How much does headspace effect carbonation levels?

[aprichman]

Does anyone know how much headspace in the bottle will effect carbonation levels?

A few batches ago I bottled 24 beers that had a headspace ranging from 0.5" - 1". Most of the batch was ~0.75" but 3 of them are closer to 0.5".

Sense then I have changed my bottling methods to use a longer piece of tubing that hits the bottom of the bottle. This batch I measured all of my bottles headspace and found a range from 1" - 2.125". The average was 1.5" with 0.25" standard deviation.

I have read that having too small of a headspace will result in a lack of carbonation. Does anyone know how much is "too small". I'm also curious how this works - CO2 is going to be produced as a result of fermentation so why would headspace effect these levels?

Cheers

 

[ggriffi]

Does anyone know how much headspace in the bottle will effect carbonation levels?

A few batches ago I bottled 24 beers that had a headspace ranging from 0.5" - 1". Most of the batch was ~0.75" but 3 of them are closer to 0.5".

Sense then I have changed my bottling methods to use a longer piece of tubing that hits the bottom of the bottle. This batch I measured all of my bottles headspace and found a range from 1" - 2.125". The average was 1.5" with 0.25" standard deviation.

I have read that having too small of a headspace will result in a lack of carbonation. Does anyone know how much is "too small". I'm also curious how this works - CO2 is going to be produced as a result of fermentation so why would headspace effect these levels?

Cheers

Do you have one of these? They take all of the thinking out of it. When the bottle is full just pull the bottle away.

="www.midwestsupplies.com/plastic-spring-tip-bottle-filler.html

 

[aprichman]

Do you have one of these? They take all of the thinking out of it. When the bottle is full just pull the bottle away.

="www.midwestsupplies.com/plastic-spring-tip-bottle-filler.html

Nope, I ended up with one of these:

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/fermenter-s-favoritestm-plastic-bottle-filler.html

Which is 100% junk. The filler leaked constantly and a lot of times it didn't stop when you removed it from the bottom of the bottle.

The first time I bottled I used the spigot on my bottling bucket. The next few times I used a small piece of vinyl tubing that didn't reach all the way down to the bottom of the bottle. It wasn't ideal but I didn't have any extra vinyl tubing for a few batches and it worked alright.

Now I just use a long piece of vinyl tubing attached to the spigot. It creates ~1.5" headspace when I remove the tubing from the bottle. I just have to keep my hand on the spigot to control the flow.

 

[MaxStout]

Nope, I ended up with one of these:

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/fermenter-s-favoritestm-plastic-bottle-filler.html

Which is 100% junk. The filler leaked constantly and a lot of times it didn't stop when you removed it from the bottom of the bottle.

I had that one too. Tip was gravity-operated--it would drip like crazy. I bottled over the open door of my dishwasher, and at the end of a bottling session there would be almost a bottle's worth of beer puddled in the door. I found a similar filler tube with a spring-loaded tip. Less dripping, would only lose a couple ounces after bottling 5 gallons.

\In before the "switch to kegging" crowd chimes in.

 

[ggriffi]

Mine doesn't drip much at all, but sometimes if I don't pay attention I might have an overflow on a bottle or two. :cross: