Bottle Conditioning in a GROWLER??

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StrictlyIPAs

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I don't have enough bottles, so before I run to the brew supply store, I was wondering if I could siphon 64oz of beer into my growler and let it bottle condition for a month... Could this work?

Thanks!:ban:
 
People around here have done it. I personally never would because I don't trust that growler glass is made to withstand that pressure, and I'm not 100% sold a twist on cap will seal it properly, but if you do a search there are people who have no problems with this.
 
i've had two growlers break on me. they were really thick, but still not designed to hold pressure...two different types of bottles, both with swing-tops.
 
i've had two growlers break on me. they were really thick, but still not designed to hold pressure...two different types of bottles, both with swing-tops.

Are you referring to these: Austin Homebrew Supply ?

I've used a very similar style to bottle in twice, with no ill effects, but may not take chances if you've had 2 break. I figured that since they aren't screw caps they'd hold the pressure okay. Maybe I'll save it for when I bottle Ed's Apfelwein still.
 
no, i had one given to me and another i got from drake's brewery.

on the other hand, i have some swingtop bottles from Triple Rock (32 oz bottles i beleive, not really growlers) that are MADE to hold pressure and work very well.
 
do you have any soda bottles? I use them all the time. They work fine, but you have to pretty much decant them all at once after you open them. If you keep tipping the bottle, it'll stir up all the yeast.

Also make sure you condition them in the dark.
 
(from a post I made a while back, nearly a year ago, as I look at the date)


Ok, this bashing of proper screw on growlers has got to stop. I use them regularly (1-2 for each brew, more if I have them empty).

You simply have to use the right screw-on-top. Air locks - Rubber stoppers - Screw caps - Bungs - Wine making supplies - Beer Polyseal caps will solve any and all carbonation problems. I've opened growlers 9 months past bottling, and they are as carbonated then, as they were a month after... and the same carbonation as the traditional capped bottles.

In fact, it's likely that in my next visit to the LHBS, I'll be picking up a couple more... or perhaps grabbing a few that are already full of beer.
 
Interesting reads everyone. So, other than DeathBrewer, are there any other confirmed explosions from growlers being used for conditioning? I've read in another thread that people were worried about larger amounts of yeast settling at the bottom of the larger growler bottle. Anyone have any experiences with this occurrence or anything else of note?

BTW DeathBrewer, thanks for the great partial mash tutorial. Just did my first one. I think I pushed the limits with 4 lbs of grain! :)
 
(from a post I made a while back, nearly a year ago, as I look at the date)


Ok, this bashing of proper screw on growlers has got to stop. I use them regularly (1-2 for each brew, more if I have them empty).

You simply have to use the right screw-on-top. Air locks - Rubber stoppers - Screw caps - Bungs - Wine making supplies - Beer Polyseal caps will solve any and all carbonation problems. I've opened growlers 9 months past bottling, and they are as carbonated then, as they were a month after... and the same carbonation as the traditional capped bottles.

In fact, it's likely that in my next visit to the LHBS, I'll be picking up a couple more... or perhaps grabbing a few that are already full of beer.

The issue is not that they lose pressure or carbonation over time, the issue is that if sealed properly with the caps you linked, they could turn into bottle bombs. Most growlers aren't designed to hold the types of pressure that carbonating creates. I know that many brewers use them without problems, but if one gets just a little overcarbed, or if a growler has a small flaw in it, it could fail.

From my experience they typically fail where the bottom meets the sides, and don't really make bottle "bombs", so much as just turn into removeable bottom bottles at inconvenient times. I used a couple growlers when bottling my first several brews without a problem, probably 9 or 10 times. The first time I had to clean up 64oz of beer while SWMBO yelled at me, I stopped bottling in growlers.
 
From my experience they typically fail where the bottom meets the sides, and don't really make bottle "bombs", so much as just turn into removeable bottom bottles at inconvenient times. I used a couple growlers when bottling my first several brews without a problem, probably 9 or 10 times. The first time I had to clean up 64oz of beer while SWMBO yelled at me, I stopped bottling in growlers.

Yeah, mine just cracked under the pressure and the beer soaked the boxes they were sitting in. I didn't even notice until I pulled it out and the bottom came off.
 
Yeah, mine just cracked under the pressure and the beer soaked the boxes they were sitting in. I didn't even notice until I pulled it out and the bottom came off.

The bottom of mine fell off as I was carrying it through the living room to put in the fridge. No pop, no explosion, just plain fell off. It was almost cool the way it separated from the rest of the bottle so perfectly, but the mess created pretty much cancelled out the coolness.
 
I had one break too. I had a couple of growlers we were using for bottling. They worked fine for a few batches, then one day my buddy went to grab one from where it was stored under his kitchen table - found the bottom was no longer part of the growler and the beer had long ago seeped into the floor. To me it's not worth the risk of losing the beer.
 
Thanks everyone. A small part of me wants to try it just to see if the bottom of my growler falls off as well. BUT, the growler has sentimental value (as most do, I supopse), 64 oz of homebrew is pretty valuable, and I trust that even if I got away with once or twice I'd eventually be writing a post on this board about how the bottom of my growler fell off. I'll think I'll choose to learn the easy way on this one and stick to reused 12 oz and 22 oz bottles.
 
I've got a buddy who bottle-conditions in plastic Nalgene bottles (BPA-free of course). He's got a few different sizes, including the 64oz. He said it's his favorite beer bottle since it is shatterproof and leakproof, and light. He bought it at Midwest Mountaineering, which is similar to REI.
 
Okay, maybe this has been said, but (and I should add I am thinking about this for mead, but thought the experts here could weigh in) I am wanting to make some mead. For cost and convenience, can I rack from carboy into 1/2 gallon carboys with polyseal tops? Like these: http://www.letsdowine.com/onehagajug.html

Thanks.
 
I'm resurecting this thread as I have two kegs, and hate bottling in small bottles but like to have additional beers around. I have amassed 4 growlers and plan to get to 8 so I can try and bottle condition in them. I have asked around and the guys at Stone brewery (two of them) said they routinely put homebrew in their growlers....the stone growlers are rubber lock tops and they are heavy...i.e. the glass is thick. Question...if the beer comes out of the tap at a certain carbonation, and is filled to the brim...shouldn't the bottle condtioned beer end up at the same carb or 'explosiveness' level assuming you shoot for that in the amount of sugar you add? Stone and Ballast Point in SD fill their growlers to the very top...and also offer higher carb belgian type beers in the same growlers....

just curious...has anyone had any trouble bottle conditioning in Stone, Ballast Point, Alesmith, or Russian River growlers?
 
I'm resurecting this thread as I have two kegs, and hate bottling in small bottles but like to have additional beers around. I have amassed 4 growlers and plan to get to 8 so I can try and bottle condition in them. I have asked around and the guys at Stone brewery (two of them) said they routinely put homebrew in their growlers....the stone growlers are rubber lock tops and they are heavy...i.e. the glass is thick. Question...if the beer comes out of the tap at a certain carbonation, and is filled to the brim...shouldn't the bottle condtioned beer end up at the same carb or 'explosiveness' level assuming you shoot for that in the amount of sugar you add? Stone and Ballast Point in SD fill their growlers to the very top...and also offer higher carb belgian type beers in the same growlers....

just curious...has anyone had any trouble bottle conditioning in Stone, Ballast Point, Alesmith, or Russian River growlers?

Already carbed beer, ie. kegged beer is not the problem. It's that there's a risk in carbonating beer in one. Carbonating and carbonated are two different animals.

To carb a beer whether or not is is done naturally or with co2 you are forcing the gas into the solution. The pressure builds up, then there's a point where either the bottle fails or the co2, seeking the path of least resistance, forces itself into solution. You could call it a peak point, where there is a lot of pressure in the bottle, both already in solution and in the headspace trying to go into the solution, eventually it balances out and the beer is carbed.

Beer bottles, champagne bottles and kegs are rated with a higher psi/volume of co2 than wine bottles and growlers.

Already carbed and kegged beer is at a stable volume of co2 which is below the volume that growlers and winebottles are rated at. The FORCING of the co2 already happened. Why do you think kegs are made of metal and very very strong? To handle the pressure.

Our Buddy Rukus

This is because during carbing, the pressure can go above 30 or 40 PSI. I have a thread in the cider forum where I did several tests bottle carbing sweet hard cider. There is allot of data there if your interested.

I have a bottle with a pressure gauge on it. I recorded pressures during the carbing process. This is how the data was generated. I also recorded pressures while pasteurizing the cider.

I recently bottled some lager I made. I also filled my gauge bottle and my lower pressure gauge bottle pegged at 35 PSI as that was the limit of the gauge. It probably ended up in the 40's, but no way to tell for sure.


When we bottle condition beer, we are really simulating force carbing like the keg folks do. We cause a ferment by adding sugar. This creates a high pressure in the bottle. CO2 doesn't like to dissolve in a warm liquid. We then put some bottles in the fridge. The temperature of the liquid drops and the CO2 then begins to dissolve in the liquid.

It seems to take several days at fridge temperatures for the CO2 to fully saturate the liquid for a maximum saturation for that liquid temperature.

While the CO2 is moving into the liquid, the pressure slowly drops. I've monitored this process as well with the pressure gauge.

Pressures go way higher than folks think while bottle conditioning. In the following data, I carbed sweet hard cider and stopped the carbing and then pasteurized the cider when the bottle was at 22 PSI. My Lager went above 35 PSI. The data doesn't show the extremes the pressure rises with beer as I stopped the cider at 22 PSI, but it would have continued if i hadn't stopped it.

The gauge bottle has a nice side effect, it tells you when your bottles are conditioned as the pressure rise stops. I then throw them in the Fridge to cold condition for several days before I open. The gauge also tells you when they are carbed as the pressure drop stops. Pretty basic really.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/bottle-carbing-idea-final-data-review-205862/

PressureTest-1.jpg

No, when you bottle condition, the slight fermentation we cause by adding priming sugar just builds pressure up in the bottle. The pressures seem to go up into the 30's and 40's PSI from what I've seen.

The CO2 doesn't really move into the liquid until the temperature drops. Some CO2 may, but not the majority of it. CO2 doesn't dissolve into solution until a lower temperature.

This is really what we do when we force carb in a keg. We raise the pressure up when the beer is cold. The CO2 moves into the solution. The tap pressure is lowered for proper delivery and the beer either sets for cold aging, or it is consumed at that time.

What you would see with the pressure gauge (if you use one bigger than my first bottle had. Should use a 100 PSI Gauge) is that the pressure climbs over time and will level off.

Once the pressure levels off, that means all of the priming sugar has been used up by the yeast. Next, you put them into the fridge. You will see the pressure drop over several days. Eventually, it also will level off. I like to let them sit for a few more days after that, but really if the pressure stops dropping, all of the CO2 that can be dissolved at that temperature has been achieved.
.

I think it goes down to this.....is it worth playing Russian Roulette with your money and the time you spent bringing your brew along from grain to bottling day???
 
I'm resurecting this thread as I have two kegs, and hate bottling in small bottles but like to have additional beers around. I have amassed 4 growlers and plan to get to 8 so I can try and bottle condition in them. I have asked around and the guys at Stone brewery (two of them) said they routinely put homebrew in their growlers....the stone growlers are rubber lock tops and they are heavy...i.e. the glass is thick. Question...if the beer comes out of the tap at a certain carbonation, and is filled to the brim...shouldn't the bottle condtioned beer end up at the same carb or 'explosiveness' level assuming you shoot for that in the amount of sugar you add? Stone and Ballast Point in SD fill their growlers to the very top...and also offer higher carb belgian type beers in the same growlers....

just curious...has anyone had any trouble bottle conditioning in Stone, Ballast Point, Alesmith, or Russian River growlers?

Never tried it in any of those growlers, but have in the growlers Northern Brewer sells. I did a low carbed porter that did great, then a higher carbed two hearted ale clone. I didn't bust any growlers, but I couldn't get the damn caps off. I used the poly-seal caps and couldn't even begin to break them loose. I literally had to use a pair of channel locks to break the caps loose, and by doing that every cap cracked and broke :(

So my advise would be to condition only lower carbed brews in a growler.
 
So russian river brewing has lock down type growlers too along with stone....so I'm up to 5 growlers and two are screw caps (boooo ballast point)....I guess the screw caps it's better to use the metal caps. I understand about the critical mass and gas expanding at higher temps. If you can get them to tolerate a week without bursting and then add ice water to a plastic tub you had them in...I'm thinking they are safe to move to the fridge and then drink. Gotta get one from Coronado and one from Alesmith and I may try it with an ale at about 2.0 volume....probably won't risk my Russian River one though as i won't be up there again anytime soon.
 
So... I now have 3 growlers sitting around, because I thought I could bottle-condition in them. What good are they now that they are empty, other than decoration?
 
Your local microbreweries will fill them with beer if you bring them in. They also work alright for yeast starters.
 
So... I now have 3 growlers sitting around, because I thought I could bottle-condition in them. What good are they now that they are empty, other than decoration?

Aside from their actual purpose of being filled off a tap with beer, they also work well as small batch fermenters.
 
I'm not suggesting this is safe, but it has worked for me without issue:

Bottle as you normally would into a growler. Put the growler into a bucket filled with water. (Unless seriously under filled, they sink.) Wait a couple weeks to carbonate. Being under water, they are under some external pressure - roughly double ambient pressure, IIRC - to balance the pressure building inside. A happy benefit is that they are effectively in a swamp cooler, so you could add some hot water to regulate conditioning temp above room temp (my house is cool in the winter).

I'm not saying nothing could ever go wrong, but at least being under water they are pretty safe in case of fracture.
 
I use 6 swing tops i think are 64 oz i got from william's many years ago i'm not even sure they sell them anymore but i've used them every time one has been emptied without a problem some has been some over carbed mistakes some has been in them for years without problems. i also always put my home brew in the basement after i bottle it so maybe the cool of the basement helps.
 
I'm not suggesting this is safe, but it has worked for me without issue:

Bottle as you normally would into a growler. Put the growler into a bucket filled with water. (Unless seriously under filled, they sink.) Wait a couple weeks to carbonate. Being under water, they are under some external pressure - roughly double ambient pressure, IIRC - to balance the pressure building inside. A happy benefit is that they are effectively in a swamp cooler, so you could add some hot water to regulate conditioning temp above room temp (my house is cool in the winter).

I'm not saying nothing could ever go wrong, but at least being under water they are pretty safe in case of fracture.

That actually makes a lot of sense... except when you have to take them out of the water to serve?
 
ImageUploadedByHome Brew1413265878.332299.jpg

I carbed 6 of these thick flip top growlers for my roommates groomsmens gift for his wedding, I was worried none of them would be carbed because the seal got pushed out (as you can see) and was leaking but in the end they were all carbed well and none exploded!

I actually didn't know they could explode until after I did it, at the time I was like it has a flip top and there real thick so it should be fine. I read about it later and was like hmm that could have been bad.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
By then they are carbonatED and not carbonatING. Which is (in my understanding) where there are issues.

... but the pressure increase is the problem - if the carbonation has ceased, the pressure inside would still be greater than it was when you put the beer in, no?
 
... but the pressure increase is the problem - if the carbonation has ceased, the pressure inside would still be greater than it was when you put the beer in, no?


Correct. But that's no different than filling a growler by any other means.

People talk about a transient condition which is only relevant during carbonating. Once carbonated, that transient condition does not exist.
 
Sorry to resurrect but I've done this a bit. I've done about 45 5-6 gallons batches. I've bottled 1-4 growlers in each batch. I'm not sure if its affected by the area I live in, which has an average year round temp of 55-60 degrees. I only mention it since I've seen so many other folks speak to temp specific brewing problems (both cold & hot) which I've never dealt with.

Also, swing tops always seems to let tiny amounts of carb/foam leak out yet the beer turns out great, maybe it helps? The metal screw tops, which my local homebrew guys say do not use ever work fine. The poly caps seem to get stuck if you leave em on for months, but vice grips fix that.
 
about the dilemma of Growler let's see this video about a glass bottle not "DESIGN"-(ridiculous) to hold pressure


(only overcarbonated glass bottle or bottle with defects will crack in priming process )
 
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Wow! It did make it all the way to 260psi very impressive.

I actually think wine bottles should handle pressure quite well because of the concave bottom. The issue with the growlers is that they don't have a concave bottom and so the pressure within the bottle creates more stress on the glass.
 
Wow! It did make it all the way to 260psi very impressive.

I actually think wine bottles should handle pressure quite well because of the concave bottom. The issue with the growlers is that they don't have a concave bottom and so the pressure within the bottle creates more stress on the glass.

Champagne and Belgian bottles will, but regular still wine bottles just aren't designed to take that-especially if you're only corking them. Something will give out.
 
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