64 oz Growler?

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TRedVR6

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I'm a newbie and about to bottle my first batch of homebrew. I have a couple of 64 oz growlers from a local microbrewery that I'd like bottle some homebrew in. They have a screw-on plastic caps. As long as I clean and sanitize these containers, will it be OK to use them?
 
Sorry I can't help but at least I've learnt something new from your post. I'd never heard of this sort of growler before and had to do a Google search to find out what one was.
Here in England a Growler is a Pork pie! They go very well with mushy peas and a pint. :)

Roger.
 
that plastic lid will not form an airtight seal, so i don't think it will carbonate properly. i have several of those growlers that i use to make yeast starters in now, but the beer from the brewpub would be flat after a day or two if i didn't drink it. maybe you could find rubber stopper that is not drilled and wedge it down in there to get a good strong airtight seal.
 
t1master said:
that plastic lid will not form an airtight seal, so i don't think it will carbonate properly. i have several of those growlers that i use to make yeast starters in now, but the beer from the brewpub would be flat after a day or two if i didn't drink it. maybe you could find rubber stopper that is not drilled and wedge it down in there to get a good strong airtight seal.

That's what I was afraid of...glad I asked here first rather than ruining a couple of gallons of beer. The stopper is a good idea - maybe I'll try it with one of them to test how it works.
 
How about using a thin rubber washer like from a flip top bottle and put it inside the cap? I know most of them are (relatively) thick, but occasionally there's a thin one in there.

Then again, you could always run a bead of rubber cement (or something like it) inside the cap, let it firm up and then screw it on. I would recommend doing this with water inside first to see if the cement will transfer any flavors, etc. :D

There's always a way....we just have to come up with the solution..."Necessity is the Mother of Invention". Then again, "Laziness was its Father". :D
 
I asked the exact same question on another forum and have still had no reply. I have read that a lot of people have used plastic soda bottles with screw caps. I'm thinking if it works with those...why not the growlers? Anyway, I think I'll try it. Putting in some sort of gasket may be a good idea. One way or another I'm going to do some experimenting maybe with vinegar and baking soda first to see what happens. Then, it that works, I'll do one growler and maybe latch it inside a cooler to keep from making a mess.

All in the name of SCIENCE! and the noble cause of finding cheap bottles!

Cheers,

Facarelli
 
I've recently inquired with several local brewers about using growlers for homebrewing and the concern they expressed was that the strength of the glass growler may not be strong enough for bottle conditioning and may break.

There should be rubber gasket lined Metal caps available for your growler if you decide to try it.

Let us know. I'd love to hear a success story on this type of bottling.

Chicagobluesman.
 
I just re-discovered this forum after a couple of years since my first brew when I posted this. I do use growlers once in a while and have never had one blow on me. My latest is to make a 1 to 1.5 gallon starter that is actually a drinkable beer. It's a long story, but I was waiting for some grain to get here and only had a couple lbs of two row and some so I brewed something light in a 6 gal Better Bottle and bottled it in growlers. No problem. I would not use them if you're expecting a heavy carbonation, but they seem to handle whatever a LCA or the like can dish out.

Oh... the whole point of the "drinkable starter" is to get a nice yeast cake for actual brew day. So I rack the starter beer into a secondary and then just dump my full batch on that. It takes off in no time. Very cool. And more beer to drink instead of disgarding the starter or adding it to the new brew.
 
the plastic cap pay not be air-tight, but i bet it'll be liquid tight! Put the beer in there and store them upside down!! I used to do this with soda all the time. If you store a 2L bottle of soda on its side so the cap is covered in liquid, the gas cannot escape!
 
Unfortunately, the brew pub around here recently changed to those screw top growlers. I've picked up several of the swing top ones before they changed. I like the idea of $17 filled with a good beer better than $25 empty. I bottle and naturally carbonate in the swing top growlers every batch. Work like a charm and the biggest benefit is they keep me from having to cap as many bottles.

I understand that you can buy caps for the screw top growlers that will hold pressure, but I haven't seen them. I also don't know if the screw top growlers are as thick glass as the swing tops.
 
RogerN said:
Sorry I can't help but at least I've learnt something new from your post. I'd never heard of this sort of growler before and had to do a Google search to find out what one was.
Here in England a Growler is a Pork pie! They go very well with mushy peas and a pint. :)

Roger.

:off: What's with the British and mushy peas anyway?? With beer? Hmmmm.....
 
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