Using 750 mL American Champagne Bottles

[Toby2]

I found a local source for free (bar trash) 750 mL American champagne bottles and I'd like them for beer.

Have you used them and did the standard bottle cap work OK?

I capped one and it appeared to fit fine and I couldn't turn it by hand.

How much head space did you leave and did you less or more priming sugar?

Any and all advice is welcome

Toby

 

[bierhaus15]

I have a bunch of champagne bottles that I will occasionally fill with (carbonated) apfelwein. I carb them as I would a batch of beer - as in put priming sugar in bottling bucket and mix. They work fine, though I have to use a bench capper as the regular capper wont fit.

 

[Pappers_]

Yes, I used champagne bottles for a bier de garde, they worked fine. Bottle caps are fine or you can use plastic champagne corks and wire cages, no special equipment needed. Most of these bottles are green, so you need to store them in the dark to avoid skunking.

 

[HSM]

Standard caps work fine. I could never get the Red Baron to cap them but my bench capper works fine.

 

[philsaun]

I have used champagne bottles for decades for bottling my beer using crown caps. I have them boxed in wine boxes of 12/box. This is such a heavy box to lift with so much of the weight going to the heavy champagne bottles when our beer never needs such high pressure containment. What to do as purchasing quart size or 1 liter size glass beer bottles is impossible in small quantities.

After much web searching and looking around and a phone call to Mr. Beer I have learned that the 1 liter PET or PETE (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles used for bottling seltzer and the 20 fl.oz. carbonated soft drink bottles work just fine and will hold the pressure no problem.

After bottling in these PET bottles one can monitor the fermentation in the bottle as they get harder and harder to pinch. These are so light and hold so much more (1 liter = 33.8 fl.oz) than champagne bottles. Lifting a case of 12 - 1 liter filled PET bottles is so much easier than twelve of the 26 fl.oz. (750ml) champagne bottles and they hold almost 8fl. ozs. more beer per bottle!

These 1 liter PET seltzer bottles are available for as little as 3 for $2 for store brand seltzer at a grocery store and are found on sale for as little as 3 for $1. They fit in wine box cases no problem (I cut slots in the two sides for easy lifting).Also at Sam’ Club you can purchase cases of 24 - 20fl.oz. seltzer from Poland Spring which is a good size for bottling as well. You will need to find a suitable box for them for storage and aging.

When going to use the aged beer I have the unopened 1 liter bottle in the refrigerator along with an empty 20 fl.oz. PET soda bottle. I open the 1 liter bottle and carefully, with a minimum of turbulence, fill the 20 oz soda bottle right to the top and recap immediately. That soda bottle goes back into the frig and the remaining 14 fl.ozs. of beer from the 1 liter PET bottle is poured into my frozen beer mug. The beer in the soda bottle will keep just fine as if unopened. Clean out the yeast from the 1 liter PET bottle simply by putting some water in the bottle and shaking - do this until the bottle is clean - tap out excess water and recap awaiting the next time you are going to be bottling. So simple, no crown caps - no hassle, no heavy glass, and inexpensive.

Any questions contact me at [email protected] Good luck, Phil - 02-04-13
Check this web page: http://www.philsaun.com/Pages/Champagnebottlesforsale.aspx