Last bottle didn't quite make it to the top...

[fretlessman71]

...what's going to happen to it? There's about 9.5 oz of beer in the last bottle of my stout. Not carbonate? Explode?

[jlttb]

I usually mark that last bottle as the first to taste in a week or two.

[brewmonkey]

You will still have 9.5 oz of beer that should be less carbonated then the rest. Remember, carbonation is an issue of time, space, pressure and temp. Same amount of CO2 in a larger space will exert less pressure resulting in lower volumes of CO2 going into solution. I also slept through most of chemistry as it (and biology, go figure) were boring until I learned that you need them for beer............:rolleyes:

[fretlessman71]

OK... now you have me fretting again...

We think we might have overfilled our bottles - we left about an inch (or just a little less than an inch) between the level of the beer than the very VERY top of the bottle. Are we good? I'm thinking I might have done this the last time, too...

[Asahikun]

Don't fret fret :p

That sounds fine to me.

[tubetek]

Howdy Fret-
Don't know if it was mentioned; are you using one of those bottle filler thingies available for 2-3 DOLLARS? You connect it to the bottling spigot with a 2 inch piece of tubing. it has a valve in the tip that opens when it touches the bottom of the bottle. When using this device, fill the bottle to the very top and when you lower the bottle from the tube it leaves the perfect amount of headspace.
Top 3 Helping hands devices (in no particular order)
1) AUTO-SYPHON
2) BOTTLING TREE W/ SANITIZER PUMP
3) BOTTLE FILLER TUBE (above)
Enjoy!!
TT

[barley ben]

fill the bottle to the very top and when you lower the bottle from the tube it leaves the perfect amount of headspace

Unless it's the Phils Filler. It drains the tube every bottle so you still have to keep an eye on your fill level. It is a great filler but you have to get your timing down with it.

[fretlessman71]

Originally posted by tubetek
Howdy Fret-
Don't know if it was mentioned; are you using one of those bottle filler thingies available for 2-3 DOLLARS? You connect it to the bottling spigot with a 2 inch piece of tubing. it has a valve in the tip that opens when it touches the bottom of the bottle. When using this device, fill the bottle to the very top and when you lower the bottle from the tube it leaves the perfect amount of headspace.
Top 3 Helping hands devices (in no particular order)
1) AUTO-SYPHON
2) BOTTLING TREE W/ SANITIZER PUMP
3) BOTTLE FILLER TUBE (above)
Enjoy!!
TT

1) I own one;
2) I'd LOVE to have both of them... waiting until we move to CO; and
3) I don't trust myself and siphoning much... but I wasn't aware that you could attach the tube right to the spigot. Maybe I'll try that with water later on, before my next batch, and see if I can get it down.

[toneyc]

You could sanitize a few marbles and drop them in to fine tune your head space. Or combine your 9.5 oz bottle and a 12 oz bottle into a 22 oz bottle.

:)
Toney.

[Fast_Eddy]

Originally posted by fretlessman71
OK... now you have me fretting again...

We think we might have overfilled our bottles - we left about an inch (or just a little less than an inch) between the level of the beer than the very VERY top of the bottle. Are we good? I'm thinking I might have done this the last time, too...

Fret - dude - it's fine...so you have 9.5 oz that's a little under carb'ed but the rest will be fine. The suggestion a few up about the spring loaded bottle filler tube is the way to go -- the volume that the filler displaces maintains the correct head space in the bottle.

[paul84043]

I usually drink that last partial bottle. Never really thought about letting it do it's thing and using it as the tester...

The bottle filler tube thingy is the way to go...it's so cheap and easy. I actually have 3 of them just in case one were to break while I was setting up.
I put my bottling bucket on a milk crate on the counter and have all my bottles sitting in thier boxes ready to fill.
I sanitize everything, connect the tubing with the filler on the end, open the vlave and run out the first bit through the hose into a sanitized jar until the tube is filled with clean beer.
I just go from bottle to bottle, fill to the top trying not to overfill, then when you remove the tube it's perfect. If you are having a problem with foam, come back in a minute when it's died down and just press the tip of the filler to the inside of the neck of the bottle and fine tune the level, it's really simple.
The only tricky part is when the level of the beer gets down around the spigot on the bucket, I tip the bucket with one hand and keep filling with the other.

[mortong]

I do what Paul does - just drink the half-full bottle. It's a great opportunity to test your beer a few weeks ahead of time.