first post-bottling question

hey everyone this is my first post. i just made my first brew and its fermenting as we speak. i planned to bottle and prime in 2 liter soda bottles or some old beer bottles i hav. i want to giv some to my friends but they r really put off by the sediment in the bottom. would it b possible to bottle and prime in the 2 liters and then after two weeks transfer it to the bottles and let it age in the bottles without airating the beer or having it go flat? if so wat would be the best way? thanks alot!

Only question I have is why on earth you're even considering soda bottles...

i dont kno? will they not hold up?

I'd imagine if soda didn't make em explode, beer wouldn't either. But something about it just seems 'wrong.' Plus, they're usually clear or green which is typically not good for beer anyways. Possibly they will impart some nasty plastic flavor into the beer as well (a more experienced brewer than I can tell you if I'm wrong on that).

If you're hurting for bottles, do what I did. I invited a bunch of friends over to play cards, BYOB - no twist off bottles. I ended up with 3.5 cases of empties just from drinking, and a few kind souls brought over some bottles they were planning on recycling, so I ended up with 7 cases.

I have to scrub labels off, but it's going to be worth it.

Just my 0.02...

i can get enough bottles i would just like to get the yeast and all of the sediment out of the bottom so i wondered if this would work. i plan to put it into bottles after it recarbonates but i just wondered if this would really affect the beer taste or make it really flat. if it will i will just bottle strait into the glass bottles.

jezter6 said:

I'd imagine if soda didn't make em explode, beer wouldn't either. But something about it just seems 'wrong.' Plus, they're usually clear or green which is typically not good for beer anyways. Possibly they will impart some nasty plastic flavor into the beer as well (a more experienced brewer than I can tell you if I'm wrong on that).

Click to expand...

You can definately use the bottles, and you won't get plastic flavors from them. They are food grade materials and won't leach flavors (otherwise your soda would taste like plastic.)

However, the idea of conditioning the beer in soda bottles and then tranferring to bottles to avoid sediment would almost certainly result in flat beer.

Sediment in bottled homebrew is simply a fact of life that your friends will just have to get used to. If it bothers them that much, have them chip in and buy you a kegging set-up.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using soda bottles for bottling except for aesthetics and perception. Mr. Beer kits actually come with plastic soda-like bottles. When dealing with green or clear bottles, just keep 'em out of the light, and your beer will be fine.

As for your idea, it's not a bad one, but the bottle sediment associated with homebrew is really pretty minimal and not usually objectionable. Just pour slowly and leave a tiny bit of beer in the bottle. If you're really bent on trying this, chill the beer and the bottles to almost freezing before VERY gently transferring it to the glass bottles. Any agitation will cause the CO2 to come out of solution, and your beer will be sediment free and flatter than the chick in high school who never got a date.

thanks for all the responses. i think im gonna giv it a try. its only gonna b five of my 48 beers and i doubt they will b undrinkable. even if they are i will still drink em. i will let u kno if it works. anyone else i would love ur imput as well.

another option would be to go to kegging and get a counter pressure bottle filler or beer gun. you force carbonate, and let all lees settle out, then when you bottle, you only bottle beer, and get no sediment.

The easiest solution is to teach your friends how to correctly pour a homebrew. Seriously, you go through all the trouble to brew a delicious batch and some jackass is going to snub his nose at the sediment? Why don't they stick to their storebought and leave the good stuff to you?

Regarding the plastic bottles, I like the Coors light 16oz PET bottles that come in the 18 pack cooler boxes. I had a few BBQs over the summer and my family polished off a ton of that swill and left me with a few cases of empties. The only problem is, you're giving away full 16 ozers instead of 12. I finally bit the bullet and bought a capper and I can tell you the perception of quality is much higher when you uncap the glass bottle. My next experiment will be a blind taste test between the two.

In case your friends dont know how to pour a homebrew....






Cheers,

knewshound

how much sediment will there be? does neone hav a picture?

Assuming you rack the beer into the bottling bucket carefully leaving the trub behind, all you should end up with is the settled yeast from bottle carbing (about 1/16" layer on the bottom of the bottle).

If you have enough suspended yeast left to recarbonate in a new bottle, you'll have a whole new layer of sediment.

A friend of mine used to know some people who made homebrew back when he was in college, and the sediment thing is no issue with him. Paraphrasing his words from memory, "The best ones were the ones with the most stuff on the bottom. If I saw one of those, I was like, give me that one."