Bottles per Batch Calculator (Beer, Wine, Cider)

How it works

Bottles = floor( (batch − losses) ÷ (bottle size × (1 − headspace)) )

Bottling day goes better when the bottle count is known in advance — nothing is worse than running out of sanitised bottles with beer still in the bucket. Start from the fermenter volume, subtract what stays behind with the yeast cake and in the siphon (usually a litre or so for a 20 L batch, more for heavily hopped beers), and divide by the bottle’s useful capacity after leaving a couple of centimetres of headspace. A 20 litre batch typically gives 55–58 bottles of 330 mL or about 50 of 355 mL; a 23 litre (5 US gallon) batch gives around 48–50 twelve-ounce bottles. Sanitise a few spares, and remember that priming sugar is calculated on the volume actually bottled.

Worked example

20 L with 1 L of trub loss into 330 mL bottles filled to 97%: 19 ÷ 0.320 = 59 bottles, with about 120 mL left for a taste.

Frequently asked questions