Paranoid Spouse

[Knittycat]

I've been talking about bottling re-using glass bottles for my beer (not the twist on type). I have no plans to do it soon, as I don't have a bottle capper yet, however my husband has been rather...distrustful of anything besides grolsch style bottles.
He is insisting that any re-used bottles will likely become bottle bombs. His only experience is with his father brewing in the early 80s, so it's not like he's got a large body of work to draw upon.
I keep showing him evidence that unless something goes very wrong, I won't get bottle bombs. All the various home brew sites that sell re-usable glass bottles, the posts here on HBT, heck, I even told him about people using glass Mexican cola bottles, and all that earned me was a frown and the statement that if I was going to do that I wouldn't be allowed to keep the bottles in the house.
SERIOUSLY DUDE?
So, please give me some facts about re-using glass bottles so he'll stop being a paranoid twit about it!

 

[davis119]

Does he really think they explode and send glass shards flying through walls. If it will make him happy put them in a rubermaid bin and put the lid on......

No offence but i would think this would be the other way around. The girl saying this. Again no offence

FACTS ARE I HAVE 2 CASES carbing IN THE BEDROOM WITH MY WIFE AND DOG. AND WE WAKE UP WITH OUT GLASS IN THE EYE EVERY DAY

SORRY FOR CAPS MY PHONES RETARDED

 

[grouperdude]

bottles are re-usable. They are much more thick than any of the twist off bottles. I haven't had a bottle break on me yet. Some of my beers came out way over carbed as well. Swing top bottles are no better than capable bottles available to brewers today.

 

[E-Mursed]

Sounds to me like he is subconsciously telling you to get a keg system that you can then bottle from.

Trust me...my wife recently said "bottling has to be easier some how", and now I have a Blichman beer gun.

 

[jacobg83]

I over carbed once and I used 12, 22 oz bottles and some flip tops too. They all were busting open. They don't blow up. The bottom of the bottle cracks open. No flying shrapnel lol. It is a mess to clean though. I just threw them all in the dumpster, even the ones that didn't open yet.

 

[Knittycat]

Does he really think they explode and send glass shards flying through walls. If it make him happy put them in a rubermaid bin and put the lid on......

I'm not entirely sure what he expects. I don't think he is either, which makes this that much more annoying.

No offence but i would think this would be the other way around. The girl saying this. Again no offence

none taken

FACTS ARE I HAVE 2 CASES carbing IN THE BEDROOM WITH MY WIFE AND DOG. AND WE WAKE UP WITH OUT GLASS IN THE EYE EVERY DAY

LOL!!

 

[brewingmeister]

Reusing glass is perfectly fine, even twist offs if capped properly. Just make sure you ferment completely and prime with the correct amount and there is not going to be a problem. Try refraining from saying "just because your dad sucked at brewing doesn't mean I do"...or not....

 

[Knittycat]

Sounds to me like he is subconsciously telling you to get a keg system that you can then bottle from.

Trust me...my wife recently said "bottling has to be easier some how", and now I have a Blichman beer gun.

Oh, don't I wish! However *looks around furtively* he doesn't care for beer

 

[ResumeMan]

Bottle a batch of beer and leave it in the garage. When none of those bottles explode in a cloud of shrapnel, bottle a second batch and leave that one in the garage. When the same explosion doesn't happen you should have ample evidence that your husband is engaging in fact-free fantasies.

Or buy a keg system :rockin:

 

[day_trippr]

Oh, don't I wish! However *looks around furtively* he doesn't care for beer

Whoops! That's it, time for a new hubby, yours is broken...

Cheers!

 

[Knittycat]

Whoops! That's it, time for a new hubby, yours is broken...

Cheers!

We'll see how long that lasts once he starts drinking my beer! He used to drink quite a bit, but found that after a while, he didn't care for the flavor of most of the beers he was drinking and was just drinking to get drunk. He stopped drinking at that point. The only time he drinks beer is when we go to his favorite German restaurant and he gets a Celabrator.

 

[drkaeppel]

I've been talking about bottling re-using glass bottles for my beer (not the twist on type). I have no plans to do it soon, as I don't have a bottle capper yet, however my husband has been rather...distrustful of anything besides grolsch style bottles.
He is insisting that any re-used bottles will likely become bottle bombs. His only experience is with his father brewing in the early 80s, so it's not like he's got a large body of work to draw upon.
I keep showing him evidence that unless something goes very wrong, I won't get bottle bombs. All the various home brew sites that sell re-usable glass bottles, the posts here on HBT, heck, I even told him about people using glass Mexican cola bottles, and all that earned me was a frown and the statement that if I was going to do that I wouldn't be allowed to keep the bottles in the house.
SERIOUSLY DUDE?
So, please give me some facts about re-using glass bottles so he'll stop being a paranoid twit about it!

I'm not a brewing pro by any means, but it sounds like he is just being unreasonable. I have brewed 25+ batches in the last year an a half and NEVER had a single bottle bomb.

Pressure builds inside grolsch bottles exactly the same way it builds in pop-top bottles. As long as you stick with 5 oz (or 3/4 cup) priming sugar per 5 gallon batch, I would say risks of bottle bombs are minimal (unless you bottle before it's finished fermenting...but that's what a hydrometer is for).

Hope you guys come to an agreement. I think a previous poster was on the right track...maybe it's time for a kegging system

Cheers!

 

[Knittycat]

Try refraining from saying "just because your dad sucked at brewing doesn't mean I do"...or not....

*Gigglesnort* No kidding!

 

[davis119]

Whoops! That's it, time for a new hubby, yours is broken...

Cheers!

This was funny but I wansnt gunna go there.
Cruz shell come back with
"He drinks wild turkey straight up or ol gran dad"

 

[SFSpencer]

Ive only had one bottle break,and guess what? It wasn't a reused recapped bottle,it was an old Grolsch bottle(and it didn't explode,cracked horizontally)
Bottles break,it happens..99% of the time they're fine,but all it takes is a weak seam.....Condition them in a cupboard or rubbermaid container,just to be safe.

 

[Pappers_]

Add me to the list - dozens and dozens of batches, no bottle bombs reusing bottles.

 

[Toymaker]

To date I've bottled about 2200 bottles of beer. I've only ever had one break. It was because I dropped it onto the driveway off my BBQ grill shelf.... Never had a "bottle bomb" even though I've over carb'd a few times. I use mostly reused Sam Adams bottles My brother and sister in law hate taking returnables back so they give them to me.

 

[DromJohn]

OTOH, is bottle and capping so much better than swing-tops that it's worth a fight?
Swingtop beer tastes like beer.
Pick your battles.

So opines Drom John who uses swingtops because SWMBO's college roommate sharded the dorm room with some bottle bombs back in the 80's.

 

[NickTheGreat]

I'd just offer to put the bottles in a location that it didn't matter if they bombed. I threw a towel over the top of my bottles just in case something happened, and to block light.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Not to start any bruhaha, but I didnt much like the phrase "would not be allowed." "I dont want you to?" "I wont feel ok with this unless..." all fine... but "not allowed?" Were you wearing pigtails licking a giant lollypop?

 

[ArcticBear]

^^ i think we need images before jumping to that conclusion

i kid i kid, tell him to relax, you will be fine as i'm sure you and everyone else already knew

 

[Knittycat]

Not to start any bruhaha, but I didnt much like the phrase "would not be allowed." "I dont want you to?" "I wont feel ok with this unless..." all fine... but "not allowed?" Were you wearing pigtails licking a giant lollypop?

Wow, seriously? Have you read many posts in this forum? How many times do you see a man complaining that his wife doesn't want him to buy this or that? Do you complain that these men are letting their wives wear their balls as earrings?

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Hey you know him better than I do (ie not at all) but... yknow what, I'm sorry I spoke out of turn. Just had a friend admit her boyfriend hit her and I'm seeing faces in the floor tiles.

Don't mind me.

 

[CGish]

Hey you know him better than I do (ie not at all) but... yknow what, I'm sorry I spoke out of turn. Just had a friend admit her boyfriend hit her and I'm seeing faces in the floor tiles.

Don't mind me.

Don't worry about the floor tiles - Home Depot sells new ones.


Oh - and get an ambulance for him when you are done will you? Just because he is a miserable excuse for a human being doesn't mean you shouldn't have a little common decency.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Ha. Wish I could take him out. Unfortunately he's a amateur kickboxer with a few wins under his belt... my balding beer-bellied hide wouldnt stand a chance.

I just have to remember that not everyone is a manipulative, emotionally abusive, repugnant git just because of unfortunate word usage.

 

[Revvy]

His only experience is with his father brewing in the early 80s, so it's not like he's got a large body of work to draw upon.

I betcha his dad bottled on the 7th day and never bothered to take a gravity reading to determine if fermentation was ACTUALLY complete first, AND/OR added sugar directly to the bottle, probably a teaspoon in each, rather than weighing it and bulk priming them.

And the bottles blew because the amount of co2 produced was MORE than the bottle could handle. If you brew properly you don't produce excess co2 which can blow a NORMAL bottle.

I have maybe 1 bottle bomb every 2-3 years or so, and that's more than likely the result of a flaw in the bottle or a rare in bottle infection. And none of them have spewed shards around. They've just cracked and leaked and I never even noticed til I found a broken bottle with sticky dried residue on it.

If you're following proper procedures, making sure the beer is finished before bottling, using the correct amount of sugar, and making sure you sanitize properly, broken bottles are a rarity, and they're not usually "BOMBS." More like fizzes.

If it's not over primed, even a flawed bottle shouldn't blow dangerously.

Bottle bombs are anomolies if you take care and brew PROPERLY.

 

[davis119]

^^ Jeeze revvy. You didn't have to get all technical. And write a short story.

Good post. OP. Show that to the hubby

 

[Trencher]

I have a batch of RIS in the bedroom closet now, and something went wrong somewhere because 2 of the bottles have burst. Mind you, this is over a year, and I've only had 2 that went. But both of those were quart size EZ-Cap. None of the 12oz or 22oz pry-off bottles have broken, and all of them have had commercial beer and homebrew in them before.

Now if anyone could explain why the thicker EZ-Cap bottles bombed but the commercial bottles didn't, I'd love to hear it...

 

[MR2Aaron]

Bottle a batch of beer and leave it in the garage. When none of those bottles explode in a cloud of shrapnel, bottle a second batch and leave that one in the garage. When the same explosion doesn't happen you should have ample evidence that your husband is engaging in fact-free fantasies.

Or buy a keg system :rockin:

I was going to suggest this. Humor him the first time, and keep the bottles in the garage. Later, show him that they haven't exploded.

Also, put them in a big rubbermaid bin just in case. You CAN get bottle bombs if you screw something up, and while they probably won't kill you, it is a pain in the neck to clean up.

 

[iijakii]

Yeah I'd just buy a rubbermaid bin. Just incase something does happen, no mess to clean up. Simple.

 

[AngerManagement]

You could point out to this lucky sumbuck (geez, his wife brews, if that's not the definition of heaven, then what is?) that plenty of commercial breweries get used longnecks from bars, refill and sell them....

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

single yet?

 

[wilsojos]

On my first batch I used some 16 oz bud light bottles a friend had in his garage since he quit brewing 10 years ago. I had no issues with those bottles and plan on using them again and again and again.

 

[divi2323]

You could point out to this lucky sumbuck (geez, his wife brews, if that's not the definition of heaven, then what is?) that plenty of commercial breweries get used longnecks from bars, refill and sell them....

Most commercial breweries also don't bottle condition their beer.

Not that I'm arguing against her effort.