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First, welcome to the forums. Lots of good info in here.

Do you have a bottling wand? If so, just fill the bottle until it's full. When you take the wand out, there will be the right amount of head space. You should end up with about 3/4 of an inch of head space.

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pfranco81

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As for priming, the recommendation in 3/4 cup (4 ounces) of corn sugar (dextrose) per 5 gallons. I dunno how that breaks down to bottles, but thats what is the rule of thumb.

With the wand it ends up being about an inch of head space.

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DeathBrewer

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bout an inch and yeah, bottling wand FTW. look at your commercial bottles. usually about the same deal.

i have a friend that recently screwed up and filled them only to the neck. they were undercarbonated (but were still pretty good)

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Denny's Evil Concoctions

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3/4 to 1.5 inches.

You should rack you beer to your bottling bucket, add the sugar (dissolved in water), then stir. Then bottle the beer. This will allow an even mix of the sugar and is way easier consistent than adding to each bottle separately.

3/4 cup is an old standby, but depending on the style of beer you may want more or less co2 volumes in your beer. There are calculators for determining this.

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DeathBrewer

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also depends on what you use to carbonate, too 3/4 cup is the general consensus for corn sugar, i believe.

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Reidman

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Be careful of the ones you filled all the way up.
If you filled right to the top of the bottle they could go boom..

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Denny's Evil Concoctions

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Actually to small a head space could result in a fairly flat beer. A big headspace will develop more pressure.

It's best to go by weight rather than by cups. In that case both sugars are about he same.

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BeehiveBrewer

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Thanks guys!

gnef

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i second the suggestion to go by mass rather than volume. much more accurate. and make sure to mix it in well, otherwise you may have uneven carbonation.