16 oz bottles

[Pivot]

hi I am looking to start homebrewing in the next month or so, so I have been gathering bottles in anticipation. I live in New Brunswick, Canada and so have been collecting the 16 oz crimple cap Picaroons bottles, which can only be found here, because i realize it is rare to find 16 oz bottles that arent ez caps (i dont like the swing tops).

Now what I was wondering is (1) if anyone has any experience reusing the 16 oz picaroons bottles, and if they are good or not, and (2) what people think about using 16 oz crimple cap bottles in the first place. part of me wants to use 12 oz but I like these bottles and I know they are hard to find.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

Can you post a pic? I have no idea what bottles that brewery uses.

 

[944play]

Google Images will set you free.

Looks like the bottle Old Growler comes in.

If so, they're neither a pint (16) nor a pint (20), but a half liter (16.9).

 

[SumnerH]

If so, they're neither a pint (16) nor a pint (20), but a half liter (16.9).

You meant neither a pint (16) nor a pint (20) nor a pint (18.7):

Samuel Smith 18.7oz Victorian pint bottles, used for the organic lager/ale among other things:


To OP:
16oz bottles are great. Assuming they're not twist-off caps, they ought to work fine.

 

[blowmax10]

I believe you need to use less corn sugar when bottling and If you use a bottling wand, you need to give more head space then the wand would normally give

That's just what i remember hearing

 

[Lou]

I believe you need to use less corn sugar when bottling and If you use a bottling wand, you need to give more head space then the wand would normally give

That's just what i remember hearing

neither of those statements is true.

 

[llazy_llama]

I believe you need to use less corn sugar when bottling and If you use a bottling wand, you need to give more head space then the wand would normally give

That's just what i remember hearing

Wrong on both counts, I'm afraid.

Use the same amount of priming sugar, and prime in the bottling bucket, not in the bottles.

As for the wand, it works just fine regardless of the size you're using. 12 oz, 22 oz, 16.9 oz, the bottling wand doesn't care. It knows what to do.

 

[Pivot]

just while we are on the subject, i know alot of yanks dont think canadian beer is all its cracked up to be, but you guys should give these Picaroons a shot if your ever in the area. its probably the best canadian beer in the country. amazing stuff

 

[Philsc]

A little off topic, but...

Have you tasted Quidi Vidi (A Newfoundland Brewery) beer? Stunning!
In Ontario - Wellington and Black Oak. Beautiful.

 

[Pivot]

hey yes I have had the Ontario brews before they are very good. But the only thing ive ever had from newfoundland is screech haha. If im ever down that way I should give them a try. Ive had many different canadian brews all over the country and I like Picaroons the best personally. they have a beer that uses real canadian maple syrup haha you cant get more canadian then that

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

Hophead - Tree brewing - Kelowna, BC
Anything from Swans brewpub, especially the seasonal barley wine! - Victoria, BC
Cannery brewing - Penticton, BC
Philips brewing - Esquimalt, bc (near Victoria)

to name a few

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

Hey, as long as the caps are standard sized, you should have no problems capping these bottles. If you own a bench capper, you can cap just about any bottle, even twist offs (did so from 1992 till I switched to kegs 3 years ago).

 

[Jmac00]

Being from the fredericton area myself, of course i've used the picaroons bottles. Great to use, easy to cap....even with the wing capper.. And yes, they have great beer...

P.S. You'll have a fun time getting the labels off....

 

[Jmac00]

..i'm curious though as to why you don't like swing-tops???? They're cheap and easy to use....

 

[fratermus]

As for the wand, it works just fine regardless of the size you're using. 12 oz, 22 oz, 16.9 oz, the bottling wand doesn't care. It knows what to do.

While this is true enough for practical purposes, it might be interesting to think about bottle height here. Consider how much liquid volume is displaced by the wand in a very short (red stripe, 17cm of wand fits in) and a very tall (champagne, 27cm of wand) bottle.

Since calculating the volume of a cylinder involves the height (submerged depth in our case): deeper bottle = more submerged wand = more beer displaced = more headspace when the wand is removed.

Given the thickness of the bottling wand on my desk (disregarding the larger fiitting at the bottom for the sake of simplicity) it turns out the Red Stripe bottle has ~12cc of headspace after wand removal, and the champagne bottle has ~19cc. I think this means that if we are claiming that we get the same headspace in all bottles then we are in error. If we are saying that we get acceptable headspace in all bottles then we are probably safe.

Just sayin'.

 

[fratermus]

...it is rare to find 16 oz bottles that arent ez caps

.5L German bottles work exceptionally well for bottling homebrew.

 

[boydak]

.5L German bottles work exceptionally well for bottling homebrew.

But hard to find.

 

[Pivot]

i dont know why i dont like the swing top bottles.. just not my style i suppose. i guess they just dont feel authentic in my opinion.

and yes the picaroons labels can be challenging. ive de-labeled about 17 bottles so far with varying success. after soaking them in hot water, most of the labels (about 60%) came off without to much of a fuss but the remaining bottles are still sticky, and im currently looking for a way to get that gunk off of them!

 

[Pivot]

haha and just to clear things up, i said best beer in canada, and while it is amazing beer i was sort of off hand referring to the one beer they make that uses real maple syrup so its as canadian as it gets id say. i havent tried nearly enough micro brews in canada to make a claim like that. haha

 

[Jmac00]

im currently looking for a way to get that gunk off of them!

i have something to try the next time i have trouble with the labels, i'll let you know how it goes.

And if you want to buy some empty bottles.....you can buy em back from the recycle depots.....that's what i do with the swingtops...

 

[Pivot]

well i just went out and bought 17 picaroons to finish off my set of 16 oz bottles. PERFECT including about 6 of their maple cream ales because im pretty sure their on their last batches of it now, and its my favourite beer right now.

the labels only seemed to have a hard time coming off the bottles when they were left for a while. any of the bottles i had that i had just drank came off easily, but my friend gave me 9 empty picaroons bottles that he had sitting around for months and 7 of them turned out gunky. kind of weird but hopefully i can fix them up.

 

[dagamore]

But hard to find.

The hell you say, i am sometimes literly tripping over them here. :Snark: