No Oxygen - How to bottle properly. Ultra sonic bottling!

[Miraculix]

Cheers fellow homebrewers,

I think I have settled with the optimum now (at least home brewer's optimum).

We all know that we do not want any oxygen in the bottle of beer that we have just filled and capped. There will be some oxygen in the liquid but when bottle priming, the yeast will take care of that in a matter of minutes. That is convenient.

But what about the air in the headspace? That oxygen is not accessible to the yeast and will slowly creep into the beer, even when the yeast has gone dormant because the priming sugar is fully eaten.

This is what lowers shelf live big time and this is what turns your (anyway not nice tasting because way too much hops in it!!) Neipa dark and murky... Ok, to be fair, it was murky to begin with. But it had those hop flavours that are gone now.... it is the oxygen in the headspace my friend! Bad bad oxygen. How dare he?

How to solve this? Minimise headspace. But still, minimum is eventualy still something and also, it is a bit risky. Too little and the bottle might crack due to liquid expansion during temperature changes. Too much and you will have the dreaded detectable oxidation.....

I asked China for help, and they delivered! Really, they did. Amazon. An ultra sonic cleaning bath. Like 25 Euros, wasn't even the cheapest one available.

The steps:

1. Bottle the beer with a bottling wand and leave about 1 cm headspace.

2. Place the filled bottle open in the ultra sonic cleaning bath for about five to ten seconds.

3. Wait for the foam to reach the top (it is not explosive, it takes time) and cap directly on the foam!

No air in the headspace, just CO2 foam equals zero oxygen in the headspace. It works really well, I have just bottled one batch with this technique.

One little caveat, you still want the headspace to be quite small as it takes otherwise ages for enough foam to develop to fill the whole headspace. About 1 cm head space is totally fine.

I hope that this will extend all your yummy beer´s shelf lifes!

Cheers

M

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Gotta go fast - Sonic.

 

[Miraculix]

@Ninoid

This should solve your issue!

 

[Ninoid]

@Ninoid

This should solve your issue!

I've never heard of this. It could be a long-term solution. For now, I've followed your advice and left half a centimeter of headspace in the bottles and it really works. However, according to the calculation of liquid expansion, I could have problems with the pressure in the bottles at larger temperature differences, so 1 cm is optimal and that's how much headspace I'll leave in the bottles in the future.

 

[Ninoid]

I'm thinking, instead of this ultrasonic device, it would be enough to just close the bottle with your finger thumb and shake it and cap it immediately. That would also create foam that would fill the headspace in the bottles.

 

[Miraculix]

I'm thinking, instead of this ultrasonic device, it would be enough to just close the bottle with your finger thumb and shake it and cap it immediately. That would also create foam that would fill the headspace in the bottles.

Yes, but that foam would include air because you agitated the liquid with the air from the head space. That's actually what you don't want. You want the bubbles to form just because of the released co2 from solution!

 

[Miraculix]

And you are living in a warmer climate so I would be worried a bit more about cracking bottles than I'm doing here in Germany. I agree on that. I think this ultra sonic foaming device aka glasses cleaner is pretty much the perfect solution.

 

[corncob]

This is a great idea. I have been doing the same thing, functionally, by adding dry sugar to prime the bottles and waiting for the foam from sudden nucleation to rise. It definitely works, but this method has got to be way more forgiving.

Excellent work!

 

[Ninoid]

This is a great idea. I have been doing the same thing, functionally, by adding dry sugar to prime the bottles and waiting for the foam from sudden nucleation to rise. It definitely works, but this method has got to be way more forgiving.

Excellent work!

I have that idea too.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/rapid-loss-of-hop-aroma-again.735791/post-10454019

 

[Miraculix]

This is a great idea. I have been doing the same thing, functionally, by adding dry sugar to prime the bottles and waiting for the foam from sudden nucleation to rise. It definitely works, but this method has got to be way more forgiving.

Excellent work!

Never thought of that. I like to fill in the sugar in advance into all of my bottles, that's probably why I never thought of that. Also a good idea!

 

[corncob]

There's a thread on here where I described accidentally doing it for the first time. It's a little hit or miss--the beer needs a tiny bit of carbonation for it to work, and it can be shockingly fast or painfully slow. But it works.

 

[Miraculix]

There's a thread on here where I described accidentally doing it for the first time. It's a little hit or miss--the beer needs a tiny bit of carbonation for it to work, and it can be shockingly fast or painfully slow. But it works.

Yep, Just found it. With the ultra sonic method this seems to be more reliable.

 

[MaxStout]

Could we do a "poor man's" version, holding the bottle upright and gently tapping the bottom onto a countertop a few times?

 

[shoengine]

I find that if my fill my bottles with enough pressure I usually get foam gently rising and then going over the top and then I cap on that.

 

[Miraculix]

I find that if my fill my bottles with enough pressure I usually get foam gently rising and then going over the top and then I cap on that.

When your beer is pre-carbed, that is the way! If you are only relying on bottle carbing, the foam needs to be forced.

 

[mac_1103]

Do you think a deeper sonic bath could make the beer foam faster or more consistently/reliably? I saw some that look to be about 4" deep.

 

[Miraculix]

Do you think a deeper sonic bath could make the beer foam faster or more consistently/reliably? I saw some that look to be about 4" deep.

Sure, but those bigger sonic cleaner baths are quite expensive. I wanted something below 30 Euros and it only takes about 3-5 seconds in the bath with about 1 cm of hedaspace in the bottle. Fine with me.

 

[Ninoid]

I see that on the Chinese "everything and anything" internet platform there is something for under 10 euros. It is advertised as an ultrasonic glasses cleaner.

 

[Miraculix]

I see that on the Chinese "everything and anything" internet platform there is something for under 10 euros. It is advertised as an ultrasonic glasses cleaner.

have a look if the bath is wide enough for the bottles.

 

[DuncB]

I would add some ascorbic acid with my priming sugar as an antioxidant.
The foam generated will still get some oxygen in it because the oxygen in the air will diffuse across the bubble membrane with the CO2 inside and vice versa. It will be less than with a non cap on foam situation though.

The US bath is also great for putting a " nitro type " head on your stouts, just pour into pint glass near to top and then quick dip in the US bath and job done.

 

[Ninoid]

have a look if the bath is wide enough for the bottles.

Just a little wider than the bottom of a half-liter bottle. But maybe you shouldn't be so frugal with money. 25 euros isn't much.

 

[Ninoid]

I would add some ascorbic acid with my priming sugar as an antioxidant.
The foam generated will still get some oxygen in it because the oxygen in the air will diffuse across the bubble membrane with the CO2 inside and vice versa. It will be less than with a non cap on foam situation though.

The US bath is also great for putting a " nitro type " head on your stouts, just pour into pint glass near to top and then quick dip in the US bath and job done.

What is US bath? Can it produce the taste and foam of Guinness beer?
Doesn't ascorbic acid enhance the citrus flavor of beer? It's just enhanced citric acid.

 

[mac_1103]

What is US bath?

I assume he's just abbreviating Ultra-Sonic.

 

[Ninoid]

I assume he's just abbreviating Ultra-Sonic.

You're probably right. I thought it was some kind of American bath.

 

[DuncB]

What is US bath? Can it produce the taste and foam of Guinness beer?
Doesn't ascorbic acid enhance the citrus flavor of beer? It's just enhanced citric acid.

UltraSonic bath.

Ascorbic acid is often known as Vitamin C.

Citric acid is found in citrus fruits but is not ascorbic acid.

Ascorbic acid is used in a very small dose.

Regarding can it produce the taste and foam of Guinness beer, well you do need to start with Guinness!

 

[Miraculix]

Could we do a "poor man's" version, holding the bottle upright and gently tapping the bottom onto a countertop a few times?

If this works it should be fine. But my guess is that the carbonation that remains after bottling from the unpressurized fermenter is not sufficient.

 

[Jeroen79]

What makes the foam become CO2?, i would think its just beer and oxygen, or do you first let it re-ferment and then open it again?

 

[mac_1103]

What makes the foam become CO2?

There is CO2 in the beer at the end of fermentation. How much depends on the temperature. That's what comes out of solution to form foam when you sonicate. And there should not be any oxygen in the beer if the fermenter was sealed.

 

[Jeroen79]

You ferment under pressure then?, otherwise i would think the co2 in the beer would be minimal as it all escapes.

 

[shoengine]

What makes the foam become CO2?, i would think its just beer and oxygen, or do you first let it re-ferment and then open it again?

Foam is caused by CO2 leaving solution by cavitation. It's why when you pour beer from height into the bottom of the glass and you get a bunch of foam the beer will taste flat. If that was oxygen and beer and the CO2 was still in solution it would be as carbonated as it was originally.