Delayed Capping

I usually get SWMBO to help when I bottle. I fill. She hands me a bottle and takes the full one, places a cap on top and puts it on the counter. After that has been done to the entire batch her part is over. Now I press the caps on all the bottles.

I have always been concerned about the beer being exposed to oxygen during this delay, but had a thought today (I sure not an original one.) Is this waiting actually a better practice? If the bottles sit long enough CO2 will start being produced. CO2 being heavier than air, it should force the oxygen from the bottle. Oxygen that would have been trapped if the bottle was capped immediately. With the cap sitting loose it should act like a flap valve, letting gasses out, but none in.

Do you think there’s any truth to this logic? If so, what would be the optimal time to wait before capping?





Edit: Now I'm waiting for someone to point me to a thread where this has already been discussed

I was thinking this as well. I have a friend over to help with bottling also. I fill, while he caps. The caps are on immediatly and was wondering if delaying it a few minutes might help. Then again, its more of a chance for a buggy to get in.

Arneba28 said:

. . . .Then again, its more of a chance for a buggy to get in.

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If you place the sanitized cap on top this should not be a problem. Still curious about the timing though?

I don't know this for sure, but judging by how long it takes for a bottle to actually carbonate, I'd say that those bottles would have to sit for quite a long time like that before you could get any "purging" benefits from it. You'd also have to adjust your priming sugar amounts somehow. It sounds like it'd be benign at best.

If you're worried about oxygen (which I wouldn't be for most normal beers that won't be aging for a long time), then just get some of those silver oxygen-barrier caps. They'll absorb any excess oxygen and allow long-term aging with minimal oxidation.

I dunno, there seems to be a lag period every time the yeast is disturbed and unless you do it when they start digging in again, I'd imagine there wouldn't be terribly much produced. That's just what I theorize. Just buy O2 absorbing caps

Evan! We are twins separated at birth

I was thinking about adding a little CO2 nozzle off of the tank and basically pushing a little CO2 into every bottle real quick to push air out. I keg some batches and bottle other so this might be practical and it would take very little co2 to do this.

Evan! said:

I don't know this for sure, but judging by how long it takes for a bottle to actually carbonate, I'd say that those bottles would have to sit for quite a long time like that before you could get any "purging" benefits from it.

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I would imagine that outgassing from physical motion during the racking/bottling would provide more purge than yeast-derived CO2 production.

I fill and place the caps, then go back and cap. I figure if any outgasssing/purging is going to happen it'll happen during the loose-cap wait.

Papazian recommends leaving the caps on loosely for a few minutes before crimping them, so that the co2 will purge the oxygen from the neck of the bottle.

If you're filling from the bottom, you are pushing up the air to begin with, and there is some co2 already present from fermentation as well new co2 being produced from racking and the introduction of sugar at priming.

I bottle in bunches of 6 or 12 depending on my mood. After I fill the last one in the "batch" I go back to number one and crimp them.

Revvy said:

Papazian recommends leaving the caps on loosely for a few minutes before crimping them, so that the co2 will purge the oxygen from the neck of the bottle.

If you're filling from the bottom, you are pushing up the air to begin with, and there is some co2 already present from fermentation as well new co2 being produced from racking and the introduction of sugar at priming.

I bottle in bunches of 6 or 12 depending on my mood. After I fill the last one in the "batch" I go back to number one and crimp them.

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I agree with this. I think the beer will off gas just enough when you fill them that it will push some o2 out of the head of the bottle. The off gas is from the fill process..a few minutes will not be from the yeast working that is for sure. I usually clean up eeverything after I fill them and than crimp the cap so sometime 10 minutes..as long as the cap is on the bottle no worries.

Jay

I fill then cap...let sit until all the bottles are capped, then crimp...been doing it for years for the same logical reasons noted above...