Help! Bottling day is tomorrow and I dont...

...have enough bottles for my 5 gallon batch!

I bought some 8 1-Liter twist off beer bottles, but my Northern Brewer instructions say not to use twist off bottles


What do i do? I have about 15 or so regular beer bottles but that's not near enough


What do I do? Can I put them in cork bottles?

Your beer is in a sealed vessel. Leave it there until you get more bottles, kegs. Don't be impatient- who says you have to bottle tomorrow?

Ya I been sitting on a batch for a week because I haven't botany bottles in. Isn't going to hurt it.

mux said:

Your beer is in a sealed vessel. Leave it there until you get more bottles, kegs. Don't be impatient- who says you have to bottle tomorrow?

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So no to the cork bottles and screw ons?

gobraves1090 said:

So no to the cork bottles and screw ons?

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Definitely not.

gobraves1090,

Wish you lived closer. You would have a couple hundred bottles in short order.

P-J said:

gobraves1090,

Wish you lived closer. You would have a couple hundred bottles in short order.

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Haha that would be great! I wish I did too

Just relax- the beer only gets better with time. How long has it been in the carboy/ bucket?

mux said:

Just relax- the beer only gets better with time. How long has it been in the carboy/ bucket?

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I brewed on December 28, so tomorrow would be 3 weeks since brew day. I guess I do need to let it sit more anyway.

Just order a couple cases online. Should only take a few days to get them. There's a thread on the forum here where people give away their bottles, I got 3 cases from a guy that was only 10 min away from me. All free.

Butter said:

Just order a couple cases online. Should only take a few days to get them. There's a thread on the forum here where people give away their bottles, I got 3 cases from a guy that was only 10 min away from me. All free.

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Look on Craigslist. There is also a post in the classifieds here for free bottles.

Butter said:

Just order a couple cases online. Should only take a few days to get them. There's a thread on the forum here where people give away their bottles, I got 3 cases from a guy that was only 10 min away from me. All free.

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So true. A few years ago I gave away several cases (24 bottles each) of European Grolish bottles. (deep brown glass with flip top gasketed ceramic tops) I spent 4 years on assignment in Germany and brought all the bottles home with me. I still have a case or 2 of 'em. Another bottle I tend to collect is the Negra Modelo bottle. Super strong and very well designed. AND, I really like that beer.!

Just saying.

Quick....run to the store and buy a couple of cases of sampler beers. Only the kind with bottle opener type tops. Try some nice Sierra Nevada ales and the like and proceed to swig away! Be sure to rinse out your empties and place them upside down to dry. When you have enough bottles proceed with the bottling.

And I just saw you're from GA....Don't forget the Sweetwater IPA!!!

If you can't empty at least a case in a week, maybe homebrewing isn't for you! haha, just kidding. All joking aside, you can let it sit in the fermentor for another week or even two if you have to while you empty some good craft beer bottles or just order some bottles online...

Hey, where are you located in Georgia? I'm out in Carrollton, if you're close you can have as many bottles as you need from me!

gobraves1090 said:

I brewed on December 28, so tomorrow would be 3 weeks since brew day. I guess I do need to let it sit more anyway.

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You can bottle now or two weeks from now. No worries. Get your bottles, wash em good, sanitize them (and the caps) and fill 'em up with your brew. Don't forget the priming sugar (boil it first too!)!

Enjoy!

serentaius said:

Hey, where are you located in Georgia? I'm out in Carrollton, if you're close you can have as many bottles as you need from me!

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I'm in south Georgia dang it!

I think I got a place to get all my bottles. I work for a restaurant and will see if I can use the bottles people throw away. I think I should be able get the rest of them from there. Thanks for all the suggestions everybody!

Thrown away bottles are fine its just usually a whole lot nicer if you can do it yourself. I mean it's a PITA if they weren't rinsed and dried after use and some have cigarette butts and stuff in them (yuck). It just makes cleaning and sanitation a whole lot better if they are rinsed fresh from emptying. Once you build you up a stash of bottles all you have to do is get your brother in law to recycle them back to you.

So, I got the rest of the bottles I needed but now I need to sanitize them all. How will I sanitize 50 bottles?

Sanitize and clean are 2 different things. First they MUST be clean. That means get everything out of them. Best way I have found is a PBW or Oxyclean soak and a scrub with a bottle brush. Get all the foreign matter and insects that may have taken up there gone. If you want the labels off this is the time to do that. Wear gloves if you use PBW not so much if you use oxyclean as it has never ate my skin off. Your results may differ. Then you should rinse very well and rinse each bottle with starsan mixed to the proper porportion. If you use starsan properly you do not have to wait for the bottles to dry before bottling. If you have a dishwasher and it has a sanitize cycle, stand all your cleaned bottles neck down on the lower rack and run it on that cycle. That's how I do it and I have never had a problem. I know lots of other folks do it different ways. Some put the clean and dry bottles in a hot oven and bake them to sanitize.

You can also boil your bottles, but trust me, that is a HUGE pain.

+1 to Mikespunchlist

It's really important to make sure they are clean prior to sanitizing. You can use StarSan, Iodophore, bleach, heat, etc. Find what works for you. I'd recommend you give this a read: How to Brew - By John Palmer - Sanitizing Your Equipment

I like to get lots of bottles cleaned and prepped for future use by baking my bottles. I keg everything, but when I want to bottle something as a gift or to share, it's nice to simply grab a bottle and not have to fuss with the sanitizing step. So, I soak in Oxyclean, scrub and rinse, rinse, rinse. Then, cover each bottle with a little bit of aluminum foil and bake. I put them in, set the oven to 350F and let them bake for one hour once they hit the target temp. Then, I turn off the oven and let everything cool off over night. These bottles are now sterile (different than sanitized) and will remain that way until I remove the foil. All good in the hood.

Cheers! JB

johnnybrew said:

+1 to Mikespunchlist

It's really important to make sure they are clean prior to sanitizing. You can use StarSan, Iodophore, bleach, heat, etc. Find what works for you. I'd recommend you give this a read: How to Brew - By John Palmer - Sanitizing Your Equipment

I like to get lots of bottles cleaned and prepped for future use by baking my bottles. I keg everything, but when I want to bottle something as a gift or to share, it's nice to simply grab a bottle and not have to fuss with the sanitizing step. So, I soak in Oxyclean, scrub and rinse, rinse, rinse. Then, cover each bottle with a little bit of aluminum foil and bake. I put them in, set the oven to 350F and let them bake for one hour once they hit the target temp. Then, I turn off the oven and let everything cool off over night. These bottles are now sterile (different than sanitized) and will remain that way until I remove the foil. All good in the hood.

Cheers! JB

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Oh I've got that book and had to re-read bottling a couple of times! I cleaned them then santized so now they are sitting for two weeks then it will be time to give them a taste.

I'm actually planning on aging 3 of them, 1 for one month, 1 for 3 months and 1 for 6 months to see how they age.

Anybody have any luck in aging a homebrew?

gobraves1090 said:

Anybody have any luck in aging a homebrew?

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Bottle aging works, but you need to keep a few things in mind:

- Keep the beer cold. It will slow down all processes that cause staling. I realize that keeping it cold is not really aging per se, but it will increase your shelf life by leaps and bounds. Keeping it cold is more like lagering (sortof).
- Keep the beer out of any light (esp direct sun light). Beer likes having the lights off (unlike my 7 year old).
- If there was O2 exposure post fermentation, it will continue to cause off-flavors over time (and stale). In fact, any off-flavor will continue to increase over time (to a certain degree).
- Beers made with lighter malts will generally stale quicker than those with darker / specialty malts (generally).
- Hazy beer (for whatever reason) will tend to cause a beer to stale quicker.
- Filtering a beer prior to bottling will increase shelf life.
- Pasteurization will also increase shelf life.

Hope this helps. Cheers.