Probably a common problem

[Matty22]

Alas, it is my first bottling day and I have wayyy too few empty bottles for my first batch of homebrew. What to do, what to do?

I have about 4.5 gallons of wort that need to be bottled today and only 13 bottles. I do have plenty of wine bottles though. I'm thinking wine bottles may be a bit unsafe due to the pressurization that's sure to build up during conditioning.

Would I be safe in bottling in wine bottles and corking or should I just go buy some bottles?

 

[Hatchbrew]

Start drinking, hit your friends up for bottles, or go buy some empties. Or just delay bottling until you have enough bottles. You only drank 13 beers since you brewed?

 

[unionrdr]

You could go to the bar you frequent & ask to buy cases of empties. That way,you have bottles & case boxes to put them in. The case boxes would require minimum storage space.

 

[Joker]

Alas, it is my first bottling day and I have wayyy too few empty bottles for my first batch of homebrew. What to do, what to do?

I have about 4.5 gallons of wort that need to be bottled today and only 13 bottles. I do have plenty of wine bottles though. I'm thinking wine bottles may be a bit unsafe due to the pressurization that's sure to build up during conditioning.

Would I be safe in bottling in wine bottles and corking or should I just go buy some bottles?

I don't think this is actually all that common. You didn't actually think 4.5 gallons would fit into 13 bottles did you?

Any there isn't a beer has to be bottled on a certain date, unless you mean it is the only day you have time to do it for quite a long time, but even then beer is pretty patient, it will wait for you to come back to it.

 

[durk]

You only drank 13 beers since you brewed?

I was wondering the same thing. lol.

 

[Matty22]

It's been in primary for a bit more than a month. All my homebrew stuff is at my parent's place in WV as I just graduated college and my life is in disarray for a while. I'm leaving here tomorrow to head up to Michigan and I'm not sure when I'll be back.

I left instructions for my father after brew day that while I was gone he needed to empty about 40 pop top bottles. Since he is a Bud Light drinker I suppose he forgot.

Anyhow...thanks for the responses. Gonna go nose around some local bars and see if they will give/sell me their empties for cheap.

 

[Homercidal]

I would hold off on bottling until you get some more. Here in Michigan we can buy empties for a dime apiece. I've had a local bar save Guinness bottles for me.

 

[Kahler]

Do not bottle in wine bottles! They will explode.

 

[Thehopguy]

I was wondering the same thing. lol.

Ditto

 

[badhabit]

Hit the recycling center

 

[Karmawar]

Normal wine bottles are not designed to be pressurised and could break when your beer carbonates. I have used plastic carbonated water bottles before, they are only good once or twice if you use the same cap as the seals are not that great.

Or get some friends round, get a syphon going and use it like a 4 gal beer bong, just don't disturb the sediment!!!

 

[unionrdr]

I used recycled screw top wine bottles for years with my sparkling wines,& only broke one. Sam at DFH uses wine bottles that have the pop top rim,750ml. They can hold some pressure,but I never measured how much some 30 years ago. Just used common wine bottles from store bought brands. And the LHBS's carries wine bottle caps now too.

 

[bluemoose]

Hit the recycling center

Yup. I get 22 oz bottles for 10 cents each at my local redemption center.

 

[cfraga1978]

Go to Walmart and buy some Sam's 2 L for 50 cents empty and clean they work great and are cheap.

 

[LandoLincoln]

Only 13 bottles saved up? What kind of alcoholic are you? You really need to pick up the pace, buddy.

This is a good excuse to go to the LHBS and go buy a case or two of swing tops.

 

[doublebogey10]

I've posted this before on a previous thread and will do so again here.
If you have a Trader Joe's near you, I highly suggest their Mission Street Brown Ale, for a number of reasons.
A) It's very good beer (Made by Firestone Walker for TJ's, I believe) so you can't go wrong.
B) It's only $1.99 for a 22 ouncer, which is just a little more or the same as what you pay for a new empty 22 oz bottle online of from your LHBS.

I'm about to bottle my first-ever batch and I have about 20 of those Mission Street Brown bottles ready to go!

 

[Matty22]

Got it all covered guys. Went to a local bar and luckily their recycling runs go on Tuesday mornings. Got to dig through 3 plastic garbage cans full of empties. Got a good 50 pop top bottles for free (except for the extra scrubbing/sanitizing time to clean them up good). Also bought a few 1L flip top bottles for a few bucks each at the LHBS.

Got my first batch of homebrew bottled and came out with about 43 beers from an extract kit. Tasted pretty good flat so I'm excited to try it in a few weeks when it's carbonated!

 

[Oddball]

Think ahead friend!

Tomorrow is my first bottling day as well and I have been saving 750ml. Unibroue bottles just for the occasion. In fact I just finish removing the last of the labels. All of the options already posted will work for you and it won't hurt to let your batch sit in the fermenter for a few more days until you are ready to bottle...

 

[944play]

Are you corking + caging your first batch? Ambitious!

PET soda bottles work great for bottling homebrew since you can feel them carbonating.

 

[ChuckO]

Got it all covered guys. Went to a local bar and luckily their recycling runs go on Tuesday mornings. Got to dig through 3 plastic garbage cans full of empties. Got a good 50 pop top bottles for free (except for the extra scrubbing/sanitizing time to clean them up good). Also bought a few 1L flip top bottles for a few bucks each at the LHBS.

Got my first batch of homebrew bottled and came out with about 43 beers from an extract kit. Tasted pretty good flat so I'm excited to try it in a few weeks when it's carbonated!

Glad that you solved the immediate problem. If you wanted to drive to the other end of the state I was going to offer you a couple of cases of empties, as I have friends who supply me with empty pop offs.

Now all you have to do is collect more so that you can fill a pipeline.

 

[unionrdr]

Ha,sounds like me. When my wife & I decided to do this after watching craigtube,etc,we started exploring craft beers. We saved all the bottles,& since my son still drank beer at the time,we had him buy pop top bottle beers too. She got hacked at me for having big boxes of bottles stashed all over the house. so,I cleaned up my old Homer Cheapo bucket,& got some PBW,Star-san,Vinator,& bottling tree. It took me some 7 weeks soaking 12-13 bottles overnight. But I now have enough bottles for 5-6 batches.
I now just by craft brews like Leinenkugel's for the nice,sturdy 12 pack boxes with separators. I toss out the twisty bottles. Great Lakes has some nice 12 pack boxes too,but the labels can be a pain to remove.

 

[Oddball]

Are you corking + caging your first batch? Ambitious!

PET soda bottles work great for bottling homebrew since you can feel them carbonating.

If you were talking to me......yes I am corking and caging about half of my first batch. The corks I got do not require a corker though and they have a really snug fit.