brewing directly into growlers or gasket bottles

[zach272]

hey all,

I'm kind of sick of bottling in standard size bottles. Is it OK to put unfinished beer into large growlers or gasket-cap bottles for bottle conditioning? Or do bottle-conditioned beers need to be finished in smaller bottles, or bottles with actual bottle caps?

thanks

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Any sized bottle is fine as long as the beer is ready for bottling and the bottle is designed to hold a carbonated beverage.

 

[eddie]

Time to look into kegging, me thinks.

 

[VermVerm]

Any sized bottle is fine as long as the beer is ready for bottling and the bottle is designed to hold a carbonated beverage.

I second Yuri's caution of making sure that the beer is ready for bottle conditioning. Bottle bombs are potentially deadly, but more importantly a waste of perfectly good beer.

 

[david_42]

Growlers can be difficult to get a good seal. You can probably search for discussions & suggestions. 1.5L flip-tops are a good alternative.

 

[revmoo]

Growlers can be difficult to get a good seal. You can probably search for discussions & suggestions. 1.5L flip-tops are a good alternative.

What does this mean? I've been wondering if I could bottle condition in some spare growlers I have lying around, but I was worried they wouldn't be able to handle it. Is there are reason to use or not to use them?

 

[mountainrev]

What does this mean? I've been wondering if I could bottle condition in some spare growlers I have lying around, but I was worried they wouldn't be able to handle it. Is there are reason to use or not to use them?

The problem is that the caps on growlers don't form a very strong seal. They are meant only to temporarily store beer that's already been carbed. Even then, they won't keep the carbonation for very long.

Bottom line, you will likely end up with flat beer if you carb/bottle condition in a growler.