Bottling Temperature?

[nigelnorris]

Best temp to avoid oxidation when bottling. It's in the fridge right now crashed to 0C. Bottle at that or let it warm up to room temp first?

 

[Saisonator]

Well I know water absorbes oxygen better when cooler.

 

[nigelnorris]

I've always thought that, but then most chemical reactions happen more slowly at lower temperatures.

 

[Clint]

I get mine out of the fridge,boil up my priming sugar solution, clean and sterilise everything then crack on..been ok so far.

 

[Dutto]

I get mine out of the fridge,boil up my priming sugar solution, ...........

........... add a Hop Tea made from 250ml of boiling water, clean and sanitise everything and then crack on - been ok so far.

With regard to oxygen in water, during hot summers in the UK small ponds, slow flowing streams and rivers can get so warm that the fish start to die due to a lack of oxygen.

 

[Saisonator]

I've always thought that, but then most chemical reactions happen more slowly at lower temperatures.

Yes I wondered that at first, it's a bit counter intuitive.

 

[GerritT]

I avoid splashing, and use one of those bottle sticks. And bottle from the bucket from outside, so approx 10º. But I'd bottle from 20º too, I think the splashing is a way worse oxidation vector.

 

[Malt Muncher]

Won't the yeast just absorb any oxygen which gets introduced during bottling?

 

[dan125]

I wondered about the same bottling temp question a while ago, but now I don't have any choice but to bottle cold now as I'm bottling naturally carbonated beer with a beer gun - when researching into this I did find out that its possible to bottle with tiny amounts of dissolved oxygen with a beer gun, so the low temp can't do any harm.

 

[Mrobson]

I added a beer to cask (plastic pin) with 40g of priming sugar a month ago and last week it popped the keystone out and sent beer everywhere, thankfully I was in the house at the time and only lost half a gallon or so.

I know storage temperature is a factor, it was left to condition at approximately 18c for three weeks and was due to be left in the out house for a week or so before getting tapped this weekend.

I’ve been looking on other forums about the possible affects bottling temperature and the amount of priming can have on the level of carbonation. I remember cold crashing before I transferred to the cask, would this explain the level of pressure created and the cause of the popped keystone?

 

[svenito]

I get mine out of the fridge,boil up my priming sugar solution, clean and sterilise everything then crack on..been ok so far.

Pretty much my process too. Syphon into bottling bucket from fridge so I don't need to move the FV, add priming sugar, bottle, and wait.

 

[Wouter]

Well I know water absorbes oxygen better when cooler.

You're right.
But because the beer was already cold it is saturated with the gas which was inside the fermenter (best case scenario CO2).
So I would say cold is better actually.

But haven't done any research to determine CO2 level in the beer vs oxidation .

Won't the yeast just absorb any oxygen which gets introduced during bottling?

Nope, you really don't need much to carb the beer.

 

[Ben034]

I added a beer to cask (plastic pin) with 40g of priming sugar a month ago and last week it popped the keystone out and sent beer everywhere, thankfully I was in the house at the time and only lost half a gallon or so.

I know storage temperature is a factor, it was left to condition at approximately 18c for three weeks and was due to be left in the out house for a week or so before getting tapped this weekend.

I’ve been looking on other forums about the possible affects bottling temperature and the amount of priming can have on the level of carbonation. I remember cold crashing before I transferred to the cask, would this explain the level of pressure created and the cause of the popped keystone?

I've also been wondering about this as people suggest such different theories. I have been working on the assumption that if I complete a diacetyl rest at 22c after fermentation has completed, then even if I cold crash, this is the temperature to use on the calculators for priming. I understood that this would be because no more c02 is being produced and theoretically anything above the beer won't be reabsorbed. However, since starting to cold crash I have thought that carbonation has increased slightly, but can't be sure.

 

[terrym]

If beer at say 20*C completely stops fermenting then it will remain saturated with CO2 until you cool it, assuming the temperature is stable. The same quantity of CO2 will remain in the beer as you cool it, but the beer will be increasingly less saturated with CO2. So if its stopped fermenting at 20*C thats the temperature you should use irrespective of the cooled temperature, to calculate priming rate. If you use a lower temperature where would this extra CO2 come from? But if the beer is still fermenting as you cool it this does not apply.

 

[Ben034]

If beer at say 20*C completely stops fermenting then it will remain saturated with CO2 until you cool it, assuming the temperature is stable. The same quantity of CO2 will remain in the beer as you cool it, but the beer will be increasingly less saturated with CO2. So if its stopped fermenting at 20*C thats the temperature you should use irrespective of the cooled temperature, to calculate priming rate. If you use a lower temperature where would this extra CO2 come from? But if the beer is still fermenting as you cool it this does not apply.

Hi Terrym, you say "The same quantity of CO2 will remain in the beer as you cool it, but the beer will be increasingly less saturated with CO2"." Are you sure that as the beer cools, it becomes less saturated in CO2? I understood that as you raised the temperature you would lose CO2 through the airlock (cold beer in the fridge absorbs more Co2 than a room temp beer and is therefore more fizzy). I think people have suggested that the CO2 above the beer is reabsorbed into the beer as you cool it, so suggest there is more CO2 as you cool. I don't subscribe to this but there seems to be a lot of differner views on the temperature to use.

 

[simon12]

I think what Terry is saying (please confirm or correct) is beer at 20c has x amount of oxygen absorbed and this x amount is full saturation at 20c as it shouldn't have had contact with any other gas since fermentation started. This beer when cooled to say 10c can only absorb the small amount of CO2 from the head space so has little more CO2 in it that it did at 20c and can absorb more so is less saturated, but if the beer was fermented at 10c it would have absorbed the full saturation it could at 10c.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi @nigelnorris
Sorry, but I think there's far too many things to worry about without including bottling temperature.
I bottle at the temperature that the beer's at following the cold crash.

 

[Ben034]

I think what Terry is saying (please confirm or correct) is beer at 20c has x amount of oxygen absorbed and this x amount is full saturation at 20c as it shouldn't have had contact with any other gas since fermentation started. This beer when cooled to say 10c can only absorb the small amount of CO2 from the head space so has little more CO2 in it that it did at 20c and can absorb more so is less saturated, but if the beer was fermented at 10c it would have absorbed the full saturation it could at 10c.

Thanks simon, that makes sense. Would the amount of co2 in the headspace be negligible when calculating priming volume? Thanks

 

[simon12]

Thanks simon, that makes sense. Would the amount of co2 in the headspace be negligible when calculating priming volume? Thanks

I have no idea but hope some one else can let us know.

 

[terrym]

Hi Terrym, you say "The same quantity of CO2 will remain in the beer as you cool it, but the beer will be increasingly less saturated with CO2"." Are you sure that as the beer cools, it becomes less saturated in CO2? I understood that as you raised the temperature you would lose CO2 through the airlock (cold beer in the fridge absorbs more Co2 than a room temp beer and is therefore more fizzy). I think people have suggested that the CO2 above the beer is reabsorbed into the beer as you cool it, so suggest there is more CO2 as you cool. I don't subscribe to this but there seems to be a lot of differner views on the temperature to use.

Yes I am sure that as it cools it is less saturated with CO2, provided there is no more fermentatation taking place. The CO2 saturation concentrations are different at different temperatures.
I think you are confusing saturation with the quantity of CO2 present, which in my example remains the same.
Lower temperature means the beer has the capability of absorbing more CO2, but if there is no more CO2 being produced it will be increasingly less than than saturated as it cools.
In another brewing example oxygen concentrations in cooled wort are less than saturated since the oxygen has been boiled out. It is only when the wort is beaten to re-introduce oxygen from air that the wort finally becames saturated, and can take no more.
Finally if you allow beer to warm up again CO2 will not bubble through the airlock it stays in solution until such time as it reaches and perhaps exceeds the original warm temperature, and only at that point will it bubble through the lock.