Bottling & Priming- C02 Volume vs bottle pressure limits

[GoHokiesGo]

Happy New year to everyone!

I just bottled my second brew last night, and I ended up second guessing a number of things. My beer was a Belgian Tripel extract kit, which calls for a CO2 volume of 3.3 since this style typically has a higher carbonation than average. The Northern Brewer priming calculator said to use roughly 6.8 oz of corn sugar for an even 5-gallon batch, so I prepared that much with a pint of water.

While waiting for the boiled priming solution to cool, I started reading homebrew threads with very mixed info about bottle bombs from higher carbonation pressures over 3.0 and higher; of course, I grew worried and did some math, so I poured off a measured amount of my priming solution to bring it down to around ~2.7 volumes equivalent to be on the safer side. I bottled and capped everything as usual into regular old brown homebrew bottles.

Question - was that a smart move to reduce the priming sugar to be around 2.7 volumes to avoid bottle bombs, or did I over-react and would have likely been fine at the higher pressures in standard home brew bottles? Do you need to upgrade to belgian style bottles to handle higher pressures?

TL;DR - is it safe to go up to 3.3+ CO2 vols or higher in standard homebrew brown bottles, or do you need to switch to belgian/champagne bottles when you start to exceed 3 CO2 vols?

 

[cladinshadows]

Conventional wisdom is that standard homebrew bottles (like new, unlabeled ones you'd buy at your LHBS) are rated for a maximum of 3 volumes. This is not something you want to gamble with, so I would have done the same thing you did and reduce my priming sugar. Way better to have a Tripel carbed a little low for the style than it is to have no Tripel at all because the bottle blew up and you're picking glass shards out of your face.

 

[ncbrewer]

or did I over-react and would have likely been fine at the higher pressures in standard home brew bottles?

To me, "likely" isn't good enough. Since I've never seen a pressure rating on the bottles, I'm conservative and don't go over about 2.8 volumes. Hefewiezen is supposed to be carb'd high, but I prime it to 2.8 and like the resulting beer very much. So I agree with your decision.

 

[ncbrewer]

Another consideration - As far as I can tell, the priming calculators are based on the volume being primed. (Someone please tell me if I'm wrong about this.) Five gallons in the fermenter doesn't give you five gallons in the bottling bucket. There are losses from trub and samples, and addition of priming water to consider.

 

[motosapiens]

i've been bottling beer for 30 years. My standard with hefeweizens is 1 full cup of priming sugar for 5 gallons, but i've done many pale ales and stouts that way too before dropping down to 3/4 cup recently. I use all kinds of bottles, 12 oz, half liter german ones, 22 ozers, 25 oz flippy lemon soda bottles. I have mexican coke bottles, and some other screwball bottles too that I have colleged over the years. I have had precisely zero bottle failures. it's not something i worry about. the only exploding bottles I've ever even heard of were when my dad miscalculated and bottled too early when he was in college (relying on the the last part of fermenting the original wort instead of letting it ferment out and adding a controlled amount of bottling sugar).

I think 6.8 oz by weight is only very slightly over 1 cup, but maybe my math is wrong.

I also think that your beer won't suffer at all if you carbonate it every so slightly less. Even in the same exact style there is much variation in carbonation (and other characteristics).

If you are concerned, just put those cases of beer in a large plastic garbage bag to condition, just to safeguard yourself against a mess. I think after conditioning, when you cool the beer down again, you should be pretty safe. That's what I did when I ran out of bottles, and against all advice and good judgement used a couple growlers to bottle condition. lined a box with plastic bag, put bottles in box, slept fine. No problems either, but I would certainly continue to only use a growler for bottle-conditioning with appropriate precautions. If a bottle blows up, it is no big deal in a plastic bag. It's a pretty big deal if it blows up in the pantry unprotected.

 

[BrewingBrian001]

I feel you man on being percautious with the carbonating. Two brews ago I brewed an English Brown Ale, which I don't think is normally heavily carbonated. The recipe I had that came with the ingredient kit called out for dissolving 3.5 oz. of priming sugar in 2 cups of boiling water. After brewing, primary and secondary losses with trub (and starting with 4 gall instead of 5) I ended up with 3.5 gallons instead of 5. I probably would have been okay but I added 2.5 oz instead of 3.5 to be on the safe side. Turned out the beer did not carbonate well, but was drinkable. Exploding bottles are scary!

 

[kh54s10]

I have seen 4.0 as the limit and a little more often 3.0. I am sure that I have primed to 3.0 several times without problem, not remembering the limit. I guess it is more prudent to stay on the safe side...

 

[GoHokiesGo]

Thanks for the reassurance folks! Being an engineer I wish I had numbers to calculate, but I'd rather stick on the conservative side if there aren't any steadfast rules. My wife might be a bit upset if bottles exploded in the bathroom of our brand new house, and rightfully so! (I claimed the basement bathroom as my brewing closet)

Just to be clear- I had a solid 5 gallons in my bottling bucket; my fermenting bucket was closer to 5.5+ since I topped off a little extra to hit the target OG at the start. So far so good, although its only been a week so far in bottles.

 

[Aristotelian]

The downside risk of bottle bombs is way, way, way worse than the upside benefit of 3+ volumes. I would not do it with standard bottles. I am sure your 2.7 vol beer will be fine.

You might start collecting some Belgian bottles with thicker glass to experiment with in small batches but make sure they are in a safe waterproof location like a plastic tub.

 

[GoHokiesGo]

Ironically, I actually made a number of trips to Belgium 1-2 years ago and would usually bring back 6-10 beers every time. Of course, it was before I started homebrewing, so I never saved those bottles - go figure! Just a few more bottles of Westvleteren left, but those are closer to standard brown bottles than the heavier belgian bottles

I did start doing all of my fermenting and bottling in the spare bathroom in my basement as a precaution, so the buckets and bottles sit in the tub or bathroom floor while the yeast is doing its magic.