Yet another bottling in 1/2 gallon jugs or growlers inquiry...

So we've all gone through the "don't naturally carbonate yer beer in growlers or it will asplode threads..."

I've bought several 1/2 gallon jugs of beer from various local microbrews, take for example, the Rogue Dead Guy growler:

I think I got the Rogue Dead Guy growler in some liquor store in Delaware, who knows how long it sat on the shelf, and after opening it a couple weeks later, it was still perfectly carbed.

I've had a growler of Mt. Carmel Brewing Company's Copper Ale sitting in my fridge for about 2 months, opened it today, and it's still perfectly carbed.

So if breweries sell growlers of beer that stay carbonated for months, why couldn't you use them to naturally carbonate your beer?

For example, if they were force carbing their beer to 2.6 volumes CO2 and then bottling it in the growlers and it stays carbonated for months, the growler should be able to withstand 2.6 volumes CO2, right? (aside from any carbonation lost during bottling)

What difference would it make naturally carbing the beer to 2.6 volumes CO2 with the appropriate amount of priming sugar?

Thanks,

-Jon

None at all!!! I have done two full batches into 1/2gal growlers, and not the thick ones that Dead Guy comes in. They were fine. Both beers were overcarbonated in my opinion and nothing exploded.

I don't see any issue with this, especially with growlers known to hold pressure like the Dead guy and Mt. Carmel. I've got a couple MC growlers, myself, that i plan on using for cider at some point. Might want to be sure to mimic the headspace that the commercial brewers use, though.

Are the dead guy and mt. carmel growlers different than other brewery's growlers? All the ones I have weigh in at about 2.5 lbs.

The ones I have are 1.5lbs(just put them on the scale) and are generic from a beer store but they hold pressure very nice.

I have 2 from my local brewpub. They fill them and store them as soon as the beer is carbed. They fill them with NO headspace though. I'm not sure if this is common or uncommon or what, but there is never any air at the top, so you have to be very careful when you open them.

If I remember correctly, the ones I've gotten have always had a typical headspace ~1-1.5 inch or so.

It's a poor assumption that all growlers are safe for bottling. I have two half gallon growlers. One weighs a hefty 2.5 lbs; the other barely tips the scale at 1.5. The heavier one would probably be fine for natural conditioning, but I'll never use the other. iamjonsharp makes a good point that not all growlers are created equally.

I've always taken the firm stance, "DON'T USE GROWLERS AS PRESSURE VESSELS." I'm not necessarily going to back down from that stance, since I don't want someone to make an assumption about growlers and wind up getting hurt. However, common sense does prevail...

I used growler for several years to bottle. Most of the time they were fine but I have had 2 explode on me. After the2nd one went I got keg system.

Too much mess to clean up. And could be dangerous too.

I also wondered about this... but im too scurred to risk a growler asploding in my closet to try it. id rather not have to clean up a huge mess and deal with bottling more instead.

Has anyone who had a growler explode use the heavy duty 2.5 lb half gallon jugs?

I'm interested in using the Growlers as a time saver too. But wouldn't the twist on caps start to loosen after repeated uses? I haven't seen anywhere to just buy caps for these things.

Is there anything large like a growler with a crimp-on cap?

Dagatris said:

I'm interested in using the Growlers as a time saver too. But wouldn't the twist on caps start to loosen after repeated uses? I haven't seen anywhere to just buy caps for these things.

Is there anything large like a growler with a crimp-on cap?

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There are some brands of sparkling wine that come in a bottle that has a gasket with the wire lever to seal it back up. Those should work and are the same volume as a standard wine bottle.

They hold pressure fine if you close them real tight. the problem is growler bombs.

i have several of the dead guy bottles. if I am goin to re seal them do I need to buy a rubber gasket or something to seal them again or can I just re screw on the cap tightly ?

i have several 1/2 gallon jugs, some from a local brewery (blue point) and some from a distributor down the street. They're all pretty hefty. I also have 1 gallon jugs that I purchased from an online HBS. the 1/2 gallon jugs are thicker and heavier than the 1 gallon jugs. I'm guessing that the 1/2 gallon jugs are meant to hold pressure. They're amber jugs and are stamped with either the brewery name or some kind of brewing related advertisement. So far, in my limited search, I've only been able to find clear 1/2 gallon jugs that clearly state that they're not meant to hold pressure. Also, I've found 38 MM caps that state that they are meant to hold pressure without leaking. I think the "brewery grade" growlers would be fine to naturally carb in, but I guess an experiment is in order.

mikeysab said:

i have several 1/2 gallon jugs, some from a local brewery (blue point) and some from a distributor down the street. They're all pretty hefty. I also have 1 gallon jugs that I purchased from an online HBS. the 1/2 gallon jugs are thicker and heavier than the 1 gallon jugs. I'm guessing that the 1/2 gallon jugs are meant to hold pressure. They're amber jugs and are stamped with either the brewery name or some kind of brewing related advertisement. So far, in my limited search, I've only been able to find clear 1/2 gallon jugs that clearly state that they're not meant to hold pressure. Also, I've found 38 MM caps that state that they are meant to hold pressure without leaking. I think the "brewery grade" growlers would be fine to naturally carb in, but I guess an experiment is in order.

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Used them for a few years. It worked fine if you don't consider the 2 that exploded on me. They are not meant to hold pressure. trust me.

I would say that if the beer is already carbed and they put it in the growler no pressure was created no explosion , but you put uncarbed beer and allow it to carb lots of pressure would build up causing. The explosion.