As we get ready to enter a brewing contest, is there any reason we should not fill the bottles all the way to the top of the bottle?
Or…is it required to leave head space in the neck? If so, why?
The beer in question is already aged, and fully carbonated. It has been in a keg for a month.
You can minimize head space if beer is carbbed and filling from keg. Just be sure to cap on foam and minimize oxygen as much as possible. If you have a beer gun or CPBF you can purge the bottles first. If not, just keep them cold and they should be fine. And cap on foam!
Thanks. That’s my plan!
Some judges will take note of the fill level. If so, ignore it. Fill level is meaningless and should not affect your score.
I always make note of the fill level on a score sheet, usually just high, low, good… only add notes if it’s funky looking, but I never let it impact a potential score. If I bought the beer and it was low, I’d complain [emoji28]
Was wondering about that. As I’m not a commercial bottling company, it should have no impact on the final score. The quality of the beer should be all that matters.
On the BJCP website, there was no mention of “correct fill level”.