Tips on rebottling a sour?

[Irrenarzt]

I have 22 oz bottles of a sour that scored a 45 in a recent comp. It was a gold medal winner and is an excellent beer. I bottle conditioned it originally and I have a bunch or the large bottles left.

I'm thinking I would like to submit this beer in the National Homebrew Competition as it is definitely one of my better holdings right now and has a good chance of moving on to round 2. My problem is I cannot submit this beer in its' current bottle as it is an automatic DQ. Most competitions are cool with the larger bottles, but not NHC.

I'd like to rebottle it into 12 oz bottles but I'm afraid doing so is not a great idea. Anyone ever do this and have tips on doing so? This beer is still alive with brett, pedio, lacto etc so in theory I might be able to rebottle into a CO2 purged small bottle containing a carbtab but I'm not sure if a month is enough for it to recarb what was lost upon opening with these bugs.

 

[spook]

I haven't done it, but I entertained rebottling a batch at one point. My guess is that when you rebottle it unless you somehow fully "degass" it you'll have mostly carbed beer, but then no head pressure so after it equalizes I think you'll be undercarbed. If you only have a month I suggest mixing up some priming sugar with boiled and cooled water and using an oral syringe to precisely dose out a few different amounts of priming sugar, say a range from 3/4, 1/2, and 1/4 of what you would normally use per bottle. Make sure you have enough of each to test one bottle and still have enough to send to the competition. That way you can let them sit for 2-3 weeks and taste each for proper carbonation before choosing what to send off. I'd use oxygen absorbing caps too, just to help stave off added oxygen from the second round of bottling.

Whether it will actually carb up quick enough given how "alive" or not it may be is another issue maybe someone else can address better.

 

[beeber]

If you use a carb tab you'll need to remove all the present carb and start flat, how are you going to do that?

Chill the beer down close to freezing, chill the 12 oz bottles as well. Pour as slowly and carefully as you can, down the side and fill the 12 oz bottles. Let the foam settle and repeat until you reach a proper fill. You will lose some carb but it is worth a shot. You might add a small amount of corn sugar.

 

[tenbricks]

I'd consider using a keg for an intermediate step. Sanitize/purge one with CO2 until you're sure there's no oxygen left in. Sanitize the necks of however many bottles you want to transfer, pop them open and dump them inside. They'll foam up as they splash in so the CO2 blanket stays there. Close it and put enough pressure on it to recarb. A few days later, you should be good to go to rebottle.

 

[Irrenarzt]

I went with the keg route, cleaning then sanitizing a small 3 gallon corny which I then purged with CO2 and let cool along with the beers I was using. I then poured the beers into the keg, put the lid back on and purged out the headspace with a lot of CO2. Now it is in my conditioning fridge on gas and I will leave it there for a couple weeks and then I will rebottle with a beer gun.

Thanks to all for the suggestions. Although this was the most work of all the methods, it seemed like the safest way to proceed.

 

[tenbricks]

Excellent, you'll have to let us know how you do in the competition.

 

[Irrenarzt]

I will do so. I think I will bottle about 8 x 12 oz bottles, sample one to make sure it is OK, then ship 1 off to NHC if it is OK and save the rest.

I know rebottling is not such a good idea but this is a stellar beer. One that I hate to see hamstrung by silly bottle rules but that's the way it is...