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malkore · 10-25-2007, 04:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iordz

Oh yeah, champagne bottles will handle quite a bit more pressure than regular 12oz bottles. There should be no problems with gushers unless you carbonate to a very, very volume or get a contaminant.

exactly. volume of the bottle doesn't affect 'gushers' or no gushers...its the quantity of priming sugar, or bottling before its finished fermenting (so again creates too much fermentable sugar in the bottle).

lack of headspace can cause gushers too, but if you use a bottle filling wand, it'll displace the right amount of beer to give you good headspace.

and of course good sanitizing will pretty much prevent a contaminent that takes fermentation lower than the 'proper' final gravity.

Zymurgrafi · 10-25-2007, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rpucci

You might be able to score champagne bottles from wedding reception halls. THey go through lots of bubbly and usually just throw the bottles out. Thats where i get mine.

Definately a good source. I attended a wedding this summer and asked the servers if I could take the empties. They were more than happy to have me take them. Less for them to pick up, and the caterer did not have to deal with disposal (no refund for wine or champagne bottles where I am). I scored almost 2 cases and they were brown bottles that were etched on the outside which makes them look black. Cannot remember the brand but they are definately cool bottles. They take the 29 mm caps but that is no problem. One thing I will suggest is that a bench capper is probably a better idea than a wing capper. i have a wing capper and it did the job but, it is now kind of trashed and won't work too well on normal bottles anymore.

(nevin) · 10-25-2007, 11:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by malkore

exactly. volume of the bottle doesn't affect 'gushers' or no gushers...its the quantity of priming sugar, or bottling before its finished fermenting (so again creates too much fermentable sugar in the bottle).

lack of headspace can cause gushers too, but if you use a bottle filling wand, it'll displace the right amount of beer to give you good headspace.

and of course good sanitizing will pretty much prevent a contaminent that takes fermentation lower than the 'proper' final gravity.

Yeah, I use a filling wand, and I'm pretty diligent about sanitation (no issues thus far, knock on wood) but the recipe I have calls for more sugar at bottling than I would normally use (1.25 cups in a 5 gal. batch) hence the worry about exploding bottles. OH yeah, and I'll be throwing some fresh yeast when priming as well.

Madtown Brew · 10-26-2007, 12:15 AM

Start drinking a 750 ml bottle of ommegang every other day until you have enough. Buy some corks and have at it. That's my suggestion - I always hate buying/scrounging for empty bottles. Much more fun to "empty" them yourself.

(nevin) · 10-26-2007, 12:24 AM

Actually I've emptied a few chimay bottles this week for that very reason

D*Bo · 10-26-2007, 03:09 AM

anybody have a source for champagine corks. Morbeer has good quality corks (so they say), but they don't have the traditional style that comes on the belgian bottles.

(nevin) · 10-26-2007, 11:18 AM

Here's the website for the lbhs I frequent, I'm planning on running up there this weekend to verify If the corks they have will work on the Belgian style bottles.
http://www.homebrewhq.com/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=1468

**musikguru6** · 10-26-2007, 04:13 PM

how many belgian bottles would you need for a 5 gl batch of trippel? do you even need the belgian bottles for the trippel?

(nevin) · 10-26-2007, 10:31 PM

I'd need about 19 bottles (750 ml). I don't NEED Belgian bottles but considering the brew I would prefer them.

(nevin) · 10-27-2007, 10:53 PM

well.. I checked out the LHBS mentioned above, the champagne corks they have are the plastic type. No surprise there really, a quick online search didn't turn up many either. The plastic corks seem to be too narrow in diameter for the Chimay bottle. I'd like to avoid plastic corks and champagne bottles, but it seems to be a much more cost effective option.