Carbonating????

I am wondering if one could let the beer carbonate in a 5 gallon beverage cooler, and bottle say three weeks later?

Would that work?

Mr Nick said:

I am wondering if one could let the beer carbonate in a 5 gallon beverage cooler, and bottle say three weeks later?

Would that work?

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Well I think it would take carbonation if your beverage cooler sealed tight enough which I'm skeptical of, but I would think that bottling already carbonated beer would be the biggest PITA ever. I would think 3/4 of each bottle would be foam coming out of the wand.. I guess I would have to question why you'd even want to do this?

it IS a pain to bottle pre-carb'd beer. you either need an official beer gun or build your own counter-pressure filler.

I don't understand what's being gained here. if people don't like filling bottles, they just keg. there's not real advantage to priming in a big vessel and then going through the hassle of bottling.

I am not going to purchase a bottle capper and a bunch of brown bottles, that I will have no use for once I can afford a Keg etc. So until then... If one could carbonate in something like a cooler The Beer would spend less time in Clear bottles.
I am going to use a 5 gallon beverage cooler as a bottling bucket any way.

Mr Nick said:

I am not going to purchase a bottle capper and a bunch of brown bottles, that I will have no use for once I can afford a Keg etc.

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I'm sure some feel the same way, but there are a number of situations where it's nice to still use bottles sometimes. Like if you want to brew some big beer that needs months of conditioning, and will also likely take a long time to drink a whole 5 gallon batch - you'd be tying up a keg for a really long time, and for the sake of your liver it's probably best to have it in individual bottles instead of on draft. Also, there are times when you feel like brewing a lot, and don't have enough kegs (of course, if you want to buy a ton of kegs, that's probably not an issue), and it's pretty easy to round up a couple cases of bottles. Or, if you want to give some bottles of beer to your friends/relatives to try.

A basic hand capper costs very little, and I've never had any problems rounding up bottles, from the commercial microbrews drank by me and my friends. If you buy it now, it's not likely to be a waste later on as you'll probably still want to use it occasionally.

So until then... If one could carbonate in something like a cooler The Beer would spend less time in Clear bottles.
I am going to use a 5 gallon beverage cooler as a bottling bucket any way.

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I thought you just said you weren't going to buy a capper? Are you planning to put your beer in clear bottles without caps? As others said, even if you could carbonate in a cooler, bottling the carbonated beer would be a huge mess (and lead to flat beer anyway) unless you invested the money in a beer gun, etc, in which case you could have just done it the normal way for cheaper.

There are plenty of ways to save money in homebrewing, but the proper equipment for bottling is really cheap, and it seems like trying to cut corners here is just going to make the (already grueling) bottling process messier and more annoying, if it even worked out right at all.

Funkenj&#228 said:

I thought you just said you weren't going to buy a capper? Are you planning to put your beer in clear bottles without caps? As others said, even if you could carbonate in a cooler, bottling the carbonated beer would be a huge mess (and lead to flat beer anyway) unless you invested the money in a beer gun, etc, in which case you could have just done it the normal way for cheaper.

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I will be putting my beer in clear plastic pop bottles that have plastic screw on caps.

What does draft beer have to do with liver damage?

Mr Nick said:

I will be putting my beer in clear plastic pop bottles that have plastic screw on caps.

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I don't know what sort of caps you are using, but that probably won't work. You won't get the seal you need, and you will be very unhappy. I know there are some gizmos out there that allow you to do that, but I think you would be better of spending your money on some caps and a capper. The only one I ever trusted is "The Carbonator." However, it ain't cheap, and you need a CO2 tank and fitting to really make it work correctly.

You can round up the bottles, if you just can't stand to buy any. Ask around your LHBS (if you have one) or homebrew club (if you know one). Otherwise, save 'em up.

I bottled for five years before I bought my kegging equipment. I'd say I got my money's worth out of the bottling stuff.


TL

TexLaw said:

I bottled for five years before I bought my kegging equipment. I'd say I got my money's worth out of the bottling stuff.

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I am expecting some extra cash to arrive with in the next month or two, that will probably be enough to purchase the equipment.

How much did the kegging equipment cost you?

Just my two cents on the matter, take it or leave it, but I really feel that a beverage cooler (like people use for mash tuns right?) couldn't possibly hold the pressure that it takes for beer to carbonate. As for bottling carbonated beer, the equipment, (ie: beer gun, Counter pressure bottle filler) required to correctly do that cost way more than a capper and some bottles, not to mention you still need a keg. If you want to drink out of pop bottles, just bottle as you normaly would and crank the caps down as tight as you can get them, put them somewhere away from any children and hope they don't blow up. Please do yourself the favor of buying a 15 dollar capper (cheaper if you find a deal) and salvage some bottels from a local bar. You will be much happier in the long run.

As for kegging equipment you are looking anywhere from $100US on up depending on how involved you want to get, and what kind of deals you can get.


Cheers

If the issue is that the beer is ultimately going to be in clear bottles, keep the bottles in a dark place(or in a box) to limit light exposure. I've seen guys bottle beer in empty two liter soda bottles for that mater(ugh). If you just want an interim solution until you get your kegging equipment go ahead and use the empty 20oz bottles your planning on and just keep them in the dark.

I bottle just a six pack of bottles, I went to my local package store and asked for 8 growlers and some of the 22oz bottles. it's takes no time to fill the growlers, and they make really nice party gifts.

Mr Nick said:

I am expecting some extra cash to arrive with in the next month or two, that will probably be enough to purchase the equipment.

How much did the kegging equipment cost you?

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I've spent over $1000.00 just for the kegging equipment and rebuilding alone...then there's the kegerator, tower, second tank and regulator...then the new keezer and digital temp controller...my great deal on $12 kegs (I have 25 of them) have cost me over $2000.00 counting the extra equipment, etc.

houndhome1 said:

I bottle just a six pack of bottles, I went to my local package store and asked for 8 growlers and some of the 22oz bottles. it's takes no time to fill the growlers, and they make really nice party gifts.

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Are you carbonating in growlers? Most growlers have screw-on caps, with very few threads at that. I don't believe they would be up to the task of holding the pressure of carbonation.

Growlers are made for filling already carbonated beer. And then, they don't hold their carbonation for more than several days, perhaps a week or so at the most.

a 5 gallon beveridge cooler will not seal tightly enough to retain all the carbonation.
and lots of headspace for oxidation potential.

To all who contributed to this thread

Mr Nick said:

To all who contributed to this thread

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Sweeet Jesus.........

OldFarmer said:

Sweeet Jesus.........

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"Wow".... I am humbled.