What do you do with your excess beer from bottling?

[dbsmith]

I felt a bit creative (and hungry) and used it to make some beer battered shrimp. I'm currently using the left over batter to make some tasty IPA pancakes! Nice and hoppy. What do you you do with it?

Keggers: no one asked you

 

[mtnagel]

I usually only have a few ounces left so I'll try to get it in the last bottle that probably wasn't filled all the way by pouring from the 5 gallon bucket which means I spill most of it down the drain.

How much do you have left over and why?

 

[TyTanium]

Drink it? It should be less than 12oz (otherwise fill another bottle...)

 

[MaxStout]

The last bit <bottle fill is my "taste tester". Besides, why waste good beer just because it doesn't have any carb yet?

 

[dbsmith]

I usually have some left over from a half-filled bottle, and usually a slight layer of liquid over the yeast cake and a tiny bit in the bottling bucket. I used to pour it from the bottling bucket and used a funnel to get every last bottle I could, but I just don't bother anymore. It usually ends with a mess or oxidized beer anyway. Cooking with it seems more fun. I would drink it, but I already sample my hydrometer reading, and I'm not the biggest fan of warm, flat beer anyways.

edit: actually the temperature doesn't bother me too much..it's the flatness.

 

[Beernik]

By using a mix of 12oz, 16oz, 22oz, and 1L bottles, I generally don't have this problem with my beers. If anything is left over, it's just an ounce or two. What can I do with two ounces besides drink it?

Ended up with an extra 8oz of wine once, drank it.

 

[Ostomo517]

Definitely dont toss it thats "the brewers share"!!! I will cap the partially filled bottle and chill it a little bit then drink it.

 

[ObsidianJester]

I will try to get as close as I can with out disturbing too much yeast cake but typically I'll just toss it because most of what I do has not been worth saving for something I could cook with. Not that it is not a bad idea or that I don't use my own home brew to make foods. Bratwurst. Tasty....
For the testing bottles if I'm a bit unsure of a recipe I'll save the last three or four bottles or what may end up being somewhat oxidized for what ever reason to test carbonation as well as flavor. Now that it is summer time and I grill I may use those samples to boil bratwurst in!

 

[OzzyBrew]

Bottled my first attempt at Ed Wort's Apfelwein today. I didn't seem to mind drinking those two 12 oz glasses of excess.

 

[kh54s10]

Sometimes there are only a couple of ounces. I taste it then pour the rest down the drain. The most I have had was about 3/4 bottle, still not enough to worry about - down the drain....

 

[edecambra]

I"d just like to say that keggers also often have left over beer that just won't fit in a keg!

I used to be greedy and fill my keg and a couple of bottles, as I try to get 5.5-6 gallon batches but that takes so much damn extra work it really isn't worth it. I really like the beer batter idea or beer marinade. I'll have to give that a shot as I find that my kegging/bottling day has been getting lazier for sure.

 

[dbsmith]

I"d just like to say that keggers also often have left over beer that just won't fit in a keg!

I used to be greedy and fill my keg and a couple of bottles, as I try to get 5.5-6 gallon batches but that takes so much damn extra work it really isn't worth it. I really like the beer batter idea or beer marinade. I'll have to give that a shot as I find that my kegging/bottling day has been getting lazier for sure.

My apologies, I just figured that every keg owner would say "I don't waste any beer because it all goes in my keg blah blah"

 

[drainbamage]

I rarely have that much left over...maybe half a bottle. I just drink it.

 

[andvari7]

I end up with so much trub, that it isn't really worth me pursuing those last milliliters.

 

[LBussy]

If I am bottling I go ahead and put it in a bottle anyway - that's the one I pop open in a few weeks to check for carbonation.

When kegging I use a growler or lately I have been using those carb caps to "hurry up and try some". The work real well. Sometimes I use them when I don;t know if I should carbonate something like an apfelwein or cider ... let's me carbonate a little bit.

 

[Setesh]

I have 12 6oz bottles that I got form some Sam Adams specialty beer thing they did a few years back. I always sanitize 1 of them when I'm bottling a batch. When I do bottle it's big expensive beers (rest is kegged) and I don't end up with more than ~5 ounces of extra of the precious stuff.

 

[TangoHotel]

All remaining beer after bottling is quickly chilled and consumed. The way god intended.