Different botles different carbonation

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kevokie

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I'm not sure this has been asked before, but here goes. Do different types of bottles lead to different levels of carbonation? My initial reaction to this question is a simple 'no'. However...I recently bottled an American brown ale in different Boyle types. Some are SN bottles, some are Sam Adams bottles. I also had a 6 pack of Bridgeport bottles. When I got to these bridgeport bottles, I noticed, "gushers". A few seconds after the top was popped, they gushed and foamed and such. None of te other bottles did this. All have been cleaned the same, conditioned the same, stuck in the fridge the same. Just wondering if anyone has noticed a difference from bottle to bottle.

P.S. ugh typos in title...
 
^This. When the heated water with the dissolved priming sugar is added, the SG doesn't match that of the beer and can separate in the carboy without proper mixing. Did other bottles seem undercarbonated?

I have a pretty wide variety of bottle styles as well, and the gushers I've encountered haven't seemed to favor one type or another.
 
I firmly believe that the not mixing issuse is a myth. The mere racking is enough to integrate the two fluids just fine.

You're talking 2 little teeny cups of liquid being overwhelmed by 5 gallons of liquid of pretty much the same density- It's impossible for it not to be mixed up

We're not talking oil and water, we're talking sugar water and alcoholic sugar water....it's not much difference.

Some beers can take 6-8 weeks or more to fully pop and the fact that a few bottles may be carbed only means that those were a little warmer than the rest of them, NOT that some got more sugar than others.

What folks seem to forget is that when you stick the beer in the bottles, you are sticking them into separate little fermenters.

Each one is it's own little microcosm, a tiny difference in temps between bottles in storage can affect the yeasties, speed them up or slow them down. Like if you store them in a closet against a warm wall, the beers closest to the heat source may be a tad warmer than those further way, so thy may carb/condition at slightly different rates. I usually store a batch in 2 seperate locations in my loft 1 case in my bedroom which is a little warmer, and the other in the closet in the lving room, which being in a larger space is a tad cooler, at least according to the thermostat next to that closet. It can be 5-10 degrees warmer in my bedroom. So I usually start with that case at three weeks. Giving the other half a little more time.

You can split a batch in half put them in 2 identical carboys, and pitch equal amounts of yeast from the same starter...and have them act completely differently...for some reason on a subatomic level...think about it...yeasties are small...1 degree difference in temp to us, could be a 50 degree difference to them...one fermenter can be a couple degrees warmer because it's closer to a vent all the way across the room and the yeasties take off...

Someone, Grinder I think posted a pic once of 2 carboys touching each other, and one one of the carboys the krausen had formed only on the side that touched the other carboy...probably reacting to the heat of the first fermentation....but it was like symbiotic or something...

With living micro-organisms there is always a wildcard factor in play. Two complete fermentations (and bottle conditioning is just another fermentation) can behave differently due to even the slightest change in enviorment, especially temps.

I usually store a batch in 2 seperate locations in my loft 1 case in my bedroom which is a little warmer, and the other in the closet in the lving room, which being in a larger space is a tad cooler, at least according to the thermostat next to that closet. It can be 5-10 degrees warmer in my bedroom. So I usually start with that case at three weeks. Giving the other half a little more time.

Bottom line, it's not that the sugar's not mixed, it's just that they all haven't come up to full carb yet....Three weeks is not the magic number for finality, it's the minimum time it takes....

I've bottled THOUSANDS of gallons of beer, I've never mixed, and I've NEVER not have every single bottle in a batch not be carbed eventually.

One of these days I'm going to make a perfectly clear bottling bucket, color my 2 cups priming solution with food coloring, point 3 different cameras at it from three different angles, rack my beer onto it, so folks can see the color dissipate into the beer, and finally put this nonsense to bed.....

How long has the beer been in bottles? More than likely they're at the cusp of carbing and in another week they'd all even out and be fine.
 
Oh and in answer to your original question, the only thing about bottles that could affect carbonation is bottle size.....22's and pints usually take a week or so longer that 12 ounces.

A larger volume sized bottle usually needs more time to carb AND condition. I have some pints, 22 oz bombers and other sizes that I often use, but since I enter contests I usually also do a sixer or two of standard 12 ouncers for entering. And inevitably the 12 ouncers are done at least a week faster than the larger bottles....some times two weeks ahead of time...

Also the rule of thumb is 3 weeks at 70 degrees for a normal grav 12 ounce bottle....to carb and condition....It takes longer for the yeasties to convert the larger volume in the bigger bottles to enough co2 in the headspace to be reabsorbed back into the solution...A ration I don't know how much...

Big Kahuna gives a good explanation here...
Simple. It's the ration of contact area just like in a keg. The c02 will need to pressurize the head space (Which takes LESS TIME) in a bigger bottle (More Yeast and sugar, roughly the same head space) but then it has to force that c02 into solution through the same contact area...thus it takes longer.
 
I agree in principle, but I had a batch of wit this summer that had a similar problem. One gusher, could be chalked up to sanitation, but only a few of the bottles were fully carbed at 8 weeks at 68 degrees. Most of them still are not carbed six months later. I have to blame this on the sugar not being evenly distributed in the beer. And yes, I racked on top of the sugar solution with no mixing. No worries I'm getting kegs soon.
 
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