I need some help from the experts, and anyone who uses the PET bottles for bottling their beer.
As i come by them i am mostly using grolsh bottles now when i bottle my beers, but from time to time i run out and have some of the brown plastic bottles that serve as a backup
What i have been finding though is that if i have a mix of glass/plastic for any one batch of beer anything that comes out of the plastic seems to have very little fizz opening it compared to the glass, pours with almost no head at all, and seems very under carbonated when drinking it.
I know it's not the beer itself or the bottling process as it all comes from the same bucket and the glass bottles seem to be fine.
The only things i can think of that would make such a difference would be that:
A-the plastic caps don't seal well enough and are letting gas escape.
B-the shape of the plastic bottles (short wide neck vs long thin neck) and me bottling is leaving too much headspace, which isn't creating enough pressure to force the gas into the beer.
C-the plastic bottles flex instead of staying rigid, which maybe has the same effect as too much headspace.
D-the plastic is more permeable than the glass and is letting gas excape through the bottle itself.
Cleaning process for the bottle is the same, oxiclean soak if they are really dirty, lots of rinsing, starsan as sanitizer before bottling.
For beer styles i have noticed the same trend through 3 different wheat beers, a cider and a honey blonde, although it's more pronounced in the wheats.
Is it possibly a reaction between the starsan and the plstic of the bottles?
Do i just need to crank the caps on tighter?
If anyone has any insight it would be appreciated.
As i come by them i am mostly using grolsh bottles now when i bottle my beers, but from time to time i run out and have some of the brown plastic bottles that serve as a backup
What i have been finding though is that if i have a mix of glass/plastic for any one batch of beer anything that comes out of the plastic seems to have very little fizz opening it compared to the glass, pours with almost no head at all, and seems very under carbonated when drinking it.
I know it's not the beer itself or the bottling process as it all comes from the same bucket and the glass bottles seem to be fine.
The only things i can think of that would make such a difference would be that:
A-the plastic caps don't seal well enough and are letting gas escape.
B-the shape of the plastic bottles (short wide neck vs long thin neck) and me bottling is leaving too much headspace, which isn't creating enough pressure to force the gas into the beer.
C-the plastic bottles flex instead of staying rigid, which maybe has the same effect as too much headspace.
D-the plastic is more permeable than the glass and is letting gas excape through the bottle itself.
Cleaning process for the bottle is the same, oxiclean soak if they are really dirty, lots of rinsing, starsan as sanitizer before bottling.
For beer styles i have noticed the same trend through 3 different wheat beers, a cider and a honey blonde, although it's more pronounced in the wheats.
Is it possibly a reaction between the starsan and the plstic of the bottles?
Do i just need to crank the caps on tighter?
If anyone has any insight it would be appreciated.
