50 years, 50 beers

[jIM_Ohio]

I am brewing a batch to give as a 50th birthday present. Normally a 5 gallon batch fills about 38-43 bottles. Is there a consequence if I fill the bottles less full so I generate 50 bottles for the 50th birthday?

It will be a partial mash with priming sugar added to bottling bucket before siphoning the secondary to the bottling bucket if that matters for a Hefeweizen.

 

[deggenbe]

You could plan your recipe out to produce 5.5-6 gallons instead.
then you don't have to worry about under-filling bottles.

 

[GaryJohn]

It may not be a good idea to fill the bottles less. The less oxygen in the bottle the better. You also may run in to carbonating problems with the extra headspace. (there is more air-space that can be compressed and the beer may be under-carbonated)

It's much better to just add a little top-off water before pitching so you have a 5.2 gallon batch instead. You could also add a some extra fermentables to the recipe and then make it s 5.5 gallon batch. That's usually what I do!

 

[midfielder5]

It may not be a good idea to fill the bottles less. The less oxygen in the bottle the better. You also may run in to carbonating problems with the extra headspace. (there is more air-space that can be compressed and the beer may be under-carbonated)

Yes... Fill em all the way up!

 

[badhabit]

Under filling gives greater possibility for bottle bombs. The air(02) is greater in the head space and allows for additional fermentation. I wouldn't think that it would be a big problem in a five gal batch but you are getting very few bottles from a five gal batch so ??? I would suggest if you are going to stretch that you do so by adding some water to the beer before bottling. You could even add some flat beer if it is that important to have 50 bottles.

I got 51 bottles this past weekend and had as close to exactly 5 gal in the fermenter as I can measure. I generaly brew 5.25 gal to the primary and add starter with yeast and primer for bottling and end up right at 5 gal to bottle. I would suggest that you look at your process a little to see what is going on and ask more questions.

I would also suggest that if I got 48, or 43 or 46 or whatever bottles of home brew for my birthday I would be thrilled, and sure wouldn't take the time to count the bottles. You might be better off giving the best beer that you can make and as suggested looking at your process.

 

[Disintegr8or]

If you have kettle & carboy room, 6 gallon batches are so much better than 5 gallon batches. When I do bottle something I usually get 2 cases plus 4 to 6 bottles that I use for testers while everything is carbing up from a 6 gallon batch.

 

[phenry]

Just increase the amount of fermentables and water both so you end up with more volume of the same product.

 

[passedpawn]

Fill the bottles. It's counter-intuitive, but that extra headspace will a lot more pressure or foaming. I've experienced this and wondered why.

 

[Raenon]

Sounds like you're using 16 oz or larger bottles if you're getting that few to a batch, or you have a positively incredible amount of trub.

5 gallons is 640 ounces, 12 ounce bottles means you'd get 53 bottles per batch assuming no trub at all, so that'd be cutting things a bit close, and you'd still want to do around 5.5 gallons or more... but at 38x 12, that's only 456 ounces, or about 3.5 gallons.

Even assuming you're slightly overfilling 12 ounce bottles now, say, an extra ounce in the neck- 13 ounces * 38 is only 494 ounces, or 3.8 gallons.

So again, bump up your recipe slightly, and use 12 ounce bottles, or bump up significantly to keep using your larger bottles.

 

[Raenon]

Fill the bottles. It's counter-intuitive, but that extra headspace will a lot more pressure or foaming. I've experienced this and wondered why.

I have a theory...

When you properly fill the bottles, your CO2 fills the headspace, then is reabsorbed at the proper levels to create an equilibrium, with just a little surface area in the neck of the bottle.
If you underfill, more of the CO2 stays in the large headspace, and reaches a lower equilibrium volume in the beer, with a larger percentage of the pressure coming from the gas in the bottle, versus the glass surrounding the beer.
When you pop the top, that CO2 evacuates quickly to equilibrium with the atmosphere, leaving a massive negative pressure on the beer, causing it to foam more quickly.

A smaller headspace means that most of the pressure on the beer is coming from the bottle surrounding it, and has very little surface area in contact with the now evacuated headspace, so the pressure drop agitates far less beer.

Btw, that first part also suggest that overfilling will create too much pressure during the early stages- causing greater upwards and downwards pressure (the ring of the neck is the strongest part of the bottle, so it has little give). This would cause either the top to pop (requiring breakages of the lip of the bottle, rather sturdy, or releasing the crimped steel of the cap), or more often, causing the relatively thin transition of the bottom of the bottle to the side wall to give out, as the beer is pushed down against it. If the bottle holds, you're fine, but any fault will show that might normally have survived the rated carbonation level.

 

[jIM_Ohio]

Sounds like you're using 16 oz or larger bottles if you're getting that few to a batch, or you have a positively incredible amount of trub.

5 gallons is 640 ounces, 12 ounce bottles means you'd get 53 bottles per batch assuming no trub at all, so that'd be cutting things a bit close, and you'd still want to do around 5.5 gallons or more... but at 38x 12, that's only 456 ounces, or about 3.5 gallons.

Even assuming you're slightly overfilling 12 ounce bottles now, say, an extra ounce in the neck- 13 ounces * 38 is only 494 ounces, or 3.8 gallons.

So again, bump up your recipe slightly, and use 12 ounce bottles, or bump up significantly to keep using your larger bottles.

**bingo**

had not thought this through all the way, thanks.

For my beer, I use 16 oz growlers, and usually fill between 36-44 bottles.
For this gift, I will be using leftover sam adams and similar 12 oz bottles, so getting 48-50 bottles should be easier.

 

[unionrdr]

Oh,way easier. We get at least 48 bottles to a 5G batch with little trub. Others get 53 or so,so you should be right in there!

 

[SoonerDoc]

I was going to say the same thing. Five gallon batches give me 48-52 twelve ounce bottles.

 

[Jayhem]

I brew 5.3 gallon batches and it always comes out to 48 or 50 bottles. Once I go all grain I'm going to just build 5.5 gal recipes and always have at least 50 bottles per batch.