My second batch - Each bottle was different!

[BeerGrrrl]

So my second batch of beer went much better than the first. I brewed a saison again because I had messed up so many factors on the first that I wanted to taste it done right. And some (!) were pretty delicious!

I had various types of bottles. I had the little flip top grolsh bottles, regular bottles that I capped, and a couple of growlers. And the beer came out differently in each one, which makes a little sense to me. Some were explosive with foam (which happends to almost all my bottles in the first batch) yet, some were perfectly fine. Two capped bottles were even different colors.

So....infection? Uneven distribution of priming sugar?

The beer in the growlers was too flat and thus, not tasty. Is it not reccomended to bottle them in there? I assumed it was okay because it had a large flip top, what should be the difference? I did it to as not have to use so many bottles.

I think after my third batch, a Scotch Ale, I am going to go back and start with the basics, a nice pale ale, to work out my difficulties!

 

[Jakemo]

Something that threw me off on my first couple batches was that the size of the bottle has an affect on how quickly the beer carbonates and conditions.

Smaller bottles take less time, larger bottles take longer. That would explain why the growlers were nearly flat, and I'm guessing it was the smaller bottles that had the more explosive foam, correct? Also, how much priming sugar do you use for a 5 gallon batch? I think 3/4 cup of dextrose is fairly standard for a good, normal level of carbonation suitable for most styles.

It's possible that you had an uneven distribution of priming sugar... how do you prime? Do you put your priming sugar solution in the bottom of your bottling bucket then rack onto that? There are a lot of threads on this forum that have come to the conclusion of that particular method being extremely effective.

Hoorah for making a saison for your first two batches! I'm only a couple batches ahead of you, but I'm still intimidated by Belgian styles And there's nothing wrong with wanting to focus on the basics. That's how, hopefully, both of us will come to make fantastic beers consistently!

 

[TheSeether]

Different sized containers absolutely carbonate and condition on different schedules.

That being said, my experience is this schedule also affects the overall nature of the conditioning. That is to say, a beer conditioned in a 12oz bottle will never come out identical in flavor/body/etc as the same beer conditioned in a 22oz bottle regardless of how much longer you hold the 22oz bottle or any other variation of opening them. Granted the differences are minimal but they do exist, IME.

 

[ThePearsonFam]

Did you batch prime (dissolve sugar and add to your bottling bucket) or individually prime each bottle (with a given quantity of sugar)?

Could it have been an infection, sure... if they were explosive... did they taste off/bad or just different?

Growlers often take longer (for me, ~a week longer) to carb up than bottles. Sizes/shapes/styles of bottles definitely impact the taste of the beer.

That being said, the taste from package to package shouldn't be HUGE, it should be a more subtle difference from one to th next.

 

[buckeye2011]

How often have you been drinking it? I've noticed with my first extract batch that the beer has changed dramatically (for the better) over the first few weeks after it was properly carbed. It went from being satisfactory and something I was willing to share with friends, to something I want to keep for my self!

I'm in the same shoes as you as far as mixing different bottle sizes in a batch. I figure that way I can start with the 12oz bottles and if its not quite ready I'm not committed to drinking a 22oz bottle of mediocre beer. So far, all of my bombers and a growler have been perfectly carbed in 4 weeks. I say, keep your system and stick to the 12oz bottles first and save the bigger ones for when the beer has aged a bit longer.

 

[ThePearsonFam]

oh, something else... I have not verified this but I read it elsewhere in the forums;

The growlers are not able to handle the same pressures that standard bottles can. Be careful when bottling and naturally carbonating in them. Do the research to determine the max pressure so you don't end up with a bomb.