Reusing Belgian Bottles

[brandona33]

I recently visited Ommegang brewery in upstate NY, and during the tour they mentioned they import their bottles from France. They are seamless, and necessary since they bottle condition/carb their beers. I was wondering if anyone has reused these bottles, and am I correct in thinking that I will need a wine corker, corks and possibly the wire (champagne like) tops to hold the corks in?

Would these only be reccomended for high gravity beers? Would it be a waste of my time to use these on a more avg gravity beer such as a stout or PA?

 

[Got Trub?]

Its not the gravity that is the issue. Certain belgian styles are highly carbonated (3-4 vol) which means higher pressures in the bottle. Normal beer bottles can explode with those pressure. Yes you can reuse them and yes you need corks, corker and cages. As PA's and stouts are carbonated more in the 2-2.5vol range they don't need the stronger bottles and corking system.

GT

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

It's definitely not time or cost effective to use belgian bottles for beers that are not highly carbed. Corks, wire, and corking equipment are more expensive than caps and a capper and it's definitely a longer process to cork.

 

[funkbier]

You can buy plastic champagne stoppers and put them in by hand (cage too of course), I've done it myself on some Ommegang bottles.

 

[Brew-boy]

I have reused the Belgian Bottles and it was no big deal, a little more work yes I will agree.
All I used was a floor wine corker and it was easy and simple. made really great x-mas presents as more than half the people I gave them too had no idea beer came in that kind of a bottle.

 

[Beerrific]

You can buy plastic champagne stoppers and put them in by hand (cage too of course), I've done it myself on some Ommegang bottles.

I heave heard these stoppers will not provide a pressure-tight seal in standard Belgian beer bottles. Confirm/deny?

 

[smokinghole]

I have been trying out capping champagne bottles. I'll be doing a saison soon and will carb it pretty highly. That will be a test of the cap for sure as I do not thing the champagne bottle will be an issue at all.

 

[maida7]

Its not the gravity that is the issue. Certain belgian styles are highly carbonated (3-4 vol) which means higher pressures in the bottle. Normal beer bottles can explode with those pressure. Yes you can reuse them and yes you need corks, corker and cages. As PA's and stouts are carbonated more in the 2-2.5vol range they don't need the stronger bottles and corking system.

GT

The american domestic bar bottles are very strong. Not the ones you buy in the store but the long necks you get at a bar. These are special bottles that are returned to the brewery and refilled. But good luck getting them.

You can use the smaller 12oz duvel & chimay bottles with regular caps. Also some of the german wheat beer bottles are very strong and will take regular caps. Just be careful with high carbonation in the regular thickness bottles as they are not designed for that.

Personnaly I keg the beer. Force carb it up to 3-4 volumes and then counter pressure fill off the keg. As long as I keep my beers from getting above like 90F there is no real danger from bombs.

 

[SumnerH]

I recently visited Ommegang brewery in upstate NY, and during the tour they mentioned they import their bottles from France. They are seamless, and necessary since they bottle condition/carb their beers. I was wondering if anyone has reused these bottles, and am I correct in thinking that I will need a wine corker, corks and possibly the wire (champagne like) tops to hold the corks in?

Would these only be reccomended for high gravity beers? Would it be a waste of my time to use these on a more avg gravity beer such as a stout or PA?

This totally depends on what you mean by "a waste of time"--there's no technical reason to do it, even for pretty highly carbed beers (as noted, the small bottles of Chimay blue, Orval, and plenty of hefeweizens come in heavy-duty capped bottles, along with many other beers).

The reason to cork and cage, to me, is presentation. It looks a lot nicer, so for special beers (anything that's going to age a while or otherwise stands out) I'll bottle up a few in nice presentation to use as gifts. Corking and caging is one way of doing that (waxing the caps is another). Here's my recently bottled barleywine--I did 4 large 750ml bottles corked+caged, 5 smaller 375 ml bottles corked+caged, 5 Orval bottles waxed, and then the rest just bottled up in normally capped 12oz Anchor steam bottles:

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

You can buy plastic champagne stoppers and put them in by hand (cage too of course), I've done it myself on some Ommegang bottles.

Ommegang bottles seems to be successful with using the plastic corks, but some other belgian bottles seem to either have too small or too large of a mouth. Since the bottles are usually corked with wood cork, there is probably less standards employed across different manufacturers to make sure the mouth is exactly the same.

 

[brandona33]

Great, thanks so much for the input. I am craving belgians now, and will put these in the bottle storage, aka my whole basement, until I make a brew worth of them...cheers!

 

[artyboy]

So the corks don't add to the shelf life at all? I just had a dobbel that was cellared for at least 10 or 15 years and it was great.

 

[funkbier]

I heave heard these stoppers will not provide a pressure-tight seal in standard Belgian beer bottles. Confirm/deny?

Not true. It takes more effort to get the plastic stoppers out than corks. I've had a belgian pale bottled like this for 5 months and they are all nicely carbonated and consistent bottle to bottle tastewise (ie no infection) :rockin:

Whoever is spreading that information has obviously not tried it

 

[funkbier]

Ommegang bottles seems to be successful with using the plastic corks, but some other belgian bottles seem to either have too small or too large of a mouth. Since the bottles are usually corked with wood cork, there is probably less standards employed across different manufacturers to make sure the mouth is exactly the same.

I have a habit of trying new beers more often than not so my collection of empty belgian bottles varies widely. I've used Russian River, Dupont, Duvel, Ommegang, Allagash, Rodenbach, Duchesse, and North Coast, among others, to bottle my Belgian beers.

 

[Beerrific]

Not true. It takes more effort to get the plastic stoppers out than corks. I've had a belgian pale bottled like this for 5 months and they are all nicely carbonated and consistent bottle to bottle tastewise (ie no infection) :rockin:

Whoever is spreading that information has obviously not tried it

I think I asked Northern Brewer and they said they work for the champagne bottles but would not hold pressure in the 750 ml Belgian bottles. Good to know though b/c they look a lot easier to use than corks. I might have to try it out.

 

[Brew-boy]

Yes I love the presentation with corked bottles.

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[Beerrific]

Yes I love the presentation with corked bottles.

Yeah, with labels like that, those look top notch.