Filled my bottles to the brim. Is this a problem?

[Skyforger]

Bottled a Belgian blonde today, primed to carb to 2.2 volumes. I've had a few beers get very slightly stale in the bottle before, so I decided to try an experiment. I filled 12 the ordinary way, leaving about 1.5 in. headspace, and filled the rest to the brim by filling it ordinarily, then pressing the bottling wand gently against the brim to fill it the rest of the way.

So now I'm wondering if that wasn't a little rash. Does anyone know if this might cause pressure problems, given that the CO2 doesn't really have anywhere to compress? From what I've heard, underfilling bottles is more of a problem than overfilling, but I'd just like to make sure I don't need to go and pour an ounce out of these bottles before something bad happens.

If it's not a problem, I suppose I might update this thread with the results of the experiment a few months down the line.

 

[Revvy]

You need a headspace for the beers to carb...I have feeling you will be getting bottle bombs because the expanding gas is going to have no place to go. I would get an eyedropper or a turkey baster if it fits in the mouth of the bottles, sanitize it and suck it out.

Your oxydation problem didn't come because you had a very necessary headpace, especially since you used the bottling wand pull our method.

I would address this asap....

 

[lumpher]

yes, it could be a problem. there's no room for co2 to build up and then sink in, so those bottles could explode. there's a reason bottles have a neck. they need to build co2 (called headspace). look to have several bottle-bombs. put those bottles in a tote, in a closet, so when they explode, they don't hurt anyone

 

[Skyforger]

Alright. It's too late for me to deal with it now, but I'll address it in the morning first thing.

There must really be a sweet spot for bottle filling then. I've heard that people who fill bottles only halfway (say, as the last bottle of a batch) tend to have them explode too.

Maybe I'll leave one or two, contain them in a cooler or something, just to see if they blow. Not a very good experiment with such a small sample size, but I'd rather not risk more....

 

[lumpher]

not much risk as to if they will. they will blow

 

[passedpawn]

Pretty easy problem to solve. I'll be you've already come up with a plan. Because gases are very compressible, headspace allows a lot of gas to accumulate without increasing the pressure substantially. Liquids are NOT compressible, so the pressure will increase greatly.

I'll leave this picture here as an illustration of what I'm trying to describe...

 

[mrk305]

When I first started I use to fill mine to about 1/4" from the top. They worked okay. I even sent some off as a brew swap and got comments about how they thought they were over filled by looking at them but they were alright.

I would like to see how these come out.

 

[lumpher]

nice illustration, passed... got me laughing

 

[Joemama474]

I'm no expert, but it seems to me that 2.2 volumes is 2.2 volumes whether there's headspace or not. Carbing to 2.2 volumes SHOULD mean that you're creating 24.24 ounces (by volume) of additional CO2 through the carbonation process. As the yeast produce this amount of gas, some immediately dissolves into the beer, but once the beer is saturated, it floats into the headspace. Once sufficient pressure is generated, the saturation point increases, and the gas is driven back into solution. If there's NO headspace, that ought to simply drive the gas into solution faster because it has nowhere to go but to dissolve (or remain) in the liquid. It seems to me that glass bottles are supposed to be able to handle about 3 volumes. I would wager you won't have any bottle bombs, or that if you do it is a result of over-priming or faulty glass. I think it's a good experiment.

 

[Skyforger]

Yeah, it's what I thought when I was bottling. To be safe I fixed most of them. But we'll see what happens.