Guinness Draught bottles - capable of higher pressures?

[samdiaz]

Hi all. This is my first post, been lurking for years.

I am going to bottle a Belgian in a few weeks, and collecting all the thick glass bottles I can scrounge so I can bottle condition with some extra sugar to get them to carb to style. I'm thinking around 3.5 volumes and don't want to worry about bottle bombs. I'm wondering if the bottles Guinness is using for their Draught nitro beer are capable of handling higher pressure than regular ale bottles. I get a pronounced hiss when I open them, which makes me think of higher pressure escaping. From what I've read, Guinness is only carbed up to around 1.7 or 1.8 volumes, but also that you need to carb to higher pressures to get the nitrogen into suspension. Does anybody have any insight as to whether the Guinness bottles are designed to handle higher pressures?

 

[Gnomebrewer]

I don't know the answer, but try weighing them and compare the weight to other thick/thin glass bottles.

 

[camonick]

They seem pretty thin to me.

 

[samdiaz]

Thanks for the feedback! Guinness draught bottles weigh the same as Duchesse de Bourgogne (244 g) and Delerium Tremens (247 g) and more than North Coast Rasputin and Sierra Nevada (197 g) and Lagunitas IPA (178 g), your standard ale bottles. Considering the heavier bottles here are 0.33L/11.2 oz, a slightly smaller volume than 12 oz bottles, it seems they were made thicker. Still, the Guinness look thin around the bulge.

 

[ncbrewer]

Keep in mind that weight is just a rough indicator.

 

[samdiaz]

Yes, agreed. Anybody else have any insight?