Bottling highly carbonated beers safely

Sat Feb 06, 2010 12:36 pm

Alright, brand new to kegging here, and therefore also brand new to bottling kegged beer. How high can I safely carbonate a beer before bottling it in a traditional 12 oz bottle? Is there any way of going higher without buying/renting a champagne bottle corker? I have a framboise that has been aging for two years in my closet and after the many bizarre-appearing stages it has gone through it is ready for bottling. (It has what looks like a thick layer of fine-grit sand on top of it that dissipates instantly when moved). I would love to bottle this thing at 4 atmospheres (beyond a normal beer bottles safety range) for style but I think I can only maybe get it up to 2.7 atm safely. These would be stored at room temp once bottled (72 F).
Gjoker321
 
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Re: Bottling highly carbonated beers safely

Sat Feb 06, 2010 1:28 pm

What kind of beer are you bottling, does it have wild yeast?
Are you bottle conditioning or keg carbonating it?

In my experience you can put a lot of volumes in a traditional bottle but of course it can be risky. If you get a beer in a bottle using a Beergun, I think there's no way that amount of CO2 will explode a bottle, unless further fermentation happens.

Some bottles feel like they are really thin and break easily. Others are pretty stout. If you have an exploded mess to clean up, it's a bitch. Not to mention potentially hazardous. I've wrapped milk crates full of high-carb bottle conditioned beers in plastic bags to minimize cleanup if one broke, and none broke that time, so I guess I got lucky and/or dialed in my carbonation pretty well.
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Chupa LaHomebrew
 
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Re: Bottling highly carbonated beers safely

Sat Feb 06, 2010 3:33 pm

This is one of about eight sour beers I have been aging for several years in my brew closet. This one is a framboise (raspberry gueze) with the wyeast lambic blend which is several differents strains of wild yeast and bacteria. I am keg conditioning and am going to bottle with a beer gun into ice cold bottles. Part of my worry is that when they warm up in my aging closet (think high sixties low seventies, I live in Florida) they will explode from increased release of gas. Thanks for the quick reply btw.
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Re: Bottling highly carbonated beers safely

Sun Feb 07, 2010 8:47 am

:asshat:
Last edited by Sent From My iPhone on Tue Apr 12, 2011 9:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Bottling highly carbonated beers safely

Wed Feb 10, 2010 5:14 pm

Sheen wrote:I've been saving the little 330 mL bottles that Saison Dupont and many other Belgian beers come in. They're very thick and can handle higher pressure. When I bottle highly carbonated beers from a keg, I use a Beer Gun, chill the bottles in the freezer and dispense very slowly. My Golden Strong has maintained it's carbonation level for about a month now.

I'm saving those champagne style bottles as well for this reason. Need to get a corker next.
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