growlers

Has anyone used half gallon jugs or growlers with twist off lids to bottle their beer?

I have seen it done with twist off like bottle caps or 2 liter caps but not with mason jar type lids. I wasn't sure which you were referring to when you said jugs as I have 1/2gal mason jars I use for starters.

"Jug " like this. Not sure if it would carbonate. I have some "insulated" caps not sure how long these will hold for.. I would think they would be like the regular bottles

If you're talking about attempting to carb/bottle condition in a growler, read this.

And

Lechien said:

This is direct from northern brewer website:
Standard issue 64 oz liquid libation transport vessel for the Civilian Brewing Division. This growler features a blank white space for adding in details on the beer inside and date bottled; using a dry-erase marker allows you to change it at any time. Takes a #6 stopper or a 38 mm screw cap. Pressure capable to 2.4 volumes of co2, not recommended for highly carbonated beers. Avoid bottle carbonating or priming with these growlers, as an unintentionally high level of carbonation could cause the glass to break.
Civilian Brewing Division Growler : Northern Brewer

I would hate to see you have a mess.

Click to expand...

A growler is a half gallon (64 oz) and there are wine-jugs that are a full gallon (128oz).

Before I started kegging I used both of these types often. I always would bottle into them as normal, but then I would melt some wax and dip the caps into it. I just had an aluminum-type pie pan that I had a melted candle in, that I would re-melt every time I bottled.

After the wax melted, I would give it a minute to cool off a bit so it would "stick" to the bottlecaps, and then I'd tilt it upside-down into the hot wax. After a few dips it should appear thick enough around any potential openings that there's no way any gas could snake out of the spiral in the twist cap.

Could it be done without the wax? I don't know- I've never tried. Never wanted to gamble 64 or more ounces of homebrew, I opted to err on the side of caution instead.

One warning though- I used to use a combination of growlers and wine jugs but eventually my one-gallon wine jugs exploded. They probably are an inferior grade of glass. They held up to probably 5-10 bottle conditions but at some point they couldn't take the pressure. Growlers, conversely, I've never had blow up.

It's a great way to take homebrew to a party.

I carbed some apfelwein in a few but wrapped the threads on the bottle neck with teflon pipe tape before I screwed the lids on. I really would not recommend it for something as important as beer though. My .02.

I tried it before with the standard white metal cap but had trouble with carbonation. I found some caps that have an insulated.. they should be ready in another 2 weeks or so.. ill update when I try one.. I really like the idea of using wax to seal the bottles but that's when I would worry about exploding bottles..