So I’m about 10 batches into my brewing journey and I’ve noticed a distinct difference in quality of my 16oz ez cap versus normal 12 oz bottles. The 16’s typically carb faster and taste better than the 12’s, and the 12’s typically taste “meh”. Has anyone had any experience with this and have any recommendations?
I’ve never had a situation like this, although I generally always opt for bombers (less work!). Are you filling the bottles in any specific sequence? Maybe pulling more sediment into the bottles you’re filling last? I assume you’re storing them all in the same place w/o light?
That was going to be my question as well. Is there anything different about the bottles besides volume?
If you are filling the 16’s first you might not be mixing your priming sugar well and more is going into the first set of bottles.
Maybe that’s it. Now that I think about it, I’ve been filling the 16’s first. I wonder if me trying to avoid splashing/oxidizing the beer caused the priming sugar to not be correctly mixed…
Gently stir with a sanitized spoon after you rack into your bottling bucket. It really makes a huge difference. I also purposefully leave my racking hose long and let it coil along the side of the bottling bucket. This way the beer being racked over swirls into the priming mix.
I pour my sugar solution into the beer after draining about 2 quarts into the bottling bucket. The solution is still quite hot and it will mix more readily.
Thanks for the advice. I’m bottling a pale ale next week and I’ll try it out.
I had carbonation consistency problems until I started stirring the priming sugar in the bottling bucket. Other than that I’ve never had a difference between bottle sizes.
I do this too. I also use my autosiphon I used to rack into the bottling bucket to stir the beer periodically while bottling. I had carbonation inconsistencies until I started stirring too.
I also use 12oz and 16oz bottles for the same batch and dont notice any difference.
Edited to add last sentence(and this one).