Switching to Better Bottles?

I have finally decided to try Better Bottles and am looking for suggestions from those who have experience using them.

What types of caps/covers/airlocks are best when used with Better Bottles?

Should I get the racking adapter and high flow valve or just use my wedges and rack the old fashioned way?

I don't really know what other questions to ask but any other tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Hi, I use both glass and better bottles. I just have the regular 6.5 gallon (I think) better bottle to primary, just a stopper I got at the LHBS with a hole in it for either an airlock or a blowoff tube. Nothing else. I rack using the autosiphon and tube.

I've read about some problems folks had with the racking adapters in terms of sanitation, I think. I don't have one on my better bottles- autosiphon works for me.

Carboy caps work on a better bottle, but they loosen with time. I'm probably going to add hose clamps to mine, as I use the stem on the cap to make my blowoff tube.

Make sure you have some Oxiclean free (unscented), as that's the preferred method for cleaning bb's. You can drop a washcloth in there to swish it around, but keep your brush away from the bottle- it'll scratch it. Also know that the bottle flexes a bit when you lift it with beer inside, which can cause suckback on the airlock. I use blowoffs for all my ferments, partially to avoid that.

I wouldn't bother buying the extras with the BB, they are way overpriced. I use carboy caps with mine and they work great.
+1 on the Oxyclean free to clean them. Let it soak for a while and rinse.
Don't move a full carboy with the airlock on or you will cause suck back due to the flexibility of the bottle.
Other than not using a brush on them, they are just like using a glass carboy but without the weight.

I use all better bottles, and for caps I use the orange universal carboy caps that stretch around the outside of the neck. Any standard airlock works with them. I also have all ported better bottles and I love them. My process is siphonless.

I have the maroon carboy caps because I was told they were designed for the neck size of the better bottles. Was I misled?

i was curious myself to see if they work as well as the website says. In theory it sounds good.

bytemyfoot said:

I have the maroon carboy caps because I was told they were designed for the neck size of the better bottles. Was I misled?

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Not at all. I have two orange ones and they do NOT fit snug at all. Then again, I have nothing else to compare it too so it's possible that they fit just as snug as they do on a glass carboy. But I do think the most caps won't fit snug on a BB carboy from the text I've read on various sites for the part description.

I use a # 10 rubber stopper with the hole drilled in it for the air lock works
good...

I ponied up for a couple of the BB caps and airlocks. They are very handy if headspace is an issue for you, since they only stick up a couple inches (as opposed to a typical airlock). I really like the hard plastic, and they fit perfectly and won't push into the beer like a stopper may.

That said, just like the racking adapter for the BB, they are farking EXPENSIVE. If they were about 1/4 the cost, I'd go with them exclusively, but they are just too much to justify the cost.

Ya, they really do need to come down on the cost of their better bottle accessories. If they were half the price I would have bought them. I went with the #10 "bung" style stopper and 3 peice airlock instead (for a whopping $3).

I have two ported 6 gallon Better Bottles with racking adapters and high flow valves. It's expensive, but not having to siphon any more is priceless. I also bought the cap and dry airlock, and even though they are expensive, they just work so well with the bottles that I don't regret buying them at all.

-Steve

Just curious. Why do you want to get the better boys/carboys? I'm a bucket believer. I considered making the switch, but besides being able to watch my beer like a science project, there seem to be more cons than pros.

jaynik said:

Just curious. Why do you want to get the better boys/carboys? I'm a bucket believer. I considered making the switch, but besides being able to watch my beer like a science project, there seem to be more cons than pros.

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Buckets are made from HDPE. They're not as "safe" as the PET better bottles. More potential to leech chemicals. If glass carboys didn't weigh 30lbs and put people in the hospital I'd have bough one of those instead of the BB. The BB is the right balance of being truely "food safe" and easy to handle. Plus, its cool to be able to watch the whole process go down instead of just wondering what's going on in the bucket.

I just switched to these after I had a carboy explode from the blowoff getting plugged

jaynik said:

Just curious. Why do you want to get the better boys/carboys? I'm a bucket believer. I considered making the switch, but besides being able to watch my beer like a science project, there seem to be more cons than pros.

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I was going to consider switching to buckets and started my first batch with a bucket I bought at MoreBeer but I just went to look at the product description and noticed this text they have. Only 5 times? Wow. Plus their recommended cleaning and sanitizing isn't what I was thinking was necessary. Now I'm not so sure what to do.

Do you ferment in a plastic bucket?

When fermenting in a plastic bucket it is important to remember that plastic can easily scratch. We recommend using a bucket no more than five times for fermentation purposes do to the vulnerability. If you feel you can reuse a bucket longer than this by all means go for it! If you are going to make this possible it is important to clean and sanitize a bucket without using rough sponges or coarse scrub pads. Super soft sponges used for washing your cars or an old cotton t-shirt are acceptable but still be careful when using these.

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I own better bottles, glass carboys and a plastic bucket. After buying 2 better bottles along with my fermenting bucket, I wish I just bought 2 more buckets at a fraction of the cost.

Sure, with better bottles you can see whats going on. But aside from that, I see no advantages over a bucket. Both are plastic. And I don't know how other people clean these things, but I find better bottles awfully hard to clean. You can't use brushes (they scratch) and no matter how many times I rinse them, you still have a beer smell from the last batch.

I wouldn't buy another better bottle.

Buckets FTW. Cheap, easy to use/lift/carry, easy to clean, just easy. I'll be phasing out my 6.5g glass carboys and going to all 7.9 gallon buckets. Plenty of room for fermentation.

Mike

Shoemaker said:

Sure, with better bottles you can see whats going on. But aside from that, I see no advantages over a bucket. Both are plastic. And I don't know how other people clean these things, but I find better bottles awfully hard to clean. You can't use brushes (they scratch) and no matter how many times I rinse them, you still have a beer smell from the last batch.

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The ported Better Bottles have an advantage over plastic buckets in that you can rack easily without siphoning. Better Bottles also have a much smaller opening than buckets to reduce exposure to air.

I clean my Better Bottles with water and PBW. No scrubbing, just occasional agitation. Very easy, and they never carry over a smell from a previous batch.

-Steve

hmmm....sounds appealing. Where can I buy this stuff cheaply? I've spent too much on homebrewing in the past few weeks to buy more!

SavageSteve said:

The ported Better Bottles have an advantage over plastic buckets in that you can rack easily without siphoning. Better Bottles also have a much smaller opening than buckets to reduce exposure to air.

I clean my Better Bottles with water and PBW. No scrubbing, just occasional agitation. Very easy, and they never carry over a smell from a previous batch.

-Steve

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Isn't the adapter on the BB nothing more than a spigot found on bottling buckets? So a proper comparison would be a BB with the adapter against a bucket with a spigot?

Also, do you have any leaking problems with your BBs? I would fear leaks on any primary I used that had an opening at the bottom. And, how are you keeping your BB cool? I just started submerging my BB in a cooler of water and I'm not too sure it would be sanitary to have the adapter down in the water.

pretzelb said:

Isn't the adapter on the BB nothing more than a spigot found on bottling buckets? So a proper comparison would be a BB with the adapter against a bucket with a spigot?

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Not at all the same thing. The BB racking adapter has a tub inside the beer that you can rotate to adjust the pickup level to leave the minimum amount of beer behind and not disturb trub cake. You can't adjust the pickup level of a spigoted fermentation bucket and you can't see inside to set the racking level if you could. If you are familiar with conical fermenters it is a plastic version of a conical's racking arm.

Shoemaker said:

I own better bottles, glass carboys and a plastic bucket. After buying 2 better bottles along with my fermenting bucket, I wish I just bought 2 more buckets at a fraction of the cost.

Sure, with better bottles you can see whats going on. But aside from that, I see no advantages over a bucket. Both are plastic. And I don't know how other people clean these things, but I find better bottles awfully hard to clean. You can't use brushes (they scratch) and no matter how many times I rinse them, you still have a beer smell from the last batch.

I wouldn't buy another better bottle.

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Again... plastic is not plastic. There are different types of plastic that contain different types of chemicals. Plastics require additives and chemicals to achieve certain consitencies and properties (to make them solid and remain that way, and to give them the ability to handle holding certain materials). Over the past 20 years much research has been done into determining which plastics are ok for which applications. And which additives are more safe and which additives have more potential health risks. While buckets may be "food grade" I can't find any listings anywhere of where, how, and what theyr'e manufcatured with. All I know is they're HDPE (High Density Poly Ethylene). However the BB people have gone above and beyong to layout exactly what is used in making their bottles. That gives me a very high degree of confidence in their product.

Food grade simply means the plastic meets some standards set out by the FDA. Food grade does not mean its safe for beer. There are different types of food grade plastics for different materials being stored, different acidity levels, etc. etc. I have no confidence that the buckets sold with home brew kits are truely the right things for the pupose. AND since they're not actually selling them with anythign in them they probably don't have to follow any sort of guidelines as to what sortof "food grade" plastic they use.

You may be a person who doesn't really care about this sort of thing. Hell, I saw some guy in one of the DIY Project forum threads had built a 3 tier all-grain brewing setup using empty 5 gal paint buckets (complete with the spent lids, YIKES!). I fermented my first batch in a bucket, and that will be my last batch in a bucket. I'm ok with using a bottling bucket because of the short exposure time, but anythign longer than an hour is going into a BB. If somewhere down the road someone deems the BB's to be anything less than what the company claims I'm on to glass. I'm no health nut, but its important to me what I put into my body and if I can avoid nasty chemicals I will. The BB company has instilled me with much confidence that their product is as safe for me as they can possibly make it given the technology available.

dantodd said:

Not at all the same thing. The BB racking adapter has a tub inside the beer that you can rotate to adjust the pickup level to leave the minimum amount of beer behind and not disturb trub cake. You can't adjust the pickup level of a spigoted fermentation bucket and you can't see inside to set the racking level if you could. If you are familiar with conical fermenters it is a plastic version of a conical's racking arm.

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Sure you can.


Take off the nut on the bottling spigot, and replace it with a PVC elbow. Or a pickup arm made of whatever. Its not all that tough.

The only negative thing I have to say about BB is how hard they are to clean. If they didnt have the edges on the sides the trub would not stick to it like rings around the BB. Very hard to clean that.

FireNightFly said:

The only negative thing I have to say about BB is how hard they are to clean. If they didnt have the edges on the sides the trub would not stick to it like rings around the BB. Very hard to clean that.

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My guess would be they have to build in those ridges for stability. If they were completely smooth the sides would probably bulge outward instead of maintaining a cylindrical shape.

Lotsa questions/statements to answer:

The racking adapter is not comparable to a bucket with a spigot. You can rotate it to avoid picking up any trub or yeast. You could make something comparable with a bucket and some kind of rotating arm, but I prefer a product that's been designed specifically to do that rather than build one myself.

I have never had any leaks with the spigot and racking arm. The teflon coated o-rings seal very well against the bottle wall and allow the parts to rotate very smoothly.

I cool my BB's during fermentation in a freezer. I've never submersed them in water, but I suppose you could put it in a bag first and then submerse it to prevent the chance that water might make it's way through the spigot.

Cleaning a BB is easy. I use Powdered Brewery Wash (PBW, readily available at your LHBS or any online vendor), but others have used OxiClean with success. There's no need to scrub a BB-- just let the water and the chemicals do the work.

-Steve

FireNightFly said:

The only negative thing I have to say about BB is how hard they are to clean. If they didnt have the edges on the sides the trub would not stick to it like rings around the BB. Very hard to clean that.

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Fill with warm tap water and a scoop of oxiclean. Wait two days. Empty. Done.

Synovia said:

Sure you can.


Take off the nut on the bottling spigot, and replace it with a PVC elbow. Or a pickup arm made of whatever. Its not all that tough.

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I said the spigot doesn't have an adjustable pickup point. I didn't say that it wasn't hackable....

Does anybody have a picture of their 6 gallon Better Bottle with a 5 gallon marker? The picture on the website is a little bit too small to tell exactly where it is.

And no, I can't fill mine up a gallon at a time to make my own marks right now because I have a Saison happily fermenting away in it.

EvilGnome6 said:

Does anybody have a picture of their 6 gallon Better Bottle with a 5 gallon marker? The picture on the website is a little bit too small to tell exactly where it is.

And no, I can't fill mine up a gallon at a time to make my own marks right now because I have a Saison happily fermenting away in it.

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I can snap one when I get home tonight, unless someone else has one.

-Steve

As promised, photos of the 5 gallon mark on a 6 gallon Better Bottle:

5 gallon mark on a 6 gallon Better Bottle. - HomeBrewTalk Gallery
Close up of the 5 and 5.25 gallon marks on a 6 gallon Better Bottle. - HomeBrewTalk Gallery

Essentially, the 5 gallon mark is the midpoint of the topmost textured rib.

Please forgive the water spots.

-Steve

SavageSteve said:

As promised, photos of the 5 gallon mark on a 6 gallon Better Bottle:

5 gallon mark on a 6 gallon Better Bottle. - HomeBrewTalk Gallery
Close up of the 5 and 5.25 gallon marks on a 6 gallon Better Bottle. - HomeBrewTalk Gallery

Essentially, the 5 gallon mark is the midpoint of the topmost textured rib.

Please forgive the water spots.

-Steve

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SavageSteve, you're my hero! :rockin:

Are these bottles not the same as your 5 gallon water bottles used for our home/office water dispencing sytems?

EvilGnome6 said:

SavageSteve, you're my hero! :rockin:

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I definitely don't hear that often enough!

-Steve

89OctaneStang said:

Are these bottles not the same as your 5 gallon water bottles used for our home/office water dispencing sytems?

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Water bottle from the office are usually #7 plastic (good for water), what we want are bottles with #1 or #2 plastic (good for alcohol & fuels).

89OctaneStang said:

Are these bottles not the same as your 5 gallon water bottles used for our home/office water dispencing sytems?

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No, made out of a less permeable material. Extended storage in the home/office bottles might lead to oxidation. Look on the bottom of your bottles, if they have a 1 or 2 in the recycle symbol then you are probably dealing with PET and good to go if you have a higher number most folks say to not risk it, especially for longer periods.

SavageSteve said:

Essentially, the 5 gallon mark is the midpoint of the topmost textured rib.

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I should rephrase this: the 5 gallon mark is the midpoint of the textured area of the topmost rib. The textured area is not centered on the rib. Hopefully, this is consistent on Better Bottles.

-Steve

SavageSteve said:

I should rephrase this: the 5 gallon mark is the midpoint of the textured area of the topmost rib. The textured area is not centered on the rib. Hopefully, this is consistent on Better Bottles.

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Gee, textured, ribbed..... you sure we're just talking about fermentation bottles here?

Synovia said:

Fill with warm tap water and a scoop of oxiclean. Wait two days. Empty. Done.

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Really it's easier, or at least quicker, than that.

Dump trub and yeast. Put 1/2 gallon or so hot tap H2O in the bottle. Cap with your hand and shake vigorously. (BTW do NOT try this with a wet glass carboy) Repeat until fairly clean. Usually all that remains is some dried krausen stuck on the very top of the carboy and the neck. Put a half scoop or less of your favorite cleaner (I use PBW, but Oxyclean is fine too) and 1 gallon of hot tap H2O. Invert into the sink into a bowl of water so the stuck on gunk is under the waterline. Come back in an hour and rinse thoroughly. You don't need to mix gallons of cleaner or let it sit overnight. Takes 5 min x 2 with an hour in between. No tools and only a little cleaner.

To sanitize but about a pint of starsan in the clean container and swirl and shake to coat the interior - again, this is a bad idea with glass because starsan is slippery.


BTW I love my BB