glass demijohns for bottling?

Hi, Im an eager newcomer to homebrewing and after making my first batch from a beer extract kit for a bbq and storing it in a keg to great success, i've just started to ferment my next beer kit of thomas coopers ipa. this time however i wont be storing it in a keg because it wont be all guzzled at a bbq! this time ive got 12 0.5 litre bottles and i was going to store the rest in some 1 gallon demijohns, yet i was advised against this by my local shop homebrewer because he said they'd explode under carbonation. but surely its just a case of leaving enough headspace and not using to much sugar for carbonation?

In this case, your shop is trying to steer you in the right direction. I hope when you mean "store" you mean bottle condition. When you bottle condition you need a vessel or bottles capable or made for holding pressure. A Carboy (I hope that's what a Demi John is) will not hold
Pressure because it's not designed to. Get some Cappable bottles, PET bottles like from a Pepsi or coke or swingtops or keg it. But don't try to condition in a Carboy.

This same question comes up about once a month, and there are plenty of people who say that they've carbonated in these vessels without issue and plenty who say they've tried it and they've exploded. So it's about a 50/50 proposition, but when you are talking about a 50% chance of wasting a gallon of beer, having dangerous glass shrapnel everywhere, losing a demijohn, and having to clean the whole thing......there's about a 100% chance I'm not signing up for that possibility.

Worse comes to worse if you can find no other way to bottle, go get a few 2 liter soda bottles from the grocery store and carb in those. They will handle the pressure just fine.

Thanks divrguy and TopherM, you have both steered me clear of covering my kitchen in beer! and TopherM you make a good point, i dont want to take any chances with my beer because im growing increasingly fond of it haha.

the 12 0.5l bottles i was referring to have turned out to be 'swing-tops' (dont judge, newcomer!), i was going to use soda bottles for the rest but all i can think about is having my beer sat in those bottles looking pretty! so i have ordered another box. and also ive ordered 'carbonation drops' -are these any good? or am i substituting quality for simplicity? im not aware of how it might effect the carbonation but imagine they are just simple measured amounts of sugar nothing more...?

another thing, once ive taken a few consecutive hydrometer readings to see if its ready to bottle condition, how should i go about storing them, concerning temperature/light? the shop chap said something about storing somewhere cold, then hot or the other way around? (at this point i had switched off and was in awe of all the beer kits and paraphernalia!)

once again thanks for your help, i cant wait to share the news of my second, better controlled batch when its ready to drink

Demijohns will break under pressure. You can store it in them with an airlock on the top, and bottle later.

Carb drops are just an expensive way to buy sugar.

Once bottled, store at room temperature until ready to drink. They could be ready in 2 weeks, but will be better at 3. Some beers can take several months, but that is usually high gravity beers that have bulked conditioned for several months.

thanks, good clear advice. i think i'll put one by for a year and see what it like too

furstyjaymar13 said:

thanks, good clear advice. i think i'll put one by for a year and see what it like too

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The swing tops are awesome. I have about 6 cases of 16 oz swing tops and I love them. Also like the others said, prime tabs or carb drops will work fine but it will be cheaper in the future to just use priming sugar or table sugar or any of the other many types of sugar available in bulk. It's all learning and tons of fun so no worries. You will in the future try many different methods.