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Another headspace question
I've been bottling into grolsch pints w/ tremendous success in carbonation. Dilemma is I am getting very sick of drinking grolsch! I've been brewing so much and they have mainly been big beers and need long conditioning times, hence I have probably 200-250 bottles in slow circulation. My boss "donated" to me a handful of olive oil bottles w/ tight flip tops he brought back from Italy. I want to try just one (in case they are not strong enough I don't want to lose too much). They seem to be about a litre or so, is there any way to calculate headspace or is it pretty much just wing it. I have a few more odd size flip tops and would love to use them if I can.
I use the regular bottles, grolsch, and 1 liter fliptops and I leave the same amount of headspace in all of them with good results, that is being the amount of headspace left when I pull my bottling wand out.
GOODBREWING........
i have used bottle sizes from 16 oz to 1/2 gallon. outside the half gallon, leaving one to two inches of headspace has always been sufficient. i try for an inch and a half.
on the half gallon, i don't know what works yet. only used it once and the 2 inches wasn't enough, it was very lightly carbonated. it was a scottish export ale so i didnt sweat it.
Yeah I started bottling in half gal growlers, but lost one in a bomb, and it sucks to lose 1/10 your batch before you even get a chance to taste it. If I could be guaranteed no explosions I would do 4 out of 5 gal that way. I really got to build that keg system...
dartgod wrote:
I use the regular bottles, grolsch, and 1 liter fliptops and I leave the same amount of headspace in all of them with good results, that is being the amount of headspace left when I pull my bottling wand out.
GOODBREWING........
Good to know...
oh yeah, you can't carbonate beer in growlers. growlers are made for transporting and storing already carbonated beer in. if you put primed beer in a growler and let it carbonate, you will likely get a bomb. i am surprised you only got one exploding out of ten. was the beer lightly carbonated?
you can get 1/2 gallon flip-tops (grolsch style), they are just a little pricey. if you can find a store that carries them and not have to pay shipping and handling, they are well worth it.
especially for those beers that need months of conditioning, that way you can bottle up two gallons in 1/2 gallon bottles and the rest in smaller sizes for taste profiling but still garauntee yourself that when it is ready, you will have two gallons waiting for your enjoyment. i find it easier to resist the temptation to taste test when all i have left are 1/2 gallon jugs of my precious brew.
krausenator wrote:
i find it easier to resist the temptation to taste test when all i have left are 1/2 gallon jugs of my precious brew.
What!?!? I'm the only one that taste tests by the gallon? 
i tried that on the missus, she said "if you do that you are sleeping on the couch".
i guess she is offended by my homebrew beer farts.
The whole head space thing has left a lingering doubt in my mind. My first and last set of bottle conditioned beer has me totally mystified. Some are very well carbonated and have a nice pop when I flip the top open, some are completely flat and have to be dumped out, and still others pop like champagne. The later taste fine, but I spill some. I've wasted 4 or more pounders dumping them out, and its good beer so I'm more than a little disappointed in having to dump them. I'm also nervous every time I give one to some one to try because I don't want it to be a flat one.
I can't imagine this inconsistency is normal, and the only variable I can think of is head space, but the difference at the time seemed negligible, some I pulled out after it over flowed a bit, others, just as it reached the top, and some maybe a second sooner than that.
Is there anything else I should know. I'd rather keg, but at the same time, I like to take a few bottles over to my friends houses for them to try. Maybe I should just keg and fill growlers...
This is always a subject of lengthy discussion.
How are you priming? Just be sure you are getting a good mix of priming sugar in your bottling bucket, and that all your bottles are clean and sanitary.
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