Bottle Conditioning

[Kyle Whitley]

Hey new to beer making here, I am trying to make some hard seltzer and want it to be carbonated without residue left over but I do not want to pay for a kegging system. Before I try it I would like to know from others if they think it would be a good idea, to simply split up my 5 gallons of fermented seltzer across two smaller 2.5 gallon containers and condition them accordingly with sugar to carbonate and then after chilling and the residue drops to bottle the hard seltzer from these two containers. Please let me know your thoughts.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

I suspect that won't work very well -- the CO2 needs to be tightly constrained or else it will just escape.

What you want to do is wait until after the seltzer has finished fermenting. Do you have a hydrometer to check the gravity of your seltzer? If you don't use proper nutrients, seltzers can be pretty tricky to get to finish in a timely manner.

Anyways, what you need to do is either add thoroughly dissolved sugar (4 ounces table sugar, boiled with 8 ounces of RO water) to the whole 5 gallon batch, and then bottle that immediately, OR you can use a funnel and a measuring spoon, and pour in a half teaspoon sugar into each bottle, then fill it with your seltzer, and cap. (Alternatively, buy some "carb drops" from a home brew store).

 

[Kyle Whitley]

I suspect that won't work very well -- the CO2 needs to be tightly constrained or else it will just escape.

What you want to do is wait until after the seltzer has finished fermenting. Do you have a hydrometer to check the gravity of your seltzer? If you don't use proper nutrients, seltzers can be pretty tricky to get to finish in a timely manner.

Anyways, what you need to do is either add thoroughly dissolved sugar (4 ounces table sugar, boiled with 8 ounces of RO water) to the whole 5 gallon batch, and then bottle that immediately, OR you can use a funnel and a measuring spoon, and pour in a half teaspoon sugar into each bottle, then fill it with your seltzer, and cap. (Alternatively, buy some "carb drops" from a home brew store).

Will this leave it cloudy or have sediment on the bottom of the bottle?

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Will this leave it cloudy or have sediment on the bottom of the bottle?

If your seltzer has finished fermenting (what's your gravity?) and is currently clear, then bottle carbonation will introduce a small amount of sediment. That is unavoidable. If your goal is ZERO sediment, you'll have to invest in some CO2. The cheapest manner would be:

skip fermenting your own seltzer entirely, buy some vodka, mix it with whatever flavoring you want (and dilute it, 35% abv seltzers are a really bad idea), and use a SodaStream (or cheaper knockoff brand) to carbonate.​

 

[doug293cz]

I suspect that won't work very well -- the CO2 needs to be tightly constrained or else it will just escape.

What you want to do is wait until after the seltzer has finished fermenting. Do you have a hydrometer to check the gravity of your seltzer? If you don't use proper nutrients, seltzers can be pretty tricky to get to finish in a timely manner.

Anyways, what you need to do is either add thoroughly dissolved sugar (4 ounces table sugar, boiled with 8 ounces of RO water) to the whole 5 gallon batch, and then bottle that immediately, OR you can use a funnel and a measuring spoon, and pour in a half teaspoon sugar into each bottle, then fill it with your seltzer, and cap. (Alternatively, buy some "carb drops" from a home brew store).

4 oz of table sugar in a 5 gal batch will give you about 2.4 volumes of carbonation. This is fine for many beer styles, but seltzers are usually carbonated to much higher levels - around 4 volumes. To get 4 volumes you would need to prime with about 8.4 oz of sugar. 4 volumes of carbonation will give you almost 60 psi of pressure inside your container at room temp, so DO NOT USE GLASS CONTAINERS for bottle conditioning seltzers.

When naturally carbonating, you will always get residue in the bottom of the container, which is made up mostly of the yeast that caused the fermentation that created the CO2. Some yeasts (I don't remember which ones)) will create a very compact layer on the bottom of the container, which will allow you to more easily get clear seltzer out of the container.

Unless you have a counter pressure filler (which requires you to have bottled CO2 and a regulator) you will lose a lot of carbonation if you try to bottle such a highly carbonated beverage from another container. You can minimize carbonation loss by chilling the seltzer and bottles to freezing temps, but I don't think that will be adequate for seltzer.

If you don't have the right equipment, then you are better off making seltzer out of vodka and using a soda stream as suggested by @Hoochin'Fool .

Brew on

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

I'm probably misunderstanding you @doug293cz, but are you saying it's okay to put 4 volumes of CO2 into a bottle if you use a counter pressure filler/regulator, but not safe to use priming sugar?

For what it's worth, I've given up on getting any fermented seltzers to finish up, and can't be bothered to follow any strict nutrient dosing regimen, just curious how much CO2 is safe to add to a bottled beverage mechanically. Only thing that makes sense, is with priming sugar, there's a little more margin for error.

 

[doug293cz]

I'm probably misunderstanding you @doug293cz, but are you saying it's okay to put 4 volumes of CO2 into a bottle if you use a counter pressure filler/regulator, but not safe to use priming sugar?

For what it's worth, I've given up on getting any fermented seltzers to finish up, and can't be bothered to follow any strict nutrient dosing regimen, just curious how much CO2 is safe to add to a bottled beverage mechanically. Only thing that makes sense, is with priming sugar, there's a little more margin for error.

No, that's not what I am saying. I just said that to prevent excessive CO2 loss while bottling high carbonation liquids, you need to use a counter pressure filler. This is totally separate from the question of how much carbonation is safe in glass bottles. Personally, I wouldn't go more than 3 volumes in a standard crown cap glass beer bottle. There are some bottles specifically designed for high carbonation beers that might be safe at 4 volumes. Safest thing to use for seltzer is PET "soda" bottles.

Brew on

 

[mac_1103]

Bottle type​	Max. CO2 Volume​
12oz​	3​
33cl Belgian​	3.5​
500ml European​	3.5​
Swing top​	4​
Champagne​	7​
PET​	10​

 

[MaxStout]

Another option is if you have a CO2 tank and regulator, or access to that, you can force-carbonate into PET bottles. You use "carbonator caps" that screw onto the tops of PET bottles. Use a ball lock connector on the CO2 hose. Fill the bottle with a little head space, squeeze out the headspace air, tighten the carb cap. Apply about 30psi CO2.

 

[doug293cz]

Bottle type​	Max. CO2 Volume​
12oz​	3​
33cl Belgian​	3.5​
500ml European​	3.5​
Swing top​	4​
Champagne​	7​
PET​	10​

Where did you find this table? I haven't seen anything like it before.

Brew on

 

[mac_1103]

Where did you find this table?

Advanced Bottle Conditioning - Northern Brewer