Bottle headspace

[Jettison]

Hi all,

Only bottled my 2nd batch last week before heading on vacation to Cook Islands.

Whilst here, my wife and I checked out a local craft brewery. They make a habit of overfilling their bottles so that no oxygen is left within.

They obviously use CO2 for carbonation, whereas I bulk prime with sugar and utilise swing top bottles.

Is there any benefit to me filling my bottles to the brim, displacing oxygen and bottle conditioning at room temp?

 

[Thorsbrew]

You need to leave about an inch of head space to allow it to carbonate safely. Search youtube for homebrew bottling.

 

[kh54s10]

I believe that you need to allow some headspace or the bottles will not carbonate properly. The most often advise is to fill until it is at the top then remove the bottling wand and you should have the proper amount.

 

[derekcw83]

I've done lots of research about this topic. A bottle will carbonate the same with 1/2" headspace as 2" headspace. It is dependent on sugar. Leaving more headspace leaves more oxygen, which can speed up carbonation due to yeast using oxygen, but you run risk of leftover oxygen in your beer beginning to stale your beer. Ipa's are more sensitive to this. So without purging with co2, the best rule is to fill fully, then tilt bottle to use wand against side of the neck to fill within 1/2" of cap.