64 oz Growlers

[awillis]

Lovely enough a local craft brewery has a special deal on 64 oz growlers this summer, $3.95 per half gallon growler. Anyways, I have accumaleted many of these growlers and wanted to use them for my homebrew. I did some searches and came up with ideas like the cap might not seal or even the glass might not be strong enough. In search of an answer I put my second batch into these growlers and into a quit bathroom. I will post my results and hopefully no tragedies in about two weeks.

By the way I just hand tighten the caps as hard as I could. I didnt use any sort of gel or sealent material on the caps.

 

[DuallyBrew]

Can't wait to hear your results. I have 3 growlers right now from a local brewery and would love to use them. If not, refills are a good way to keep them in business ;-)

 

[Porter fan]

I have 4 with homebrew in them one is done and the other three have bout a week to go.awillis I did the same as you just hand tightend the tops,Hopefully it will work

 

[physics]

So what is the deal with these growler posts, it seems that lots of them start and proclaim that they will post the results when they are done doing a test fill, but then leave me hanging.

Is there someone out there that bottle conditions in half gallon growlers with screw tops?

I was also wondering about a 4 liter wine jug.

 

[Rick500]

I use mine to make yeast starters. Haven't tried bottling in them for longer than a couple days.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

Dead Guy Ale is bottle conditioned and they sell it in 64oz growlers with a piece of tape over the cap. I suspect the tape exists to keep people from popping it open in the store, but at very least, that's solid proof that it works.

 

[Sigafoos]

I've bottle conditioned in growlers with no ill effects, but only when I have an extra half gallon I wasn't expecting and ran out of bottles. Although it was fine, I understand that it can be dangerous and so I don't know if I'd recommend it (I did it before I found out I shouldn't, and haven't had a need to since)

 

[Rick500]

Not sure why it would be dangerous... Unless you overcarb, of course.

I just don't know how well the seals would hold up over a long period of time.

 

[Sigafoos]

I think the theory is that the glass isn't meant to hold that high of a pressure (just the excess from the headspace) and so it could go all splodey on you.

And yeah, the cap should leak, but mine didn't. The few twistoffs I've accidentally used were fine too and I don't generally have yeast at the bottom of my bottles so I think I may just live in some Homebrewing Twilight Zone.

 

[Rick500]

...I think I may just live in some Homebrewing Twilight Zone.

If you hadn't already found a brewery name, you did just there.

And yeah, that makes sense re: the pressure concern in the growlers.

 

[alexdagrate]

I've used growlers for "growler-conditioning" several times with no problems.

My understanding is that the brown glass growlers that are "flatter" looking on the sides (the kind that dead guy come in) are better than the clear ones with the round finger-hole.

I also recommend using the plastic caps with polyseal inside them. I get them at my LHBS for like $0.50 or you can get them from morebeer.com.

 

[physics]

Thanks for the quick response. I think I might try with one growler, I think it would be handy when bringing beer over for a get-together. i.e. pouring a bunch of glasses at once.