Plastic bottles and other confessions...

Man, this site is great. Quick responses from people who KNOW a lot about beer.

I know this is sacrilege, but I use 20 packs of plastic water bottles from Wal-Mart. The case only costs me $4, it holds back tremendous carbonation pressures, the water is already sterilized........just pour it out.......and bottle my beer into the 20 ounce bottles. Simple. The case holds 3.75 gallons and is much simpler than cleaning all those glass bottles. And yes, I keep it in the dark to prevent the light from damaging the beer. So is it just tradition that keeps people from doing this??

Another confession. I am almost ashamed of this. I had a batch in which the yeast just flat quit on me. Instead of re-pitching, I wanted to bottle.....and NOW. So I......ummm.......went to the liquor store and bought a fifth of Everclear (grain alcohol) and put it in my wort, primed it and bottled it. And it carbonated just as expected and tastes great. Am I a bad person? (hahahahaha!!)

Oh Good Lord. Next you'll be using a Edsel radiator as a wort chiller...

That's a good idea but... Those bottles will allow your beer to oxidize quicker than HB plastic bottles because they are more permeable by oxygen. It'll be good for a while, but I'd drink it quick.

Chairman Cheyco said:

That's a good idea but... Those bottles will allow your beer to oxidize quicker than HB plastic bottles because they are more permeable by oxygen. It'll be good for a while, but I'd drink it quick.

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Ya know, the more I think about this argument (glass v plastic) the more I wonder about the supposed impermiability of glass. Over time, glass will develop cracks and fissures in the microsurface. Those will allow in air.

Who's to say that a well used carboy isn't as permiable as a plastic fermenter? Plastic is far less brittle than glass.

Solar, have you had problems with the bottom of the bottles buldging out? It seems as though I read that somewhere.

I've yet to brew my first batch. I am prepping for it though.

Out of my collection of standard bottles, I also have a few 32 and 40oz twist-off bottles...aluminum caps with plastic inserts.

Will it be okay to use those a time or two before ditching them? Or should I not even bother? I was just thinking...awe hell, I'm not thinking.

Well, don't feel too bad. I'm using 2 liter pop bottles that are cleaned and sanitized. They are meant to hold pressure and since I pour into a glass anyways, I can't see putting in the time and effort of sanitizing 50-60 glass bottles and don't need caps and a capper either. 10 2-liter bottles and I'm good to go for a 5 gallon batch. I bottle and then put in a dark closet kept at about 68° for 3 weeks.

Oxygenation is not a problem as I usually start drinking them at 2 weeks and finish them up in a couple of weeks. Plus, I think the pop bottles are PET anyway.

I'm pretty sure that there are special plastic bottles that you can buy that are PET, but I would highly doubt the ones you have (standard soda bottles) are.

As noted, some of these approaches may be fine for quick-to-brew, quick-to-drink beers, but you'll need to graduate to a more sophisticated approach if you ever start brewing the kinds of bigger beers that can use more aging.

It just doesnt seem right unless you bottle them in glass. You dont get that nostalgic opening sound with the cap and all that. You get a fizz, but there is no cap!

Austin homebrew has those self opening caps... those are PIMP!