partially filled bottle - OK?

[krelin]

Recommendation: put your whole batch in a large plastic bag (or bags)

I'm away on business and now you've got my worrying about the batch conditioning in my garage (first batch). That said, I filled to the top on every bottle (which leaves just a tiny bit of headroom when the wand is removed), which is I think the right thing?

 

[eddie]

Just bottled a batch of American Wheat. The last bottle is only ~2/3 filled. Is it OK to cap and carb it? Or should I just dump it?

Don't dump it; drink it.

 

[Heckle]

I would use it for a marinade or sauce.

 

[patd]

I always seem to end up with one 2/3 full bottle. I usually cap it, then open it after a week to see how things are going.

 

[throwbookatface]

Recommendation: put your whole batch in a large plastic bag (or bags)

I'm away on business and now you've got my worrying about the batch conditioning in my garage (first batch). That said, I filled to the top on every bottle (which leaves just a tiny bit of headroom when the wand is removed), which is I think the right thing?

Good call - I put them in trash bags lining several more boxes. I moved them to a cooler spot where it hopefully doesn't exceed 70 degrees. I'm pretty sure I used the correct amount of priming sugar (in this case, honey) which I dissolved into the beer before bottling. If anything, I may have used slightly less, so maybe I had a bad bottle. Either way< I was nervous handling those bottles!

I may have left more room than you - the bigger Grolsch bottles threw me off, maybe left about an inch, but that's what even 12 oz longnecks seem to leave as airspace. Well, we'll just hope for the best.

 

[ChshreCat]

I'm in the same boat as Revvy on this subject. Haven't had it happen myself mainly because when I get the last full bottle and see less than a bottle left in the bucket, I stop. But, I've seen people post on here about half-filled bottles exploding after a few weeks.

Either using the beer for cooking on bottling day or capping it and opening it really early as a tester seems like good plans to me. Not sure if I'd top up with water because that would alter the beer and wouldn't give a good example of how the rest of the batch would be, but that'd just be m personal preference.

 

[JLem]

To jump back into this thread...I capped and conditioned the not-quite-full bottle for the past 2 weeks along with the rest of the (full) bottles. I put it in the fridge last night and will give it a try in a couple of days.

 

[Pommy]

So lots of ideas here, liked the one of using the left overs for a marinade or something, would finish off a long brewing day nicely. In the past I have just filled up with water, I know I shouldnt but Ive just thought that it would taste watered down (obviously) and drank it after a couple of weeks. Also how good of an indication of the final beer is the half bottle on bottling day? If the primary and/or secondary have been long enough I would expect it to just be a flat version of the final product and a good indication of what to expect in 3-4 weeks time?

 

[throwbookatface]

I just bottled a batch of blonde ale this weekend. The last bottle was sludgy and 3/4 full. I'll let you guys know how it goes - I may have to filter this one through a coffee filter above the glass, as I couldn't even see through the bottom of the bottle below the label!

 

[ChshreCat]

It should settle out. You'll just have a thick layer in the bottom of the bottle.

 

[tvtoms]

Maybe keep a couple of clean plastic bottles around. You can at least squeeze them to see if they're hardened up before you chill them.

On my very first batch, I'd filled all the available bottles and had like 20 ounces of beer left! So I found an old mason-style jar with a plastic lid and filled it up and stuck some saran wrap over it and screwed on the lid. It didnt carb at all, but I DID feel like grandpa walton sipping on the baldwin sisters' secret recipe. So it was worth it, lol.

 

[ChshreCat]

Yeah, canning jars are designed to hold a vacuum, not pressure.

 

[Justibone]

I bottled Monday night, and filled all my 12 ozers pretty easily. The next cleaned/sanitized bottles I had on hand were 22 oz bombers, and the last bomber was only about 3/4ths full... so I topped off with Coors Light.

I SWEAR, the CL was left over from a party... brewmeister's honor!

Anyways, I marked it and I'm really curious to see what it tastes like in a couple of weeks. The beer bottled is a brown sugar stout, so adding some BMC lager to it is a bit crazy...

My first instinct was to add some liquor, but SWMBO objected. Apparently ~4oz of liquor in 18 oz of beer offended her sensibilities... and adding water offended *my* sensibilities. I'll post here when I open it, and tell y'all how it turned out.

 

[JLem]

... and adding water offended *my* sensibilities.

yet you went ahead and did it anyways :fro:

 

[Pommy]

Just make sure to let it settle then chill it down to get the sediment nice and tight and it will be just like any bottle conditioned beer but just with a lot of sediment left behind.

 

[Justibone]

yet you went ahead and did it anyways :fro:

I just *knew* I was gonna catch some flak for that...

 

[throwbookatface]

I just bottled a batch of blonde ale this weekend. The last bottle was sludgy and 3/4 full. I'll let you guys know how it goes - I may have to filter this one through a coffee filter above the glass, as I couldn't even see through the bottom of the bottle below the label!

UPDATE: the 3/4 full bottle with tons of sediment came out fine. Strangely, some of the yeast/trub collected right underneath the bottlecap, forming a solid plug that stayed compacted, while more sediment stayed at the bottom. It was a LOT of sediment but I must be getting better at brewing, because it didn't stir up easily and the glass poured really clear. A little low on carbonation (beer was 6 days bottled), but no gushing, and still tasted delicious! Can't wait for the rest to settle in!

 

[Justibone]

I tasted the 22 oz. bottle of brown sugar stout that I filled up the last 4 oz. with Coors Light last night. Couldn't taste the difference at all. The beer was delicious, a little undercarbed and definitely green -- but it's only been in the bottle 1 week and it was a bomber. (I think bombers take a little longer to carb up than smaller bottles, though I haven't tested that yet.)

So a bit of BMC didn't ruin the beer completely.