Going from 22oz to 12oz bottles for comps?

There are a few competitions coming up in the next month or so and I have a few brews sitting around, but they're in 22oz bottles and I don't have that many left, and I hate the thought of shipping off 22oz bottles and having some of that beer wasted. (Tell me they at least let people drink the left over). Anyway, some of the brews were overcarbed in my opinion and I thought maybe I could transfer them to a pitcher or something and then to a 12oz bottle and cap with some co2 and recap. Is this really just a bad idea (will they lose a little CO2 or add too much O2)? If I did it would it be better if I waited like 2 days before dropping them off or shipping?

Don't really know. If you have the time do it with one and let it sit for a while & then try it. Let us know the results too.

We get this question quite often...if you try to transfer your beer from one bottle to another, you really run the risk of damaging the beer, such as oxydation, and if you are submitting it to judges, you really don't want to do something that could result in something that judges would pick up on, do you?

If you don't want to part with your bottles, wait til the next comp. And in the future, always bottle at least a sixer in plain old nondescript 12 ounce bottles. So you can have some available for any contests that come up. And you won't run into this situation again.

There's always going to be contests, and you really don't want to submit less than stellar bottles. They will pick up on any flaws.

I usually only enter 2 contests a year, so I always reserve 1 sixer of every beer I brew throughout the year for entries.

Then when it comes to late summer I put 1 bottle of each sixer in the fridge for a week, then I taste it and see if I feel it's contest worthy. If that's the case then I enter 2 bottles of each of them in the two contests I do.

If the only thing holding you back is the thought of it getting wasted, I wouldn't worry about it. Most of the time all the beer gets drank anyways (if it's good beer). There are the judges, stewards, organizers, and just tagalongs that are always willing to sample beer after the judges have had their way with it.

mrtrav said:

If the only thing holding you back is the thought of it getting wasted, I wouldn't worry about it. Most of the time all the beer gets drank anyways (if it's good beer). There are the judges, stewards, organizers, and just tagalongs that are always willing to sample beer after the judges have had their way with it.

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Plenty of competitions restrict the entries such that 22oz bottles are not allowed.

someone told me the bottle can't stand out from the others via labels and such. perhaps the bigger size too? i mean if i sent a 32oz im sure it would stand out.

weirdboy said:

Plenty of competitions restrict the entries such that 22oz bottles are not allowed.

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Yeah, that's why I was asking if the only reason he wanted to switch to 12oz was because he didn't want the beer wasted.

Some competitions accept 22 ounce bottles, most do not. So, check with the contest rules. If they accept the 22 ounce bottles, send those and don't try to rack to a different bottle. You'll oxidize and ruin the beer.

I have two beers in 16 ounce grolsch bottles that are quite good, but I know that moving the beer into a different bottle with ruin the beer so I'm just going to have to drink it myself!