Vols of CO2 in bottles?

I just brewed up 15 gallons of Berliner Weisse, and would like to carb it up to ~3.5 volumes. Has anyone had issues with these pressures in regular bottles? If so what is the limit you would pressurize to? I don't have the funds to buy multiple cases of thick Belgians. Thanks!

The general (anecdotal?) rule is 3 volumes for standard glass bottles. You could probably push it to 3.5 and be fine, but if it were me I wouldn't risk it.

I have bottled at 4 volumes twice, both 12oz and 22oz bottles. One 22oz exploded at the lower seams once but I'm not sure if it was a combo of bad bottle/uneven priming mix because no other bottles broke.

I try to stay under 4 now but 3,5 should be ok.

I bottled my last batch of Hefeweizen to 4.2 volumes CO2 in random commercial beer bottles, and had ZERO bottle bombs through 3 weeks at room temp. 8 oz. of priming sugar in a 4.5 batch.

The beer tastes great and is wonderfully effervescent!

I've gotten up there as well, easily over 3. No bottle bombs ever but I may have been lucky. I've even used the bottles you can order from online shops, which seem really thin compared to say a SN bottle

I believe bottles are designed and tested to 6 volumes. However, due to variations in bottles, and safety factors (you never want to test the limits), it is generally recommended not to exceed 3 volumes.

Every time you use a bottle you reduce it's life (only so many times you can repeatedly pressurize them; I've read 16 somewhere, but I've probably gone many more than that without any problems). When pressurizing a bottle to higher pressures (higher volumes of CO2), you use up more of it's life; the higher the pressure, the quicker you weaken it and the less the number of times you can safely re-use it.

That being said, I had a bottle blow on me about a year ago (standard 22 ozs bottle). All the rest went straight in the fridge and were consumed quickly. I checked the gravity from a couple of the bottles, and the beer FG had gone down considerably. I think I calculated 9 volumes of CO2 in the bottles, and only 1 blew.

3.5 should be OK, but no guarantees.

I did a Hefe to 3.5 without any issues. I was bit concerned but everything I read 4 volumes is about the max for a regular bottle. I would just condition them in a cooler or rubbermaid container just in case.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/

Check out one of Revvy's post about half way down that link. It shows the safe limits of the different types of bottles.

3.7 vols in random bottles without issue I have done. This fear is much overplayed and overrated. If you are storing them on your car dash in the Phoenix summer, you might want to keep it below three volumes. Otherwise, use some sense and you'll be fine. If you carb the ever living **** out of a beer, not only will it be a bottle bomb, it won't be very good anyway. So the bottle exploding is kind of moot. Your beer will probably suck well before the bottle breaks if its overcarbed.

I'm not understanding these posts. How are the volumes calculated? When I had a packaging brewery we carbonated to 2.5 volumes using a Zahm-Nagel CO2 tester. I think 3 seems a little high. At Colorado Boy I believe we are even lower (I don't have a tester here) which I like because the beer is smoother, but that's just me.

tomhen said:

I'm not understanding these posts. How are the volumes calculated? When I had a packaging brewery we carbonated to 2.5 volumes using a Zahm-Nagel CO2 tester. I think 3 seems a little high. At Colorado Boy I believe we are even lower (I don't have a tester here) which I like because the beer is smoother, but that's just me.

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Not sure what you don't understand? This is natural carbonation with priming sugar. You pick the volumes of CO2 and calculate the amount of priming sugar you need to get you there assuming it all ferments out. Nobody's measuring the dissolved CO2 to verify. 2.5 is good for most styles of beer, but OP is interested in carbing a Berliner Weiss that's traditionally carbonated higher.