Bottling-How much head space?

[formula2fast]

I have bottled one batch of my beer so far and am going to be doing 2 batches soon. On my last batch, I filled them so there was about an inch and a half of head space, but I am not sure if that is too much or not enough.

What should it be? The link on bottling never really addresses this exactly.

Any tricks to make it easy and consistent? My bottling wand seems to work well right off the bucket, but if there is a better way, I am all ears.

 

[dunnright00]

I basically fill it to the top, and then the space left when I remove the bottling wand is (IMO) the perfect amount of headspace. About 3/4" - 1".

 

[Slainte-brew]

I usually fill to right at the top of the bottle, then when I take the bottling wand out it has just enough room left from the wands displacement. Probably somewhere around 1 in of head space

beat me to it dunnright

 

[iv_hokie12]

Exactly what these two said. Technically if you do it that way you will be slightly overfilling the 12 oz mark, but it will be very close.

 

[monkeymootj]

+1 to the bottle wand. Hasn't failed me yet

 

[formula2fast]

Bottling wand it is!

Thanks guys.

 

[jonmohno]

Interesting post. Ive been reading about oxidation, and although i dont get that from my bottles which ive been doing the normal bottle filler 1-2 inches.I was reading to avoid oxidation 1/2 inch from the top is recommended, ive just been doing this my last few bottled brews- all i do is fill normally but pull the bottle up then tilt and fill more till i get close to the top but dont go all the way i think i got about 1/2-3/4 an inch from the top so i will see i guess although i have never from what i know had a problem with oxidation and i regularly have a pipeline saving at least a few well over a year. Also since its "hombrew" it may give me closer to the 12 of beer instead of 11 oz that i get by pouring into my glass(not that it really matters) abv-really.

 

[DonutMuncher]

Interesting post. Ive been reading about oxidation, and although i dont get that from my bottles which ive been doing the normal bottle filler 1-2 inches.I was reading to avoid oxidation 1/2 inch from the top is recommended, ive just been doing this my last few bottled brews- all i do is fill normally but pull the bottle up then tilt and fill more till i get close to the top but dont go all the way i think i got about 1/2-3/4 an inch from the top so i will see i guess although i have never from what i know had a problem with oxidation and i regularly have a pipeline saving at least a few well over a year.

I've never really heard about oxidation risks in the bottles. I would assume this isn't much to worry about if you only have a 0.5-1.5 inch headspace, and don't plan on saving them for extremely long time periods. Where did you read about this?

 

[jonmohno]

There is not usually a lot of risk,but maybe with time.Im not shure origionally where i read it,but i just seen it in the homebrewers recipe guide,it says to fill them as much as possible but not all the way of course.The other writing i cant seem to remember where it was in,but it said to fill them and leave 1/2 inch headspace, im not shure if this applys if you let them sit capped loose like i do for about 10- 20 min or so,then cap them to avoid the oxygen.

 

[unionrdr]

I've done enough batches to say that the head space the bottling wand makes after filling to the top is just right. Regardless of the bottle. It's properly called volume displacement. It fills with compressed co2 during carbonation/conditioning time. Then 1-2 weeks fridge time gets it well into solution for thicker head & longer lasting carbonation. Never any oxidation. I also use o2 barrier caps on all my beers. Cheap insurance at maybe a dollar more per 144 count bag.

 

[jonmohno]

I use the o2 caps on the half of beers i bottle that go over six mo. otherwise i dont think its neccessay really.Even without o2 caps and storing them over a year i still havent run into this problem even with 2 inches of headspace and no co2 caps.In fact i dont even think i know what oxidation tastes like from a personal experience of any of my beers.I guess the loose cap method is working for me,instead of capping immediatly.
Im curious what everybody else does when they cap.Most peoples beers probably dont even last long enough to know,ha.

 

[Tamale]

Agreed, fill to top, surface displacement creates same amount of headspace every time,and loose cap, rinse and repeat ...
them clamp em tight.

 

[Smellyglove]

o2 caps does not only scavenge oxygen but it scalps the beer more than regular caps as well. I guess that's one reason Sierra Nevada stopped using them a few years ago. Yeast will only do so much for you, even if it does a lot. So limiting oxygen exposure as much as possible is the way to go either way. Yeast will only use dissolved oxygen, it doesn't jump up and eat the oxygen in the headspace. I carbonate my bottles horizontally, to get as much oxygen into the beer at the onset of bottle carbonation. If it works better than storing them upright i don't know.

 

[NGD]

o2 caps does not only scavenge oxygen but it scalps the beer more than regular caps as well. I guess that's one reason Sierra Nevada stopped using them a few years ago. Yeast will only do so much for you, even if it does a lot. So limiting oxygen exposure as much as possible is the way to go either way. Yeast will only use dissolved oxygen, it doesn't jump up and eat the oxygen in the headspace. I carbonate my bottles horizontally, to get as much oxygen into the beer at the onset of bottle carbonation. If it works better than storing them upright i don't know.

@Smellyglove could you elaborate more on the O2 caps scalping the beer? I’ve never heard this before.

 

[Smellyglove]

@Smellyglove could you elaborate more on the O2 caps scalping the beer? I’ve never heard this before.

I did some research about this a few years back, since I at that point worked at a LHBS and wanted to import them, after contacting Sierra Nevada about them, I found out that they stopped using them, so I did some more research about why they might have stopped using them.. I can't provide a specific link, but I read that they scalped the beer more than regular caps. That's all I have..

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

What is the meaning behind the terminology: "scalps the beer"? Does it mean the caps rob beer of some of its character or flavor(s)?

 

[RPh_Guy]

http://www.worldbrewingcongress.org/congress/Abstracts/Pages/040.aspx

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jafc.6b00031 (same authors)

Goog.

 

[ebbelwoi]

How about a layman's explanation of scalping?

 

[RPh_Guy]

The cap absorbs some hop aroma.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

It's easy to determine what works best for you: bottle a batch with a mix of caps and see if you can tell a difference.

 

[jrgtr42]

as I've understood it, as the yeast eat the priming sugar, they also use the oxygen in the headspace, thereby mostly negating that issue. If you force-carbonate and then bottle, like most commercial brewers, then you have to worry about it - most of their bottling machines shoot a tiny stream of water at the top of the filled bottle, creating foam that they then cap on top of, all but elimitating loose air in the bottles.

 

[RPh_Guy]

the yeast eat the priming sugar, they also use the oxygen in the headspace

Do you have a source for this?
I've heard more claims and seen info that the yeast don't consume all the oxygen -- reducing bottle headspace and/or CO2 purging bottle headspace have been shown to reduce/delay oxidation.

 

[Smellyglove]

as I've understood it, as the yeast eat the priming sugar, they also use the oxygen in the headspace, thereby mostly negating that issue. If you force-carbonate and then bottle, like most commercial brewers, then you have to worry about it - most of their bottling machines shoot a tiny stream of water at the top of the filled bottle, creating foam that they then cap on top of, all but elimitating loose air in the bottles.

It doesn't use oxygen in headspace, as I wrote a few posts above, it consumes the oxygen which is dissolved into the beer. And it does not consume all of it, since oxidized beer exists. If there is too much oxygen in both the beer and headspace, it will become oxidized.

New Belgium has done research on the topic which shows that yeast also consumes oxygen in finished carbonated beer which goes into cans/bottles. They add some yeast to some of their beers at bottling (fully carbed), to get rid some of the oxygen. My source for this is a few emails to/from Andy Mitchell at New Belgium a while ago.