Reinforce wine bottles full of beer?

[beerandloathinginaustin]

In a pinch I bottled beer into 15 wine bottles. Almost immediately after performing this act I thought this could be problematic. I've read online that the risk of bottles breaking is rather high.

What's my best bet at this point? I've been thinking of tightly wrapping the bottles in duct tape to help them handle the carbonation but if somebody has a better idea I'm all ears. Otherwise I may have to resort to a Little Sumpin Sumpin clone chuggin' party at my house on Saturday!

 

[Clann]

I don't think thats going to turn out so well. Next time just wait till you have enough bottles to do it properly.

 

[beerandloathinginaustin]

Agreed sir. We had two 5 gallon batches I did with a buddy and he wanted to hurry up and bottle to have ready for his girl's bday. He said he had enough bottles and then showed up with 27. lol

So one vote for the party I take it...

 

[EvilTOJ]

At least the duct tape will keep the glass together when the bottles explode. How did you cap them? Beer caps won't work, and corks will pop out (unless you have the classy screw on tops) Now I KNOW you have 22 oz beer bottles in Austin, use those instead.

 

[beerandloathinginaustin]

I corked them. Transferring them all back to the bottling bucket or a keg is just going to be a big oxidizing mess, right?

I'm assuming the cork will pop before the bottle breaks but wouldn't bet the house on it. I think I'll start planning on the Saturday craft beer binge and transfer the bottles to the fridge when/if the first cork pops.

 

[theschick]

What do you think is worse, possibly oxidized beer or glass shrapnel filled beer? Try to carefully rebottle the beer, or just dump it in the sink. Do you really want to take the chance of having glass blown out everywhere?

 

[theonetrueruss]

you can carefully pour into your bucket and re bottle, I did this with a case of stout that I forgot priming sugar on (that right laugh.. I did.. it was like my second batch-humbling experience). Anyhow, they didn't age gracefully but were fine for a couple months.

 

[ChshreCat]

Tell you what... Go and get yourself a chunk of dry ice and put it in a bowl in your bottling bucket and pour a little water on it. After the dry ice sublimates, carefully pour your beer into the bucket. The bucket will be full of CO2 and if you're careful you won't disturb too much of it and can minimize oxidation that way.

At least, you might feel better about pouring it all that way cuz that's what you're gonna have to do, my friend.

That, or as you said... invited a bunch of friends over and just dispose of it now. It'll be pretty flat and green, but it won't totally go to waste.

 

[beerandloathinginaustin]

What do you think is worse, possibly oxidized beer or glass shrapnel filled beer? Try to carefully rebottle the beer, or just dump it in the sink. Do you really want to take the chance of having glass blown out everywhere?

At this point the gears are in motion for a Saturday night homebrew party because I have 7 other batches fully online anyway. Re-bottling hasn't been ruled out. Just had the first cork pop while I was looking at the bottles debating with my roomie what to do with them. That was at least somewhat reassuring that glass won't end up everywhere.

 

[beerandloathinginaustin]

Tell you what... Go and get yourself a chunk of dry ice and put it in a bowl in your bottling bucket and pour a little water on it. After the dry ice sublimates, carefully pour your beer into the bucket. The bucket will be full of CO2 and if you're careful you won't disturb too much of it and can minimize oxidation that way.

At least, you might feel better about pouring it all that way cuz that's what you're gonna have to do, my friend.

That, or as you said... invited a bunch of friends over and just dispose of it now. It'll be pretty flat and green, but it won't totally go to waste.

Ooh, I like that idea! I think we're headed the party route but 3 years from now when some other moron does this they'll have this thread as a resource.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Not sure why, but my guess is they don't break and the corks don't come out. Handle w/ care all the same. I don't support rebottling, what a PITA!

 

[skipper1953]

A similar problem was discussed on another forum.

Why not just thoroughly chill the bottles then pull the corks. The excess pressure will be relieved and you can re-cork the bottles with little or no oxidation or contamination. You may end up with slightly under carbed beer. Other than that, I can't see a problem with this procedure.

Wine bottles will explode. If you used bottles intended for sparkling wine there would be much less chance of bottles bursting.

 

[beerandloathinginaustin]

The homebrew party I ended up throwing was a lot of fun and we just played beer pong with the 'wine bottle beer'. Managed to get rid of 3 gallons of rather bitter Witbier with late stage additions of Calypso too so I call the night a win.

Oh, actually...big win of the night was gf of brewing buddy declaring the Lil Sumpin Sumpin clones better than the original. (The one with a mix of Cali 001 & Saison 565 was especially well received). They drink it because it's her favorite so I felt like that was a big endorsement.

Just wanted to report back and say thanks for the solid advice guys. The perfect storm that put me in this predicament will likely never happen again but I'm sure 3 years from now some poor homebrewer will be assisted by this thread.

 

[dfc]

you can carefully pour into your bucket and re bottle, I did this with a case of stout that I forgot priming sugar on (that right laugh.. I did.. it was like my second batch-humbling experience). Anyhow, they didn't age gracefully but were fine for a couple months.

I did the same for my first batch.

 

[Vance71975]

In a pinch I bottled beer into 15 wine bottles. Almost immediately after performing this act I thought this could be problematic. I've read online that the risk of bottles breaking is rather high.

What's my best bet at this point? I've been thinking of tightly wrapping the bottles in duct tape to help them handle the carbonation but if somebody has a better idea I'm all ears. Otherwise I may have to resort to a Little Sumpin Sumpin clone chuggin' party at my house on Saturday!

If you used standard wine bottles You will blow the corks out before you blow up the bottle. If you used Champagne bottles, with the Wire stoppers, those will handle the pressure no problem!

 

[beerandloathinginaustin]

If you used standard wine bottles You will blow the corks out before you blow up the bottle. If you used Champagne bottles, with the Wire stoppers, those will handle the pressure no problem!

You are correct sir. Had 3 corks pop before we played beer pong with the rest. 2 of them popped while on ice in the cooler with duct tape over the corks.

Needless to say we were pretty wrecked from playing beer pong with 6.6% beer while drinking 8%+ homebrews on the side. Best news from the night is a couple of my friends reporting back that they have trouble drinking light crap now because they've had good beer with flavor.

 

[Vance71975]

you are correct sir. Had 3 corks pop before we played beer pong with the rest. 2 of them popped while on ice in the cooler with duct tape over the corks.

Needless to say we were pretty wrecked from playing beer pong with 6.6% beer while drinking 8%+ homebrews on the side. Best news from the night is a couple of my friends reporting back that they have trouble drinking light crap now because they've had good beer with flavor. :d

awesome dude!