best bottles for natural carbonation

[op3studios]

greetings from Alaska,

I've been making kombucha and water kefir for a while and recently started up a ginger-bug. Mixing the three is yummy.

The ginger-bug is a natural carbonator.

I've been using wine bottles but now with the carbonation so active, I suppose I should move towards something safer. (I've had a few bottle fountains lately, and one bottle with added raw chocolate made for an exciting wake up when the cork blew off at 3am....the resulting ceiling/wall/floor splatter pattern is devine lol.)

I'm thinking recycled 1-2 liter soda bottles should do the trick, but thought I'd ask for suggestions on what's easy and long lasting. Kegging seems a bit technical at the moment, but I do drink a lot of it and would like to get a reliable system in place.

thanks

Jim

 

[WayFrae]

I think PET soda bottles would work well for this. They can hold more pressure than glass and won't send glass shrapnel everywhere if they do burst.

 

[snarf]

I use champagne bottles. They're strong, you can reuse them indefinitely and you can easily cap them with crown corks.

Ordinary wine bottles are not a good idea, because the glass is too thin...

 

[Setesh]

I think PET soda bottles would work well for this. They can hold more pressure than glass and won't send glass shrapnel everywhere if they do burst.

I'm glad to hear this as I have a bunch of 240 ml plastic Coopers bottles from when I first started brewing beer that I planned on using for KT. I also like how you can squeeze plastic to see when the carbonation is good. I used to do this with rootbeer and it worked great.

 

[op3studios]

thanks for the replies, this seems a great forum, with a great tone.

we have good recycling here so I should be able to get champaigne bottles, but I too like the squeezability of the plastic, which also easy to burp with the standard cap. I know store bought cola is a good way to remove rust due to the phosphoric acid, so I'm thinkin the vinegar acid of kombucha won't be a problem, in terms of chemical leaching of the plastic, in the clear 2 liter bottles.

I'll use champagne bottles also; do others here use cork or specialized ez-caps (I see on Amazon) to handle the agressive ginger bug carbonation?

.

I've been cleaning with white vinegar, salt, and boraxo; adding citric acid when I want steril, and I imagine it serves as well as purchased star-san types of solutions. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I've had no moldy problems with yogurtmaking, sourghdough, or kombucha fermenting when cleaning this way, and since this is not closed top canning, I have not felt the need to boil anything. I feel safe as long as I'm dealing with acidity in healthy fermentation conditions.