So Sunday I got to finally bottle my dry hopped, with my home grown Mt.Hood hops, Bavarian Wheat and i'd have to say for my first time brewing, I think its going to be awesome! Came out very clear for just letting it clear a bit in the fermenter and not in an extra carboy. Originally was going to prime each bottle with dry corn sugar, as thats how my father used to do it when I was young and didn't know about making the solution, but after research decided to go with making a bottling bucket and doing the sugar solution. Was too afraid of bottle bombs and or just uneven carbonation. Before I get to my mistake, which in the end I don't think is a problem much, let me start by saying that for my 5 gallons I calculated that I needed 5.85oz of sugar but didn't think about the fact that I only had 5oz of sugar. That is what saved things I think. So as for the bottling bucket I knew I needed one that holds more than 5 gallons and thought this bucket had head space. Turns out it is exactly 5 gallons and i don't realize this until my father pointed out we were getting close to the top. At that point I was mad because the sugar was already under about 4 gallons of my wonderful beer. Panic attack kinda thinking that it would all blow. Well not much I could do at that point except......It came to me, I was 0.85 short from my calculations and that was the low amount. The calculator said i could go higher if I wanted but for my first time figured id play it safe. So that being said and a lot learned on bottling day I can say that next time I should hopefully be fully prepared and expect some mishaps. For my first time I think I did extremely well and can only tell in 2 weeks when i taste her. Not that I didn't sample it already at bottling. So tasty! But yeah thats about it. Wanted to let everyone know how it went and post this picture of my one flip top bottle I have and going to age a bit longer than the others...Just for me Also including a picture of my bottling bucket after i was all done.
Congrats. Looks like you should fill up your bottles quite a bit more. You want to eliminate as much oxygen as possible from each bottle - leave very little to no head space, or your beer will likely suffer from oxidation. Keep us posted on the outcome. Cheers!
Before you bottle another beer, I would check that you are using the priming sugar calculator correctly, 5.85oz of sugar for a 5 gallon batch seems like a potential recipe for disaster. congrats on your first brew
Congrats on the first batch. Just to comment on what's above ^^^. This bottle will be a whoopsie. drink it first. You wouldn't want to give that swing-top to anyone else anyway. You wouldn't get it back. The above beer will carb up a little more than a bottle properly filled. When filling, fill to the tippy top and then remove the bottling wand. you should have the right amount of headspace in the bottle after pulling the wand out. This beer will get oxidized a little more, and maybe a little quicker than a proper fill. Will you notice this on your first batch if you drink them all in the first 3 or 4 months? Nope. Don't sweat it and enjoy. As for @VikeMan s thoughts on carbonation, he's right. You're a little high on bubbles and you might want to watch this over the next couple of weeks. Possibly clear out some fridge space and when you get the bottles to the right level of carbonation, try to put them in a cold environment to halt the yeast from carbonating further. Overall, great job. To many more!
Assuming even mixing of the priming sugar throughout the batch, that under-filled bottle will have less total CO2 than a properly filled bottle, i.e. it will have less volumes of CO2 in the beer, and less CO2 per unit volume of headspace. Just like with a properly filled bottle, the available CO2 (smaller amount in this case) will reach an equilibrium between the beer and the headspace. Imagine "bottle" conditioning 12 ounces of this beer in a 55 gallon drum. Just an extreme case to make the concept more intuitive.
Good call. I'll have to look back on who wrote that an under filled bottle has more co2 due to the incorrect head space. Maybe the guy was using carb caps. @zizouandyuki : Ignore this part where I'm wrong. Don't ignore all the other parts where we are all right. Overall, you don't have a lot to sweat. Just watch your carb levels over the next couple of weeks and enjoy your first homebrews.
The reason for that is like I said i calculated the priming sugar for 5 gallons and only bottled 4 gallons with the sugar solution already set for bottling 5 gallons, so I left some space just so they wouldn't all explode and have it just be a waste of time having nothing in the end. Next time will be perfect, just assumed that the bucket I bought to make my bottling bucket was more than 5 gallons.
haha no. Im a plant lover and it started with hops. I had surgery a year ago so im unemployed and don't even have money to buy beer. Im just trying to find something id like to do with the rest of my life and so far this hobby is looking like it will turn into something way bigger in the future, along with all my other plans. I make my own hot sauce. Want to start a farm. Lots of plans
That seemed like way too much to me too but I used a couple of those calculation sites and they all came out to the same amount for the style of beer. Like Vikeman said, It was the amount for 3 volumes.
Ill take that into consideration next time. I just figured instead of throwing it all out cuz i put the sugar in my bottling bucket before siphoning the beer into it and not being able to get it all in, that a little room would save them from exploding. Just seemed logical to me but if it doesnt matter then ill fill it all the way.
And finally just to clarify my sugar calculations, not any of you in this thread specifically, but all the calculators I was linked to were from long time members on here so If i'm really wrong with that much sugar someone can you please point me in the right direction and if what was provided from others is false please help to get rid of anything misleading. Some I used were: https://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/ http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html and there was a third one and they all were only like a few points off like one was 5.84oz and another was 5.8oz, so like literally perfect! But yeah so if those aren't reliable please let me know. PLEASE READ THIS LOWER SECTION In the responses to each of you I apologize if I came of kinda snippy. It was just that knew all this like the too much head room and all of that and its because In the main part i explained the mess up with the 5 gallons only being 4 in the end due to my bottling bucket. I will take any and all advice whether it be good or critical. Just noticed that I came here all excited to see what everyone thought of a first time brew, forgot I even was a member on here due to major health issues the past few days, and then saw suggestions and whatnot that I had already addressed in the beginning so it got to me. Nothing again you guys and i'm glad to have somewhere to get these opinions because I don't personally know anyone in my life who enjoys anything I do so thanks for this place. Im done rambling and will leave off with its carbing for sure and no explosions yet! Oh and i just noticed in that picture you really only see the flip top bottle in the foreground but thats just one bottle in case everyone thought i used those? Those cases on the floor are the main bottles and those are filled to regular standard store bought height. Not sure why this finally crossed my mind. The Flip top is my personal bottle
I wouldn't worry. I made a mistake and used 5oz of corn sugar in a 3 gal bottled batch of sour and none have exploded or shot out when opened but it does foam good when poured in a glass.
Yeah im not worried one bit. This is exactly what I meant to do, besides getting too small of a bottling bucket and then only using 4 gallons of my beer. It only worried me a little then but yeah with 4 more days until they are ready. I was more worried about having them come out flat. If this first batch it "too" carbonated then I will be glad because when i was younger I always wondered why beer wasn't as carbonated as pop and this will definitely tell me why if it tastes all weird. I mean I know a google search will give me an answer but I will still question it as thats who I am. Who knows? I might love it and want all my home brew to be super carbed as possible. But yeah I guess i didn't need to get into that pop talk but yeah if anyone wants to chime in with an experience like that and if they liked it or not.
Update: Got to crack open my first bottle yesterday. Turned out amazing for my first brew. So delicious and great color. And I think the whole mess up with the bottling bucket didn't matter at all because the priming sugar game in a 5 oz bag and with the calculator, well multiple, it suggested for my volume I wanted to add 5.85oz of sugar. So with a gallon left in the primary after realizing it wouldn't all fit with headroom in my bottling bucket, I think it worked out for the best because then I might not have as perfectly carbed beer, IMO its perfectly carbed.
