Largest bottle size

What is the largest bottle I can use for bottle conditioning? I have a batch that will be ready to bottle before I purchase a kegging system. Trying to cap as little as possible. Thanks

Well, bombers are 22oz & you'll need a bout half as many compared to 12oz. That's about as big as brown glass bottles get nowadays that use crown caps.

2 liter soda bottles would probably be your easiest (and fairly cheap!) option.

True, but the thing I never liked about them is the beer getting flatter till you drink it all.

ong said:

2 liter soda bottles would probably be your easiest (and fairly cheap!) option.

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That's what I was thinking.

The only thing is, with bottle conditioning you only want to open a beer as big as your glass. That's because the act of pouring, up and down, will resuspend any yeast sediment so you'd have 2 liters of beer that has to be consumed at one sitting (due to oxidation) and poured into a pitcher first.

You can bottle as big as you'd like, but just make sure to use safe containers. Glass growlers and one gallon jugs aren't designed to hold pressure, so you can't use them. But any other sized bottle that can hold pressure (like a champagne bottle or a soda bottle) can be used.

That's why I've stuck with 12oz bottles. 1 glass at a time gives better clarity & flavor. Besides being a fresh pour.

Buy bigger glasses!

Here are some full 1 litre flip-tops , so easy to cap also, but pricey.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/ez-cap-bottles-brown-1-liter-with-flip-tops.html

The other option is to pick up a keg now and carb it in the keg with sugar so it's ready to go when you get the rest of your kegging setup. If course that depends on how quickly you plan on getting the kegging setup, but that would be the easiest. If you go that way, double check the priming sugar because you'll need less with the keg than you would bottles.

Tap-a-draft, or the beer pig would be the biggest things I could think of that you could "bottle" condition in.

When I used to host dinners often enough I would bottle in Champagne bottles since I wold be serving the whole thing with dinner in glasses. No that my beers pretty much just mine I just go with 12's like most everyone.

Lagunitas Sucks comes in 32oz bottles that take a crown cap.

I use quart corona bottles but that means you need to pour two glasses which just means I m drinking with a friend or am really thirsty like after a day at work.

Thanks for the responses. I do have a keg so I think I will transfer it to there until I have the equipment. Should have it all in the next couple weeks.

Will letting it sit in the keg be harmful to the beer since I have no way of purging it of oxygen?

If you prime in the keg, it seems to me the Co2 would begin filling the head space?

Yooper said:

The only thing is, with bottle conditioning you only want to open a beer as big as your glass. That's because the act of pouring, up and down, will resuspend any yeast sediment so you'd have 2 liters of beer that has to be consumed at one sitting (due to oxidation) and poured into a pitcher first

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Ignoring stirred up sediment for the time being I was wondering about the oxidation issue. Wouldn't the act of opening the beer cause some CO2 to come out of solution and wouldn't some of it stay in the bottle? Especially if you poured gently and re-capped right away. Would there be enough to protect the beer for a day or two? Two litres of beer is about six 12 oz bottles so if it made it past the third night I'd be surprised.

Depending on the style of beer a little exposure to air might not even matter. English style beers that are served from casks are exposed to air as the cask empties.

Thanks for any opinions.

Well, with 2L bottles, as it empties, even with the cap on, the Co2 escapes the beer trying to reach equilibrium. This takes Co2 out of solution to fill the now empty space & dissipates when opened. And the trub/yeast doesn't seem to settle all that fast.

Ski12568 said:

What is the largest bottle I can use for bottle conditioning? I have a batch that will be ready to bottle before I purchase a kegging system. Trying to cap as little as possible. Thanks

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The answer is the largest bottle you can find with a flip-top. The biggest one I have is 3 litres - my german bier krug (I believe you people in the US call this a "growler", for some odd reason or another). I have seen 5 and 10 litre ones bottles with flip-tops.

Stay away from thin glass, in general, and you'll be fine.

The issue I have with large bottle conditioned bottles, is that after you pour the first beer, any sediment becomes disturbed and subsequent pours are cloudy. I like to pour a large bottle all at once to avoid this, either into a pitcher, or several glasses. The pitcher works better, as even with the glasses, the second glass may not be as brilliant due to stopping the pour.

Easy solution: don't drink light beer ;-)

I generally bottle my beer with a mix of regular size glass bottles and Cooper's 750ml PET bottles. In my experience with the PET bottles the sediment usually compacts really well in the divots (wells, dents?) in the bottom. With a beer that has been in the bottle for a month or longer I (usually) have no problem getting two sediment free pours from the Cooper's bottles. With stout, porters and english ales (primed to a lower level of carbonation) I pour gently with the intention of getting no head then use a syringe to kick one up.

I realize that getting five or six sediment free pours from a two litre bottle would be harder but possible (maybe?).

Not really an issue for me one way or the other, just kicking around ideas.

Those lugs in the bottom of the Cooper's PET bottles really worked great for containing compacted sediment when pouring. I traded my whole stash for a 6G better bottle after switching to 12oz glass.

unionrdr said:

If you prime in the keg, it seems to me the Co2 would begin filling the head space?

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Where would the oxygen go? I was thinking of using the keg as a secondary. I think I'll just plan on purchasing the keg system before my brew is ready to keg.

I was thinking about the flip tops, I want to get those for my 1 gallon test batches I'm planning

The o2 present in the headspace is absorbed by the Co2 being given off while the yeast eat the priming solution.