Quick Bottling Question

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IrishJosh

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I am bottling my first batch and want to mix a case of 12oz bottles and a 12 pack of 22oz bottles.

How do I adjust for the airspace I leave in the 22oz bottles? Don't want any of my hard work exploding while carbonating :)
 
do you have a bottling wand? When you fill the bottles with the bottling wand, you fill until you reach the top, and then pull it out. Then you have the perfect amount of headspace. If you don't have a bottling wand, and are just using tubing, it should be about the same.

The headspace is about 1"- 1.5" in each bottle, whether 12 oz, 22 oz or 40 oz.
 
I bottle my 22s the exact same way as 16s which is the exact same way as 12s. Bottling wand in, fill to top, bottling wand out, cap.
 
Yup, got the bottling wand.

Thanks for the reply! Nervous on my first bottling batch :)

You'll be fine! It may take longer the first time so just relax and take your time. It's easiest if you have a checklist, so you don't forget anything. One time, I forgot the priming sugar! Duh. A checklist would have been helpful for me then.
 
I'm not sure the space left by bottling wands is the ideal air space. I think it is too big. The bigger the airspace, the more O2 you have in the bottle, and the more dangerous the effect of a bottle bomb.

When the bottle is 'filled' I touch the tip of my wand against the side of the bottle, just above the level of the liquid, to get some more in and fill to just under the lip at the top of the bottle.

I would be interested to see any reference showing what the ideal fill level is in a bottle. I don't think the bottle fillers have been designed to result in a specific airspace; I think the large airspace is a result of the filler design.
 
Calder said:
I'm not sure the space left by bottling wands is the ideal air space. I think it is too big.

When the bottle is 'filled' I touch the tip of my wand against the side of the bottle, just above the level of the liquid, to get some more in and fill to just under the lip at the top of the bottle.

I don't think the extra effort is really necessary. The bottling wand headspace is pretty much the standard in homebrewing, and bottle bombs are fairly rare.
 
You need a little headspace to keep from getting bombs,imo. The gas has to have a little space during conditioning to go to. It's the cold fridge time that drives the co2 into solution,as cold liquids absorb the gas more readilly than warm ones. So far,the volume displacement created by pulling out the wand seems to be just right.
Plus,I use o2 barrier caps that greatly aid the o2 problems at that point. They actually seem to give greater longevity to the beer while conditioning then the regular caps I was using. A good couple weeks more at least.
 
I'm not sure the space left by bottling wands is the ideal air space. I think it is too big. The bigger the airspace, the more O2 you have in the bottle, and the more dangerous the effect of a bottle bomb.

Never had any problems with too much oxygen (since if you fill to overflowing and then let the co2 "work" itself out of from under the cap for a few minutes before capping you should have little if any oxygen in your bottles) or bottle bombs with the headsapace from bottling wands.

Have you ever compared our headspace with that of commercial beers? I just did a side by side of a bunch of different micros in my fridge and my homebrews, and we actually have LESS headspace in our bottles than the 4 commercials I looked at in my fridge (different brands from different breweries, 2 bottle conditioned and 2 not) in fact each of the different micros had a different amount of headspace, and all of them had more headspace than the comparable homebrews.

And all my homebrews had the exact same amount of headspace.

Pretty interesting.
 
Good point. I've seen that the head space differes a bit from brewer to brewer. I just think the head space created by volume dissplacement of the wand is fine,just right for each bottle type/size. And I have a few different styles of bottles,even though they're all 11.2 & 12oz. Or they're 12oz'rs filled to only 11.2oz? The wand knows the right level!
 
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