Bombers over carbed....12oz not????

Anyone have experience with their bombers (22 oz) bottles being over carbed and the 12 oz bottles being almost under carbed. All out of the same batch. All conditioned for 4+ weeks at 70 and all cold crashed 5+ days before consuming. Curious about why this is. Thanks in advance.

What kind of beer, was it a wheat?

Amber Ale

Anyone???

The only thing I can think of is headspace- if there was too much headspace in the bombers, that would have them be overcarbed.

Good tip. Never thought of that. So less head space is better than too much head space??

storytyme said:

Good tip. Never thought of that. So less head space is better than too much head space??

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Well, not "less" exactly- but the proper amount, about 1" to 1.5" from the top of the bottle but above the "neck".

I'm going to start using the amount stated on beersmith for the given recipe. That should level things out.

storytyme said:

Anyone???

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I've had problems with my wheat beer recipe. It seems kind of consistent. I made a video of myself filling up 7 pint glasses with foam.

I deleted the account from Youtube and lost it though.

I'm going to ask what would seem to be a simple question. Which bottles did you fill first, and how do you ensure your priming sugar is evenly distributed?

When I switched up my bottling procedure I had to make extra sure that I properly mix my priming sugar because of using a 10gal corny. I don't prescribe to the bottle size having an effect. I will sometimes fill many different bottle sizes in the same bottling run depending on the beer. Some of my belgians will get a 3L bottle for a trappist style party I want to have. I've done a 6000ml, 3000ml, 1500ml, 750ml, and 330ml bottles all in the same run all pouring apparently the same carb. Headspace may have an effect but when we're talking volume in a bottle neck we're talking very small amounts. So I can't see the head space making a drastically different carb level in a 22oz vs a 12oz. Also if you're using a bottling wand then your head space is ROUGHLY the same. Sure you have a slightly larger amount of volume displacement because its a taller bottle. However the volume is rather small.

storytyme said:

I'm going to start using the amount stated on beersmith for the given recipe. That should level things out.

Click to expand...

Can you describe what you mean by over carbed in the 22oz bottles?

And I guess it might help if you can describe your bottling process.

No disrespect intended to smokinghole but I keep hearing this priming sugar mixing theory and it just doesn't match my experience. Once my bottles are fully carbed I see such little variation bottle to bottle that I just don't see any way to see a way to do the bulk priming so badly that you would get this result.

How about the caps on the 12 oz bottles? Any chance those weren't secure?

I have adjusted my mixing of priming sugar. Before I put all of it at the bottom and let the beer siphon onto it from the carboy. Now I am putting half at the bottom and half after 2.5 gallons have been siphoned. I am also using the exact sugar measurement that Beersmith is telling me. Did I see a change? I will let you know in 3 weeks as I just bottled last night.

Do you give the bottling bucket a stir?

Not so much stirring more like swirling as it comes into the bucket. I don't want oxygen to screw things up.

I do it backwards. Beer in the bucket. Measure beer. Calculate priming sugar, measure it, add water and boil. Pour hot solution into beer. Stir 30 seconds without splashing. Let sit 10 min or so and start bottling.

I know you need to be careful of oxygen but have done 20 batches this way no cardboard. I'm thinking the oxidation issue may be bigger deal for people who are legging and force carbing. Natural carbing the yeast get a chance to scavenge the oxygen. Also use O2 absorbing caps FWIW.

I don't think that is backwards. Thats how I do it only I use a keg to bottle from and I just roll it around on the ground after purging so I mix the priming sugar. I think assuming a certain quantity of beer can leave you in a not so great place. If you end up with less than planned.

My guess is an uneven distribution of priming sugar too. On an early batch a friend and I ran into this same issue. We bottled 48 or so bottles. I can't remember if I had the first 24 or second 24 to be bottled but the majority were all foam, the majority of his 24 were just fine. I now always use the inner part of the auto siphon to gently stir like previous guys said and haven't had any issues.