ball jars for bottling?

[Kegofclub]

Anyone ever heard of using Ball Jars ( the kind people can veggies in) for bottling?
They have an airtight seal and you can get 12 pint size for like 7-8$
They are clear, so not perfect , but would they work??

 

[the_bird]

They aren't designed to hold pressure.

 

[trinitone]

I'm leaning towards no. I don't think the glass is strong enough to handle the pressure.

Edit: Damn birds

 

[Brewtopia]

Plus you'd look like a member of the Waltons drinkin' "Grandpa's Recipe"

 

[RoaringBrewer]

Go for it, if you like ball-jar grenades.

Otherwise, stick to beer bottles.

 

[Brewpilot]

Bottles are pretty cheap.. heck, a corny keg is 30 bucks or so... after spending hours brewing your fav beer, you will be pissed if you ruin it by not storing it properly.

Brewpilot

 

[david_42]

They will explode. Plus, they are designed to seal with a partial vacuum inside and may not seal if there is any pressure.

However, you could learn to like flat (AKA REAL) ale. Although I don't think canning jar aging is in the CAMRA.

[OK, so explode is an over-statement.]

 

[skou]

They won't explode, but they won't hold pressure, either.

The way a canning jar works, is, as you boil the food in the jar, the lid will let the excess (and very small) pressure escape. But, after you cool them down, the lid will seal and hold the vacuum. (It's only a few inches of vacuum.)

If you try to bottle condition, the lid will allow the pressure to release, and you'll get no carbonation.

(Yes, I have worked in a commercial cannery, as well as canning my own stuff.)

steve

 

[HYTEK-REDNEK]

Yup I did this at Christmas, called it a redneck growler
the glass will hold I think, I filled it from a keg.
Put it in a gift basket, when I was driving to work to present the gifts
I heard something that sounded like a rock hitting the windshield.
The top poped up (domed up) , I asked the guy I gave it to today if he drank it
he said it looked to pretty so swmbo didn't want to open it, so it's still sitting on the
table, I don't know if it will still be good, most likely flat and skunky

 

[homebrewer_99]

Yup I did this at Christmas, called it a redneck growler ...

You should have given him one of these:

 

[Illinibrew]

I filled a mason jar from my keg over the holidays and drove an hour to a friends house. When we got there he opened it up and sounded just like opening up a can of beer... obviously had held pressure well. Again, after resealing and putting it in the fridge it made a similiar (but less strength) carbonation release sound when we opened it again.

However, I took one over to a friend who lives about 5 minutes away and it didn't hold the seal hardly at all.

Should I abandon the "redneck growler" idea of using mason jars or should i be doing something specific to make sure they hold a seal? What else do you guys do to hold a seal when pouring from a keg???

 

[abracadabra]

I'm gonna have to be the contraian here.

When canning you do not tighten the lids this allows the pressure to escape. Then as they cool off the contents and gases left inside contract this creates the vacume. A vacume is just the same a pressure just the pressure is on the outside not the inside. So I would think as long as you really tigthen the lid rings it would hold. And the glass is probably stronger than the non-returnable beer bottles most people use.

But then you have the issue of no protection from light which means you'd have to put them in boxes or bags or something.

If you've got a basement full of them like I do I'd say go for it.

In the long run you may spend more money on the lids than you will on bottle caps so that could negate any savings. On the other hand the lids are reuseable at least a few times, caps aren't.

If you try it post your results.