Bottle Levels?

Hey everyone,

Just bottled my first batch tonight. Do these look like they were filled to the right volume? I've done a lot of reading, but would like an expert's advice on if they were filled too much or not enough. I know it is tough to see with the glare but you can see if you look hard enough.

Thanks!

A bit full. I would say slightly less next time. It shouldn't affect you much though.

If you use a wand I usually fill til its full and leave the volume displaced by the wand for the top.

That's exactly what I did. I used a wand until full, then removed it. Hmmmm...

Looks fine to me.

What I did was bottle wand and fill to the absolute top. When I pull the wand out I had about 1" head space. Never once had a bomb.

Now I keg.

Like Ultra said Use a bottling wand and when you remove it it leaves the perfect amount of head space.

They look fine to me, nice job!

About an inch from the top is fine for head space - usually the displacement from you racking cane if you fill to the top of the bottle...

Great job! Now you need to wait until they are ready!

Someone will correct me if I am wrong here but the standard is 1- 1 1/2 inches at the top...but 1 inches will carb better/faster since there is less head space and therefore the CO is forced to dissolve into the beer....felt like I read that somewhere but I could be wrong.

Think of it this way...imagine if it were a commercial bottle with the neck-ribbon label around it...as long as your level is within that range...it will be fine

Looks low to me. I fill right up to the bottom of the bulge at the top of the bottle, leaving about a half inch of airspace. I don't think it makes any difference in the carbonation of the beer, but the bigger the airspace, the more O2 you leave in the bottle to diffuse into the beer.

Many commercial bottles are filled and are given a jet of CO2 to froth the beer to fill the airspace above the beer to eliminate any O2 before the cap is put on.

They look perfect to me! About an inch to 1.5 inches is right.

Look fine to me.

out of curiosity, what happens if you don't fill the bottles full enough?

stevehardt said:

out of curiosity, what happens if you don't fill the bottles full enough?

Click to expand...

If they are WAY low, like half full, they could explode.