First Bottling Complete- Gyped Myself A Sixer

When I transferred from my Better Bottle to the bottling bucket, I was too conservative on the siphon tube depth on the bottle and left behind quite a bit. I was only able to get 7 six packs. Since I primed in the bottling bucket, my sugar is going to be higher. I guess I will find out soon enough, but is it possible I have over-carbonated?

Any ideas for me to recover that lost six pack in the future? Its impossible to start a siphon with such low depth to begin with. I began pouring it carefully into the bottling bucket once I was done bottling, but I had forgotten to close the valve and had to abort, losing the leftover batch when it all swirled back. I probably would have been fine without the valve stupidity, I don't mind yeast, but if there is a better way to get at this left behind stuff, would love to hear it. Now that I have a good idea of how much is left behind (not much, about 3/4"), I will mark my toolage and hopefully do better next time.

If I would have been able to get it out and into bottles, how much table sugar per bottle (12 oz), would I have to use?

Another glitch was a leaking valve between the gaskets that poorly sealed. I'm using the ale pale from brewer's best, any better gasketing available than the soft white washers they provided?

5 gallons is 2 cases. racking does cause a loss...its inevitable.

its the reason you see many all grain guys brewing 5.5 gallon batches going into primary...so we always get 5 gallons at bottling, with plenty of room for loss to racking and hydro samples and tastings.

some people prep the carboy a day in advance by putting up high, and tilting it. then tilt the other way (so its yeast free and deeper) so you can optimize the racking.

How much priming sugar did you use? And was it dextrose or sucrose sugar? For ~5gal, you'd be using somewhere around 5oz of dextrose and ~4.5oz of sucrose (table sugar) if my memory serves. This is by weight, mind you, not by volume.

So you left behind 6x12 = 36oz or so in the carboy. That's just over 5%. So you would use, total, 5% of 5oz, or .25 of an ounce of dextrose, .2oz of sucrose?

Also, are you racking from primary to secondary, or are you bottling directly from primary? If you're using a secondary, then you ought to be able to just tip the carboy while siphoning into your bottling bucket. A little yeast over 5 gal isn't going to really be noticeable. Over a six pack, however, it certainly will be.

For those gaskets, I hate to tell you that I've not found a great solution. Are you sure it's leaking from the gasket, and it's not just too loose or leaking through the thread on the valve and nut? Try tightening. See if that helps.

Duck

Not really related but since when is a case 24 beers? Where I'm from a case is 12.

American cases are 4 six packs in a cardboard box, it's how beer is shipped to stores in the States.

would be interesting to know where you are from Actually, a "case" of wine is usually 6 or 12 bottles, and with the bombers of beer, I have bought cases of 12 as well. However, a case is usually thought of as 24 12 oz cans or bottles.

xoltri said:

Not really related but since when is a case 24 beers? Where I'm from a case is 12.

Click to expand...

"Case" isn't a well-defined term, but in the US it usually refers to 24 beers (assuming 12-oz bottles). A 12-pack is usually called a 12-pack.

Hence the old saying "24 hours in the day, 24 beers in a case--coincidence? I think not!"


FWIW, wikipedia says:

A 15.5 U.S. gallon keg is also equal to:
...
165 twelve fluid ounce (U.S. measure) drinks
About 90 bombers
About 6.88 24-unit cases of 12 fl oz cans.
About 5.5 30-racks of 12 fl oz cans.

Click to expand...

smata67 said:

When I transferred from my Better Bottle to the bottling bucket, I was too conservative on the siphon tube depth on the bottle and left behind quite a bit. I was only able to get 7 six packs. Since I primed in the bottling bucket, my sugar is going to be higher. I guess I will find out soon enough, but is it possible I have over-carbonated?

Any ideas for me to recover that lost six pack in the future?

Click to expand...

Put the Better Bottle where you're going to rack it from, and tilt it by putting a carboy stopper or something under one side. Rack from the low side.

Make a dip tube for your bottling bucket out of the neck of a racking cane and a #2 stopper. See:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/ for pics and instructions.

Brew 5.5 gallon batches instead of 5 gallon batches; it barely costs more and you don't wind up worrying about being a few beers short after losing some to trub.

malkore said:

some people prep the carboy a day in advance by putting up high, and tilting it. then tilt the other way (so its yeast free and deeper) so you can optimize the racking.

Click to expand...

Wow, I've actually never thought of doing this. I'm gonna have to try it next time. I'd also suggest an auto siphon if you don't already have one. It allowed me to get about another sixer or so due to more precise siphoning.