Can you bottle your brew into growlers?

I've heard both sides I was wondering if I could bottle my brew into growlers? some say it's too much carbonation??

 

Carbonating beer and carbonated beer are not the same. A growler is meant for CARBONATED beer, like from a tap, not beer that is bottle conditioning.

There's always a few who say they have no problem, but folks also have sex without condoms- Or still smoke, despite knowing its risks.

To carb a beer whether or not is is done naturally or with co2 you are forcing the gas into the solution. The pressure builds up, then there's a point where either the bottle fails or the co2, seeking the path of least resistance, forces itself into solution. You could call it a peak point, where there is a lot of pressure in the bottle, both already in solution and in the headspace trying to go into the solution, eventually it balances out and the beer is carbed.

Beer bottles, champagne bottles and kegs are rated with a higher psi/volume of co2 than wine bottles and growlers.

Already carbed and kegged beer is at a stable volume of co2 which is below the volume that growlers and winebottles are rated at. The FORCING of the co2 already happened. Why do you think kegs are made of metal and very very strong? To handle the pressure.

Our Buddy Rukus

I think it goes down to this.....is it worth playing Russian Roulette with your money and the time you spent bringing your brew along from grain to bottling day???

For every guy that says they do it, we have 2-3 guys who posts threads like "Growler goes Boom"

 

Don't do it. I used to and had a couple explode.

The fancy growlers with the metal handle and grisly style cap are fine to use. But the plain old screw cap growlers won't hold the pressure.

 

I've used one of those "fancy" style growlers but only once so I probably got lucky. I'm not gonna try it again.

I've been eyeing 1liter swing top bottles of sparkling apple juice i saw at World Market though. Think they'd handle carbing pressures? They look just like ones I see for sale on home brew websites, but cheaper per bottle. I have no idea of glass thickness so that could be an issue.

 

I love the cut and paste responses. Rather comical and broken record esque. I know it's because you feel you guys are fending off any other questions but come on! It's so authoritarian and annoying.

Anyhow it really depends on the beer. If you're putting in a real low carb english beer I don't see how it's a problem. I've used it for cask style ales when I have parties coming up. I filled three up last time and they were all lightly carbonated and none broke. I'll keep doing it too just because I I feel confident they won't break. I won't be putting a saison at 4 volumes in there but I'll toss in a ESB at 1.3 volumes any day. Just keep them somewhere for the first week where if they should break it's not a big deal. I think the naysayers have really done a number to the sheeple on this board though. I'm here to try and turn the tables on that "growler goes boom" ratio. If you're not a jackoff, can accurately bottle condition, and keep it to a max of 2 vol I say give it a shot. Just don't sleep with it under your pillow.

In fact the standard 12oz long neck bottles most of us use to bottle condition beers in weight 210grams on average. The "fancy" flip top growlers that I use for bottle conditioning cask style beers in weight 1.5kg. So if you take the weight of the bottle and divide it by the volume in mL you get .59 for the 12oz long neck. That is a straight percentage saying that the glass mass is 59% of the container volume. The 2L growler has a 75% glass mass to container volume. So while it's not "designed" for pressure the guideline I use for carbing beers in certain bottles to 3.0+ is coming in to play here also. I would even wager that I can bottle condition a beer between 2 and 3 volumes in one of these fliptops and may just do so on a few occasions to prove the naysayers wrong. Of course in normal fashion once I produce the results the same copy and paste will continue because they don't want anyone thinking for themselves. Come on in the Koolaide is great.

You are a unique snowflake and you can think for yourself. So I say give it a shot and be smart about how you do it. Based on the information I gave you make your own educated decision rather than anecdotal information based on assumptions.

poke, poke, poke.

 

That's Revy for you.

Truth is I used them for about a year with no issues. Then had 2 explode on separate occasions. Beer everywhere. What a mess.

 

Interesting. I think the copy pasting is meant to inform someone that this information is out there, and HBT isn't Google. There are so many repeating questions on this board its insane. You pretty much have 3 options, ignore (which is rude, and what I do) point out their ignorance blatantly and tell them to search, or do what Revvy did, copy and paste information. The question asked gets his/her answer and is subtlety reminded that this information is out there.


As far as the Growler question goes, just because you CAN, doesn't mean you should, the vessel in question is not meant to do what you are asking it to do. As well, just because you've been told you shouldn't, doesn't mean you can't. You are human, it is in your existence to learn and explore