Fermenting in Larger Bottles

A buddy of mine just gave me a bunch of 32 oz bottles with swing tops; does anyone have experience using similarly sized bottles? I am thinking about using them for my next batch, but am a little worried about bottle bombs due to the increased volume. I know some people bottle in growlers and use less priming sugar to avoid over carbonation. Thoughts?

Most people avoid and advise not to carbonate in a growler. That said, you should be able to bottle normally in a 1 liter swing top without changing the amount of priming sugar. I would use a 1 liter soda bottle as a tester. That way you can gauge how the bottles are carbing. Once the soda bottle is firm with carbonation, chill your swing tops down and store them in the fridge or you can pasteurize them and store them in a closet without fear of glass shards.

Never would have thought of the soda bottle, thanks.

When I use my 1 liter flip tops I prime normally. I will fill a few of them and the rest goes into 12 oz. bottles. Never had a problem.

I bottle in 22 oz bombers, plus a few 12 oz bottles to avoid wasting any beer. I have never noticed any difference in the carbonation of bombers vs. babies. It makes sense that there would be some difference, but I don't detect it. Based on this experience, I would not adjust anything to bottle in 32 oz bottles. However, I have not done it.

I've done entire 5 gallon batches into 1 L swing tops. I primed normally, shooting for 2.8 vols. No problems.

The volume of the container shouldn't effect the carb level. Keggers naturally carb in the keg using the same priming sugar volumes as bottlers.

Bottle volume has nothing to do with carb level. Whether you're bottling in 32, 22, 16, or 12 oz bottles, the priming sugar is evenly distributed throughout the beer when you transfer it to your bottling bucket. The concentration of the beer/sugar solution is a constant. Now, what would affect carb level is the amount of headspace you leave in the bottle. That generally isn't a problem, however, beings that the bottling wand is designed leave the proper amount of headspace once the bottle is filled. Now, if you are one of those that uses either carbonation drops or puts priming sugar straight into the bottle, there are, I believe, too many chances of inconsistency, so I go with the priming sugar/boiling water method.

Consensus seems to be that priming sugar should be the same regardless of bottle size, but larger bottles may take a little longer to carbonate. This has been asked before. (Shocking, I know.)

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=506573

I have seen recommendations to use less priming sugar for larger containers, such as half the sugar for natural carbing in a keg. Maybe this was an exaggeration or complete myth? I don't own kegs, so I lost interest.

The amount of head space in the container does affect carbonation. If you fill a bottle only half full, it will be flat in comparison to full bottles, because there is a lot of gas to compress before achieving pressure. A larger bottle generally has less head space per volume of beer, so it would seem the carbonation level would be a little higher.

IME, this little bit of difference doesn't matter for bottles in the 12 oz to 22 oz size.

All I use are the 1 liter bottles and I have never had any problems when I properly primed the beer. One suggestion for you if you have not done so is to get some new rubber gaskets though. They wear out and it really helps to start with new ones to insure you're getting a good seal. Other than that you should be good to go with your normal bottling procedures.

I like the liter bottles cause I can have exactly two pints which is my normal serving amount

I've used 12,16,22 and 32 oz bottles in the same batch multiple times and never had a problem.

I've used 12,16,22 and 32 oz bottles in the same batch multiple times and never had a problem.

I've used 12,16,22 and 32oz bottles in the same batch multiple times. Never had a problem.....

Sorry for the triple post. Damn app kept telling me it wasn't responding.....