agentEhrman

Recipes 

I have been told that bottling is growlers is fine by my LHBS. My first try worked great, no bottle bombs and perfect carbonation. Since my first test run, my last two attempts have resulted in flat beer. Can the caps become loose from the carbonation process? I made sure to get the caps pretty tight, but still my most recent beer came out flat in my first of 5 total growlers. It's obviously not a good sign. I have been re-using the original caps, sanitized of course.

What the heck am I doing wrong here? I have a dedicated fridge and some cornies in the works, but until then how can I avoid doing single bottles on every batch? I am experimenting with re-using miller lite home draft, which seems to be working (except for the part where you have to drink the miller lite). Anyways, are there any tips for using growlers to bottle from you experienced brew masters?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

day_trippr

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[edit - duh, missed the reused caps part]

Buy new caps.

Cheers!

agentEhrman

Recipes 

Damn, I was beginning to wonder if that was where I went wrong. I only re-used two, so a couple of the others must be good then. That at least gives me hope for the rest of my oktoberfest batch!

day_trippr

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fwiw, "aftermarket" black plastic growler caps are the bomb. They'll never rust, and they have a thicker seal than the original metal caps. While I've never carbonated in a growler (not really recommended) I do truck carbonated brew around in them to events and the plastic caps really do hold gas nicely...

Cheers!

peterlonz

Recipes 

I am not sure exactly what a "growler" is but assume you mean some container with a greater capacity than a 750 ml standard moulded PET brown bottle.
I can say definitely that I have sometimes carbonated by secondary fermentation & have also stored & trucked around in the bilg of my sailing boat many such larger capacity containers with no problems whatever.
My preferred container was used Coke 2 litre clear moulded PET bottles which you can often find green if they held lemonade by another manufacturer. In every case the caps were standard PET bottle caps & I used them over & over with sterilisation of course.
Your answer is change container type & use a plastic cap you know works.

twobrain

Recipes 

i woudlnt carb in a growler, thats like trying to carb in a wine bottle or a apple juice jug, it migth work but it migth also explode


beer bottles and champagne bottles are thicker than those other bottles

agentEhrman

Recipes 

Thanks for the advice peterlonz, apparently the caps are most likely the culprit. As far as what a growler is, Its a half gallon "handle style" glass jug. Also reffered to as a "pug growler" sometimes here in Nebraska. Anyways, I might try to find the plastic caps and ditch my metal ones. Thanks guys.

Malticulous

Recipes 

QFT, it's not recommended.

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BigRob

Recipes 

You mean like these 2L (1/2 Gal) Swing Tops?
http://www.bottless.org/2_liter_Swing_Top_Beer_Growler_s/577.htm

I've carbed in them a bunch of times, no problems yet.

agentEhrman

Recipes 

Those look pretty cool, if they were available to me I would give them a try. What I have is this http://www.google.com/imgres?q=Half+Gallon+Pub+Style+Growler+%28Amber%29 &um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&biw=1280&bih=666&tbm=isch&tbnid=X30C_i ndE2ZmOM:&imgrefurl=http://www.tenwithtom.com/beer/beer-growlers/&docid=QK8U8C6Mw9-4DM&w=180&h=240&ei=JBZ2ToLMKoSUtwfS3pmuDA&zoom=1&i act=hc&vpx=407&vpy=197&dur=1544&hovh=192&hovw=144& tx=95&ty=124&page=1&tbnh=148&tbnw=112&start=0&ndsp =18&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:0

No bottle bombs, but 3 out of 4 had absolutely no carbonation. I guess maybe its just the caps..