Homemade Ceramic Bottles

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Miller4

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This is my first post but I have been reading the threads for a while and getting great information. I wanted to share these ceramic bottles I made and bottled a portion of my first batch of beer in them. Hopefully they work out and have a good enough seal to hold carbonation. Any thoughts or ideas? I will update after the bottles have time to carb and see if they work.

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All I can say is wow! Very nice work! I hope these work for you they look great! Great Job!
 
Are you pressure testing them? I'd hate to have such cool handmade bottles act like growlers and not be able to contain the pressure of carbonation.

They're spectacular though. :mug:
 
Wow!
Not being a potter..how do you ensure the inside of the bottles get fully glazed, in order to be sanitized?

Do you just pour glaze in, swirl a bunch, hope for the best and inspect after the second firing?

Let us know how they work!
 
I really like the first and third ones! Would be sweet to roll up to a party pouring your homebrew from one of them! Be afraid someone would break it tho...
 
@Revvy - I have not pressure tested them, I suppose this first bottling if they hold carbonation will be the test. I don't imagine them having a problem, however I don't have a lot of experience with brewing and carbonating.

@Connoryis - That is essentially exactly what I did, for these I normally use a transparent celadon glaze as a liner, pour into them, swirl, dump out. It should line completely but that was one of my concerns because if it doesn't that would be problematic as it is a stoneware bodied clay that would soak in liquid without glaze. I think my next flip top bottle project might be with a porcelain clay, then I wouldn't have to worry as the clay body would be non-vitreous after firing.

I will keep an update, and post better photos .
 
I do a little pottery too. Never thought about trying to do swung tips. Where did you get the hardware? Was it hard to get the distance right on the holes?

Dan.
 
Subscribing to find out if they hold pressure. Hoping so.
 
@Mathin- The tops are Replacement EZ cap swing tops that I bought online. The holes were somewhat difficult, I used digital calipers to measure the dimensions on an existing glass swing top, I then recalculated the dimensions to account for shrinkage. The width of the neck isn't quite as important because you can bend the metal on the swing tops to fit. The distance from the rim to the holes is a little touchier to get enough pressure to really push down but not too much to where it doesn't fit. After doing the measurements I made a small wooden jig to quickly make measurements while the bottles are still on the wheel. I will definitely be making more, especially if they carb the beer. If you have any more questions let me know.
 
Those look great! I hope they work out great and hold pressure.
 
Thanks for the info on the hardware and measuring. I might give it a try.
 
Also played around with some label ideas, might have to try some for the beer as well.

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One last one going a little more sculptural but still 100% functional.

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I've bought commercial beer in porcelain container like that. I wouldn't be surprised if they work just fine. I wish I could to stuff like that. Maybe I need to brew less and start putting time in on the pottery wheel!
 
Homercidal said:
I've bought commercial beer in porcelain container like that. I wouldn't be surprised if they work just fine. I wish I could to stuff like that. Maybe I need to brew less and start putting time in on the pottery wheel!

Me too, there's one called Yeast Hoist that I've purchased that comes in a stoneware bottle, and the bottle is burly.
 
Great work. I spent a year at a vocational school in Yingko Taiwan and was lucky enough to receive some instruction from some very knowledgeable and skilled ceramics craftspeople. I haven't done anything in a decade, but will have to investigate firing up the kiln and giving this a try.
 
These are great! My wife is a potter and I've had her make me a couple of mugs and snifters, but I always thought that jugs like this were only good for whiskey and moonshine. Prove me wrong so that I can get her to make me some of these!
 
I just returned from break and was eager to check my bottles. I gave two away over christmas so I only have two left with beer. The blue jug style had spots of sticky dried beer all over the side, so I figured it had either broken somewhere or had been leaking out of the top from not being tight enough. However when I opened the top it made a very loud pop and this is what I got,

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I was pretty startled because I had thought that it had lost any carbonation. You can see all the little sticky spots in the picture, my best guess is that the inside didn't get completely glazed and the beer made its way through the porous clay wall to the outside, because there are tiny little chip like spots where the sticky beer was. Anyways I found it to be quite strange.

The second bottle I have still looks perfectly fine and I will get some more photos whenever I open it, probably sometime this next week.
 
I just returned from break and was eager to check my bottles. I gave two away over christmas so I only have two left with beer. The blue jug style had spots of sticky dried beer all over the side, so I figured it had either broken somewhere or had been leaking out of the top from not being tight enough. However when I opened the top it made a very loud pop and this is what I got,

2013-01-03_15-33-10_982_zps3ff37a9b.jpg


2013-01-03_15-35-02_185_zps5a94680a.jpg


I was pretty startled because I had thought that it had lost any carbonation. You can see all the little sticky spots in the picture, my best guess is that the inside didn't get completely glazed and the beer made its way through the porous clay wall to the outside, because there are tiny little chip like spots where the sticky beer was. Anyways I found it to be quite strange.

The second bottle I have still looks perfectly fine and I will get some more photos whenever I open it, probably sometime this next week.

I don't know why it's over carbonated. My only guess was that it wasn't done fermenting and started again once you bottled or there was too much priming sugar added.

I'm also puzzled by the beer spots on the bottle. The outside is glazed from what I can tell so it would seem that even if the inside wasn't glazed completely the outside glaze would have stopped any leaks. Maybe the pressure from the over carbonation caused it to force it's way out?

Either way, this is a great experiement because I'm trying to get my wife to do this for me. Keep us posted!:mug:
 
Well I'm a little peeved, apparently one of my roommates friends opened my ceramic bottle from the fridge last night after I had gone to bed. So that is a little upsetting and I wasn't able to get any photos. Anyways I asked him if it was at least carbonated since it was a two month long experiment that I was working on, response, "Oh, sorry, it was a little bit flat..."

So there you go, I guess it didn't hold the pressure very well as it was a little bit flat. I will ask the people I gave the other two bottles to take photos when they open them and hopefully I can get them posted here. In the mean time I am working on a slip casting bottle project and will be throwing more bottles as well.
 
You were just using the EZ-top to seal it, correct? In my experience they won't work for long term storage even in commercial glass bottles. Have to cap it then use the EZ-top when serving. Mostly aesthetic. OK for mead where I might drink a liter over a couple days.
 
You were just using the EZ-top to seal it, correct? In my experience they won't work for long term storage even in commercial glass bottles. Have to cap it then use the EZ-top when serving. Mostly aesthetic. OK for mead where I might drink a liter over a couple days.

Grolsch will be disappointed to hear that! :D
 
JohnWilliamson062 said:
You were just using the EZ-top to seal it, correct? In my experience they won't work for long term storage even in commercial glass bottles. Have to cap it then use the EZ-top when serving. Mostly aesthetic. OK for mead where I might drink a liter over a couple days.

Nah man that ain't true.. I've kept beer for years in swing tops with no difference noticeable.
 
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