How Far To Fill A Long Neck?

[BEERBOY]

Hi there again, as you can see i am new to this and got a thousand questions.
Was wonding this time, what is the correct level to fill my longnecks. As i have some that are filled almost to the top and a couple that are about 3 or 4 inches from the top. What can i expect to happen?
And it castor or plain sugar ok to prime with?
And one last note. You guys all seem very very technical about this brewing thing. I spoke to a bloke up the road who has been brewing for years and all he does is use the std. Coopers draught kit with std sugar and primes his bottles with std sugar, does not rack or use hops or any fancy stuff i read about here and his beer is crystal clear and tastes great, no cider taste at all.
Anyway you guys keep answering them and i will keep asking em.
Also i have a water tank in the back yard, so would it be better to use rain water or just use tap water?
thanks

 

[dicko]

Beerboy

The standard bottle filler that plugs into the tap on your fermenter and is available from most HB shops works in the way that if you let the bottle fill to the top and then remove it, it will give you the correct level in the bottle from the amount of beer the filler displaces, if you follow what I mean.
Too much space at the top of a bottle may subject your brew to air (oxygen ) and not co2 while ageing and cause off flavours.

Prime with ordinary white sugar or dextrose.

Craft brewing is a fasinating hobby and the good thing about it is that you may take it to whatever level you wish.
Some people are happy with the results from a basic kit while others might want that little bit extra, or maybe to enter competitions or even try to make exact copies of exclusive and rare beers.
With the internet comes a flood of info on mash brewing which was not readily available to most a few years ago so it is now a lot easier to take that "next step".

Without going into the water chemistry in brewing which I know very little about and not wanting to start an argument, "rain verses tap" the most important thing is that it is clean to prevent infections and it is well aerated to aid in fermentation, so use whatever does it for you.

Hope this is of some help

B B B.