Bottles

I need some advice on bottles, what's ok and what's not? I have some coopers bottles but I would like to have more than one batch at a time so I need some more. I tried screw top wine bottles before but I don't think they have a good seal as the beer was flat. I was looking at flip top grolsch bottles but it would be a bit of an investment to get enough for a 5 gallon batch.

Any beer bottles that are not twist off will work just fine.

Do not use wine bottles because they are not designed to hold pressure like a beer bottle. You are actually lucky that the beer you put in them was flat, because if it would have fully carbed up, you might have had bottle bombs.

Ask your friends to save bottles for you and before you know it you will have plenty.

Get as many bombers (22oz) as you can; bottling 48 - 12oz bottles is just a pain in the ass. Collecting bottles is a fun process; it gives you the opportunity to try a bunch of new beers. I wouldn't go the flip top route, but that's just me. I would loose at least 1 flip top per batch.

what kind of capper works best, if i'm going that route?

Yeah 22oz bottles are nice especially if you are aging beer or for gifts. Just buy a few beers here and there and you'll get enough with time

I have local restaurants save their bottles for me Abdul them de-label, clean and sanitize. I brewed for my son sons wedding and was able to get over 600 bottles from restaurants in a month.

triskelion said:

what kind of capper works best, if i'm going that route?

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Molly cappers are cheap yet effective.

Thakaz said:

I wouldn't go the flip top route, but that's just me. I would loose at least 1 flip top per batch.

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Why?

My boss brings me his empty Grolsch bottles every once in a while and I love them but most of my beer gets bottled in Sapporo bottles (12oz and 20oz) that the local sushi shop saved for me.

I just save bottles from all the beer I drink...22s, 12s... Just rinse them out right after you pour. I wait until I have about a dozen and then let them soak in a sink full of hot water and PBW for about 30 minutes. By that time, most of the labels have fallen off already. A quick scrub with a steel sponge gets the remaining glue off. Let them dry and then wait until I have another dozen to clean. Then all you have to do on bottling day is throw them in the dishwasher to sanitize (that's what I do at least).

What about screw top growlers? My dad drinks them all the time so I can have him save me some.

unionrdr said:

They say the bench cappers work better than the wing type like I've been using. The bench model is claimed by some to be successful at caping twist top bottles. Idk about that one myself...

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What matter is the cap and not the capper (Twist off cap on twist off bottle of course...). At my LHBS I buyed a bench capper with twist off caps and was told that it would work just as good as the other caps (On non twist off bottle). However they warned me NOT to try to remove a twist off just after you cap. You will fell it's loosely capped, but if you give it time, it will be tight sealed so don't worry.

deejay413 said:

What about screw top growlers? My dad drinks them all the time so I can have him save me some.

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Here's something a friend of mine sent me when I asked about the same thing:

If you're using bigger bottles: like this one http://i.imgur.com/K18Kx.jpg then remember that bottles can explode from bottling if you do it wrong. Just remember that if 1 growler is a half gallon or 64 oz... then 5.333 12 oz beers would fit into it.

But here's the thing, as you double the surface area of a bottle, you quadruple the volume... let me show you on a simple square: http://i.imgur.com/fNcOv.jpg So while the bottle itself isn't that much bigger, the volume inside creates much more pressure from the same amount of priming sugar

So it's not that these bottles are more prone to exploding, it's that people don't adjust the priming sugar levels to compensate for the different sized vessel being used... The glass would need to be like 4 times thicker than a normal bottle to hold the same amount of pressure, but most of these bottles are only about twice as thick as a normal beer bottle.

I collect grolsch bottles for very cheap, just call your local bottle recyclers ( if your country does thar, here in canada we do). The cost is minimal, its only $4 for 12 vs $40 for 12 at your local shop.


Does take skme cleanin to get the crud out, ive been soaking for 2 hours in pink chroline based cleaner and everything including labels falls off of at that point

Love the flip tops, not to mention botttled 50 bottles in 30 mins which was nice

Thanks for the info! I will probably use regular size bottles as this my first brew.

Good choice, IMHO. That's what I've been doing and I feel like the time spent bottling is worth it (plus, my wife usually helps out and caps for me while I fill). People are always asking if they can have some of my homebrew and sometimes I like to hoard it for myself...easier to part with 12oz vs 22oz or more.

I usually like a mix of sizes. Most of the time I only drink a 12 but I like to take the bigger bottles to the brew club meetings. When I do a session beer like a Cream Ale I will bottle all of those is 20's.

I'm with the swing tops or 22 oz crowd, especially now since kegging some batches too. Also like using cap-able champagne bottles and 32 oz swing tops. 12 oz are ok, but bottling 48 of em is a pita.

I like the Grolsch bottles......I boil my used bottles,you'd be surprised how much crap comes out of them even when you think they are clean

I have a mix of 22 and grolch swing tops. My favorite liquor store had a whole shelf a grolch bottles that looked like they had been there for years ((covered in dust) they were marked at .50 . I bought all they had, since it was much cheaper then I'd seen online . I went back today and they restocked the shelf. Now marked .95..... Bastards lol


The above answer about growlers mentions adjusting the amount of sugar for bottle size. I used a bottling bucket and filled 12,16, and 22oz bottles. Are my 22s not going to have enough carb, since kit instructions said use 12ioz bottles????

I've found that 22 oz take about a week longer to carb than 12 oz, but they do just fine. Same with 32 oz bottles for that matter.

Brewers:
Finally bottled, so I can preach. It's not so bad! Go for the 22oz. for sure. They seem to be getting scarce, but I found a supplier(in USA), Bob, for Buy Our Bottles. A pallet of 105 cases, or 1260 bottles for $488(38 cents each!). You'd have to get some partners, but, $100 would get you about 20 cases. You could easily pee that $$$ away driving around for small buys.
Advantages: you can experiment with each bottle without having to commit a whole batch: add alcohol(grain neutral spirits, available at some state liquor stores), or dry hop, or both, with any number/combo of hops, other flavors. Experiment!!!
A bottling wand is essential. Mine cost less than $3.
You can open and recap, to check for pressure, carbonation, aroma, etc. If you need to make changes, it costs you only one cap per bottle. If you're conserned with oxidation, add nitrogen or CO2, or, just shake it.
Btw, what the suppliers of flip-tops DO NOT tell you: the tops are plastic, not ceramic, if it matters. The seal of the crown cap is more dependable, and, if you chip the bottle, it's 38 cents. Good luck.

What? Dry hopping in individual bottles? Adding spirits? Recapping to test aroma? Plastic swing top caps are faulty? This all sounds like madness.

Have you tried it?

Nope. You using pellet hops to dry hop in a bottle? Seems like it would be over dose and leave a ton of sediment. Adding spirits isn't for me either, and opening bottles to test aroma seems counter productive as well. Seems you'd be better off doing small 1 gallon batches than messing with bottles. But as the beauty of home brewing is doing your own thing, to each their own.

Check Craigslist. I just bought 750 bottles from someone who manages a bar for $30. Rinsed out w/labels still on.

I know a guy who grabs bottles from the recycling bins at the dump. I guess glass is easy to sterilize, but I can't bring myself to do it. Plus its easy enough to get bottles from friends and my own beer purchases.

I have two balances, one for 0 - 500 grams and one for one-hundredth gram precision. I can weigh hops down to the individual hop. Same with any ingredient. From a 6gal batch I can try dozens of variations. If a vendor would put together a package of assorted hops, but, that would be counter-productive.
As for nhcraigslist.org, I scour it like a crow does a busy highway.
My experimental philosophy has allowed me to work on pharmaceuticals which hundreds of millions of people depend on. Good luck.

The local bottle shop takes back empties. I got 5 cases of 12 oz from them for 5 cents each, the deposit price in MA. They were happy I sorted through their piles because I left it neater than when I started and the brands were grouped better. I selected bottles of the same size because I use a bench capper and did not want to re-set the height each time. Some people like the short Sierra Nevada type. I like the standard #2 longnecks. And I avoided the Sam Adams because the bottles have their name molded in the glass - it's my beer, not theirs.

I have a small variety of bottles for different purposes - 12 oz brown glass, Grolch, 22oz bombers, and 20 oz clear soda bottles. The bench capper manages the 12 oz longnecks and bombers without adjustment - just swing the arm around once to set the cap higher. I do a few soda bottles each time because you can test when the carbonation is complete (they get hard) and see the color and clarity without opening a bottle. The swing-tops are good for sampling and closing if you don't feel like a whole 15 oz at a clip. A bomber or two is nice to take to the brew club - there is enough to pass around for samples.

Removing labels can be difficult. I have tried various things. The most reliable is soaking overnight in a mixture of Oxy-clean and warm water, scrape off as much as you can with a spoon or dull knife, and scrub off residue with a Scotchbrite sponge.

Search for Revvy's post on bottling for good procedures.

Epimetheus said:

Removing labels can be difficult. I have tried various things. The most reliable is soaking overnight in a mixture of Oxy-clean and warm water, scrape off as much as you can with a spoon or dull knife, and scrub off residue with a Scotchbrite sponge.

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I put bottles in a sink full of hot water with a bit of PBW and let them sit for about 20-30 minutes. At that point most brands labels are floating at the top of the water or will come off at the slightest touch. Then use a steel sponge to get the remaining glue residue off. Works great. Or sometimes I'll use bottles from, say, Stone Brewing that have laser-etched labels printed on them so all I have to do is rinse them.

Mtdesh said:

The above answer about growlers mentions adjusting the amount of sugar for bottle size. I used a bottling bucket and filled 12,16, and 22oz bottles. Are my 22s not going to have enough carb, since kit instructions said use 12ioz bottles????

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I think it should be fine. I've bottled 22s the same way and they were carbed enough.

All this talk of buying bottles... I just drink beer and save the bottles... seems like a no-brainer to me... If nothing else, it's an excuse to buy more good beer.

mikerobrewer said:

I put bottles in a sink full of hot water with a bit of PBW and let them sit for about 20-30 minutes. At that point most brands labels are floating at the top of the water or will come off at the slightest touch. Then use a steel sponge to get the remaining glue residue off. Works great.

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^^^^^ How I do it ^^^^

I like 12oz size bottles and I get more than I need as donations from friends as empties. I do the hot soapy water soak method. Some brands labels fall right off, others are near impossible to get off:

Easy labels to remove: Sierra Nevada, Newcastle, Sam Adams.

PITA to remove: Karl Strauss, just about any beer with a label that is super glossy.

mikerobrewer said:

I put bottles in a sink full of hot water with a bit of PBW and let them sit for about 20-30 minutes. At that point most brands labels are floating at the top of the water or will come off at the slightest touch. Then use a steel sponge to get the remaining glue residue off. Works great. Or sometimes I'll use bottles from, say, Stone Brewing that have laser-etched labels printed on them so all I have to do is rinse them.

I think it should be fine. I've bottled 22s the same way and they were carbed enough.

All this talk of buying bottles... I just drink beer and save the bottles... seems like a no-brainer to me... If nothing else, it's an excuse to buy more good beer.

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Dont use steal wool I'm a newb but i save bottles for other reasons do the hot water method as he described and buy a 2 dollar bottle of alcohol and use your thumb nail or a rag you dont like. It is much cleaner and no scratches. Thumb nail is faster btw and i do the peel and alcohol all the time with any sticker lighter price tag whatever quick and easy with no residue.

crharner said:

I have local restaurants save their bottles for me Abdul them...

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???

He's saying get them free in a racist way I think...