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Does size matter?
I bottled my last batch of beer in both 12 and 22 ounce bottles. Upon sampling, it seemed the beer developed differently depending on the bottle size. I have done this in the past, but never seen much of a difference based on bottle size. Has anyone else encountered this or is it just my imagination? I also wondered if the amount of head room in the different sized bottles had anything to do with it.
(I also posted this message under an older topic which had not received any updates for about a month, so I thought I'd start a new topic to see if it got any responses. Sorry for the redundency.)
As for size, it really depends on who you are with.
Oh wait... you meant bottle size... sorry......
I almost exclusively used 12 oz, rarely a 22 oz. No matter which size bottle, I always stirred in 3/4 cup of corn sugar and let the bottle sit for around a week. For me, both worked equally well. I suppose if you want to use only 22 oz, you could go just a tad over 3/4 cup of sugar, perhaps 1/8 more. The standard amount always worked great for me.
As for head space, the least I ever had was 1/2", but 1" is recommended. Even when I used larger bottles I stayed with that amount.
CBUX
As for size, it really depends on who you are with.
I was thinking: "If you have to ask it does matter" but I like that I was not the only one there.
Good points about bottling. I have been kegging for the last few years and I have a six pack of growlers on order. You put the corn sugar in the bottle or in the bottling bucket? It's been a while for me.
Thx
http://www.cnybrew.com
I'm SO glad I'm not the only one who paused when reading the thread title 
Since we're talking bottles, I'd like to share my experience. My first batch, a pale ale, was bottled in a combination of 12 oz, 16 oz and 1 liter bottles. The larger bottles seemed to take longer to carbonate, especially the liter bottles. this was particularly noticeable at around 2 weeks to a month post-bottling. It's been almost 3 months since bottling and they are now all nicely carbonated.
My second batch, a robust porter, was bottled in 12 and 22 oz bottles. Again, there seemed to be a difference in carbonation but I didn't crack into this batch until a good 4 weeks after bottling and the difference didn't seem as dramatic as the pale ale. It's been about 2 months since bottling, and they are all pretty much the same now.
This most recent batch is a hefeweizen, bottled in a combination of all the bottles mentioned above. Since hefes are supposed to be enjoyed young, I started opening them at a week. The 16 oz bottle was quite nicely carbonated, but the 1 liter bottle opened a few days later was still fairly flat.
In all cases I used a bottle filler so the head space is the same. I'm just going to let the larger bottles condition longer before opening them.
There is a theory floating around out there that larger bottles will age better than smaller bottles. This is mainly due to the fact that the larger bottles have a better beer to oxygen ratio (more beer to about the same amount of oxygen in a larger bottle), so you get less oxidation in the beer over time.
I have never compared the time it takes for a 12 oz bottle to carbonate vs a 22 oz, as I pretty much only use my 12 oz bottles for testers, so I drink these in the first couple of weeks w/out trying my 22 oz bottles. But, this is an interesting observation.
LMAO! you guys are a riot.
Never thought about it, but I have noticed the 22s take around a week longer to get good carb.
My 12's are ready in about a week.
Hadn't really thought about it.
I have had the same experience as you guys. I bottle a casr of 12 oz bottles and the rest in 22 oz. I have the 12 oz mainly for tester bottles and I have noticed that once the 12 oz are nice and carbonated and i decide to crack a 22, the 22 still need a week or so because they are close to flat.
I just had an odd experience with bottle sizes. My Irish Ale, which had numerous, numerous mistakes, definitely had a noticable off-flavor after 3 weeks in bottles. I have been a bit reluctant to drink them because the bad flavors were so strong.
However, last night I opened one of the bottles which just happened to be a 22 oz bottle (I split the batch into two bottle types) and found the beer to be quite fantastic. It was full-bodied, good malt flavor, good carbonation, and extremely well-balanced. The only word I can find to describe it is that it was very 'soft' in its flavor, but didn't lack flavor.
Anyhow, tonight I opened up one of the 12 oz bottles, and although the flavor of that has improved as well, it is noticeably different than the 22 oz bottle.
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