Brewing Friends...
Rather than continuing to hijack the "Man, I Love Apfelwein" thread, I figured it was a good time to spin this off into its own thread.
About 5 weeks ago, I mixed up a batch of EdWort's Apfelwein. My intent from the beginning was to bottle-carbonate the batch just as one would with a 5 gallon batch of beer: 5 ounces of corn sugar mixed into the liquid just prior to bottling.
Well, being somewhat new to brewing, I do not have an endless supply of beer bottles...or any other bottles, for that matter. But I DID save the #1 PETE bottles the apple juice came in.
I did read a bit about bottle-carbing beer in plastic soda bottles, and no one, to my knowledge, had any issues with that. There are some, however, who did have issues with apple juice bottles. So, I did some further investigating: 2 liter soda bottles and apple juice bottles BOTH have heat-sealed seams; they are both made from a single layer of #1 PETE. The only differences between the two are: the soda bottle uses a thinner plastic; the soda bottle has two more threads for the cap.
Well, I am willing to be the guinea pig on this one, and attempt to bottle-carb my apfelwein in 3-quart #1 PETE apple juice bottles! I did just that very thing about 90 minutes ago. I did, however, take an extra precaution: the filled bottles are INSIDE of a sturdy, plastic storage tub, with a tight-fitting lid.
I will keep the board informed on what's going on with the plastic bottle carbonation experiment. I THINK it will work just fine. But then again, maybe not! I am still collecting empty pop-top beer bottles, so if the experiment fails miserably, I can easily mix up another batch and bottle-carb that in beer bottles. Stay tuned for further developments!
glenn514
Rather than continuing to hijack the "Man, I Love Apfelwein" thread, I figured it was a good time to spin this off into its own thread.
About 5 weeks ago, I mixed up a batch of EdWort's Apfelwein. My intent from the beginning was to bottle-carbonate the batch just as one would with a 5 gallon batch of beer: 5 ounces of corn sugar mixed into the liquid just prior to bottling.
Well, being somewhat new to brewing, I do not have an endless supply of beer bottles...or any other bottles, for that matter. But I DID save the #1 PETE bottles the apple juice came in.
I did read a bit about bottle-carbing beer in plastic soda bottles, and no one, to my knowledge, had any issues with that. There are some, however, who did have issues with apple juice bottles. So, I did some further investigating: 2 liter soda bottles and apple juice bottles BOTH have heat-sealed seams; they are both made from a single layer of #1 PETE. The only differences between the two are: the soda bottle uses a thinner plastic; the soda bottle has two more threads for the cap.
Well, I am willing to be the guinea pig on this one, and attempt to bottle-carb my apfelwein in 3-quart #1 PETE apple juice bottles! I did just that very thing about 90 minutes ago. I did, however, take an extra precaution: the filled bottles are INSIDE of a sturdy, plastic storage tub, with a tight-fitting lid.
I will keep the board informed on what's going on with the plastic bottle carbonation experiment. I THINK it will work just fine. But then again, maybe not! I am still collecting empty pop-top beer bottles, so if the experiment fails miserably, I can easily mix up another batch and bottle-carb that in beer bottles. Stay tuned for further developments!
glenn514