Help me! (which bottle do I need)

I want to try a carbonated cider. Not champagne style, but I would like a good deal of carbonation.

First off, I am a college student, and cost effectiveness is essential.
I found a local business who will give me their wine bottles for free.

All I would need to do is buy a corker and corks (can corks be reused?), which is fine.

Can a wine bottle hold the carbonation? Or do I need a champagne bottle (read that wine bottles cannot hold carbonation or something?).

What bottles do I want?

Also:
Lets say the wine bottles work. How will I know when they reach proper carbonation? Will I have to uncork each bottle to check carbonation?

Don't use wine bottles. They are not meant to hold carbonation, nor are wine corks. Use beer bottles and caps. Or, use sparkling wine bottles, most of which can accept normal crown caps.

Ok I can do that.

Are there any bigger (750ml) size bottles that I can use, or do I need to break it up into the smaller beer bottles?

Thank you for your help!

Regular wine bottles/corks will not work. You can use belgian beer bottles though.

http://www.rebelbrewer.com/shoppingcart/products/Belgian-Beer-Bottles-%2d-750ml-(12{47}case).html

And yes, you will have to sample bottles to test for carbonation. I would start sampling after three weeks.

Would used beer bottles work? Like lets say I drank a 12 pack of Budweiser. If I cleaned and sanitized the bottles, would those work?

Thanks again for all the help! This is why I love this fourm

Yes, but most bud bottles are twist off's now. You can re-cap them but you would have to use a bench capper, not a wing capper.

Your best bet would to bottle in pop top bottles like sam adams or any other craft beer bottle.

Yeah I meant a pop top, just thought bud was still pop top.

Thanks everyone!

Ya get pop top beer bottles. I get all of mine free from a local recycle drop off. They are just huge bins. If you don't have one of those go ask a bar. They might have a recycle bin that they toss all of their beer bottles in. If you find the right source, you will never buy them again.

Yeah, the recycle bins can be a good place to pick up free bottles. As has been said, pop tops are the ones you want. A couple of cautions, though. A few of the bottles I've gotten from my local recycling drop had stress fractures in the necks that I didn't see (they aren't all handled gently). I've shattered probably 10 bottles during capping because of this. Also, my local drop off point now has a sign saying it is illegal to remove anything from the bins. Apparently the city makes money by turning in the bottles for recycling and they think I'm stealing from them or something. I choose to believe I am being a more efficient recycler. Think of all the energy I'm saving by just reusing the bottles.

Yeah I'm doing research as we speak about where the distribution place is.

Would 40 oz twist off bottles work?

Like the 40 oz malt liquor ones.

I always try to find anyone drinking martenelli's sparking cider and ask them to give me bottles. The bottles and juice, when on sale, is equal to or lesser than buying new empty bottles, and I seem to be capping them with just a wing capper and normal caps. They're american sized so they don't take corks anyways.

Beyond that, I just ask for bottles, but they tend to be the standard beer bottles. (I generally get oberon bottles from people.)

Ask around at restaurants & bars that serve champagne if you can have their empty champagne bottles. Most will say yes if you pick them up when it's convenient for them. The plastic stoppers, wire cages & the wire twisting tool can be found at your LHBS or at an online HBS. DO NOT REUSE CORKS. If you don't feel like spending the extra time & effort scrubbing used bottles, you can always buy them new from the LHBS. The plastic stoppers go into the bottles easily with a couple taps from a rubber mallet. Or you can use beer bottles. Regards, GF.

bhambrewer said:

Ok I can do that.

Are there any bigger (750ml) size bottles that I can use, or do I need to break it up into the smaller beer bottles?

Thank you for your help!

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As I mentioned in my first reply, you can find 750 mL bottles that accept standard crown caps. Look for American branded champagnes (technically sparkling white wines) like Korbel, or, as someone else pointed out, the sparkling ciders. Any of the craft brew bomber style bottles (think Stone) will work very well.

I like to use 1 liter flip-tops, less bottles, no capping, more to drink when a bottle is opened... It's an all around win for me! Regards, GF.

i agree with gf, invest in some 750 or 1000 ml flip top bottles. you will have them for years, and you can replace the seals cheap after a few uses if you need. i don't know about where you live but here you can get certain delicious belgian beers in very classy 750 ml flip tops. of course they are a bit pricey, and further you are faced with the thankless task of cranking through liter after liter of the one and only fine point of belgium (check that: french fries are also belgian). there is always the cheap and cheerless option of plastic fizzy water bottles (has to be fizzy as these bottles are designed to hold pressure, and has to be water as used coke etc bottles hold residual nasty flavor) not a very nice way of bottling, and i certainly wouldn't age in them, but if you just want to carb up and drink you can use them.