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12oz's are carbing up WAY better then 22oz - reason??

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Grinder12000

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I've found that while my 12oz bottles are carbing up perfectly my bombers are lagging - is there a significant time lag normally with those??

Is it a batch to batch thing??

Comments.
 
The yeasties have more work to do. Go give each bomber a twist to keep the yeast roused to finish the job.
 
Thanks - I was surprised as logically you would have the same sugar amount and the same Yeast per oz in a bottle. You would have less head space I assume - why would it take longer ???? Or am I missing some chemical thing that is insanely simple to figure out.
 
Thanks - I was surprised as logically you would have the same sugar amount and the same Yeast per oz in a bottle. You would have less head space I assume - why would it take longer ???? Or am I missing some chemical thing that is insanely simple to figure out.

That's what I was thinking... sounds like a good experiment

For those of you who prime in a keg, how long has it taken? I feel it shouldn't be any different. Maybe it's just your batch, and it was just a coincidence you used 22oz'ers.

I agree you should give them a spin though.
 
Seems to me that you are seriously overthinking this- temperature is certainly going to influence carbonation rate, but I'm still confident that it's as simple as a difference in bottle volume. More volume means more C02 has to be produced before a noticeable level of carbonation is reached.

The geometry of the vessel itself might even contribute, but it's probably not worth really investigating.

At the risk of sounding like an EAC, you gotta use the search now and again...trust me on this.

:mug:
 
volume to head space. There is more volume in a 22 oz bottle but the same head space .I have several 1 liter flip tops that take several weeks longer to carb than the 12 oz. I have found that giving them some more head space helps but its still slower.
 
volume to head space. There is more volume in a 22 oz bottle but the same head space .I have several 1 liter flip tops that take several weeks longer to carb than the 12 oz. I have found that giving them some more head space helps but its still slower.

Yep. More volume of headspace, and of beer in a 22 means you need to generate a greater volume of CO2 to properly carb the bottle. This will take a bit longer as the yeast can only do so much work in one day. Keeping them at 70 helps quite a bit as well.
 
Headspace is the winner.

CO2 is released into the headspace. Once a certain pressure is reached, it is reabsorbed into solution. Think of your headspace as the "production area" for carbonation. The larger the production area (relative to what's needed), the faster the carbonation process.

22 ounces need more time because the head space is essentially the same as a 12 ouncer.
 
22 ounces need more time because the head space is essentially the same as a 12 ouncer.

and thus should build pressure twice as fast! This is very counter intuitive to me. There is twice the beer, twice the yeast, and twice the co2 production...this should create pressure in 1/2 the time! It also should create over carbonation....but it doesn't. Not being argumentative...and damn sure not disagreeing with BierMuncher (Yuri gave me the same explanation the last 3 or 5 times we had this discussion)....I'm just saying it don't make no damn sense!
 
and thus should build pressure twice as fast! This is very counter intuitive to me. There is twice the beer, twice the yeast, and twice the co2 production...this should create pressure in 1/2 the time! It also should create over carbonation....but it doesn't. Not being argumentative...and damn sure not disagreeing with BierMuncher (Yuri gave me the same explanation the last 3 or 5 times we had this discussion)....I'm just saying it don't make no damn sense!

This is how I feel too. However I don't believe it wouldn't create over-carbonation, because you have the same ratio of beer + priming sugar to volume.

The only thing I can think of that would allow me to understand this is, no matter how high the pressure of CO2, it will only absorb into the beer at a certain rate. I would also imagine surface area has a lot to do with it.

I think a cool experiment would be to put the beer on its side and see if it carb's faster.

EDIT: The more I think about it, the more it would make sense for it to have to do with Surface Area rather then headspace. Anyone agree?
 
...There is twice the beer, twice the yeast

True, but the concentration of yeast to liquid as well as the concentration of sugar to liquid is the same.

Speed and finished levels of CO2 production is driven by concentration of sugars and yeast...not the shear volumes of the liquid.

A higher yeast concentration would increase the speed of CO2 production, but the eventual CO2 levels will be the same as one with lower yeast concentrations...if the sugar concentration is the same.

A higher sugar concentration will yield a higher finishing CO2 level.

When it comes to CO2 production, it's not about how much beer...but the concentrations of (primarily) sugar, and yeast.
 
It seems like the carb time would be constant as long as the headspace to liquid volume ratio was constant. Funny that everybody said the stuff about less headspace meaning slower carbonation, because I think that sounds backwards as well. We all know that not having enough headspace increases the chances of having bottle bombs, because there is too much pressure and not enough air to take it. I was going to suggest that perhaps the OP left too much headspace, thus preventing pressure from being able to build up in the liquid, as more of it is just building in the air.
 

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