Different size bottles = different amounts of priming sugar?

I bought a couple swing-top 2L growlers today. For each 5-gal batch, I plan to use one 2L growler, six 12-oz, one 22-oz, and the rest 500mL swing-tops (I think, 24 or so).

The guy at the LHBS said the large growlers might need a different (smaller?) amount of priming sugar? He didn't have a great explanation, just that he's heard from others that they tend to over-carbonate? How is that?

So far I've just been doing 500mL swing-tops and a couple 12-oz bottles I'm tucking away to try after a year. I've been brewing less than a year, so haven't experienced the effects of different bottle sizes.

Edit: I use dextrose for priming, which is mixed with all of the beer in the bottling bucket prior to bottling.

No, you use the same anount of sugar regardless of the vessel you are carbing in...You are bulk priming, dissolving your sugar solution into your beer, and then putting your beer in bottles, they yeast and beer, don;t know, nor care what size container they are landing in..though it will take longer for the larger vessels to carb. That's normal.


Oh BTW, if you are planning to carb in a growler, you are wasting beer. Growlers are not strong enough to handle the pressure of carnonating beer (it is a different process then taking ALREADY CARBED BEER FROM A KEG AND PUTTING IT IN A GROWLER.) Carbonating is a different amount of pressure than the volume of co2 in beer. You in a sense are forcing the built up co2 in the headspace back into the beer, and that is a delicate balance between the amount of co2 flooding into the headspace and the strength of the glass and the bottle cap. Keg carbed beer has already had that battle, that's why you can put keeged beer into a growler.

But most growlers are not meant to hold the amount of co2 required to carb an amount of beer.

look at this tread for inspiration...https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/growler-goes-boom-63121/?highlight=boom

Use bottles not growlers.....

I had read about exploding growlers. But it seems from that other thread that the ones I bought should work fine: http://www.northernbrewer.com/default/2-liter-growler-romantic-handle.html

I have noticed different carbonation levels in different sized bottles so I think it has merit. I also like to give a genital roll over to the bottles after a week of carbonating and then a week after that cold crash the heck out of them before using that's 2 weeks at room temp and at least 2 more weeks in the fridge for lighter beer and 4 weeks (min) for darker or bigger beers.

docrw said:

I also like to give a genital roll over to the bottles after a week of carbonating and then a week after that cold crash the heck out of them before using that's 2 weeks at room temp and at least 2 more weeks in the fridge for lighter beer and 4 weeks (min) for darker or bigger beers.

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Ah, yes.........The ol' "genital rollover" will do it every time.......

I genital roll all of my bottles for good luck.

Genital roll over for the win!!

Stealthcruiser said:

Ah, yes.........The ol' "genital rollover" will do it every time.......

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Like I'm the only person to ever make a spelling error, HA

How you handle your genitals aside, different carbonation levels from the same batch is a function of the relative headspace in your bottle and any air leaks at the cap / seal. Assuming sugar got mixed in evenly and temperature treatment after bottling was the same.

GRO: genital rollover -> new HBT acronym.

There is a difference between a 2L EZ Cap and a 2L growler. You can carb the EZ caps. Mix your bottling sugar like normal in your bottling bucket. Fill your bottles normal.

docrw said:

Like I'm the only person to ever make a spelling error, HA

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No, not the only one, but may be the best spelling error.


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PLEASE be careful with your carbonation levels while doing GRO's, a bottle bomb could be worse then a berry punch from Billy's grandmother