Cider "Beer" Bottles

[MeadWitch]

I am collecting beer bottles from work before I began my first batch of cider. I have been making mead for about a decade now and have all sorts of bottles for still & sparkling mead, but this is a first for collecting beer bottles. Compared to the mead bottles, the beer bottle walls I am finding seem to be a quite thin. Is this normal for beer bottles? I thought I had read that cider bottles needed to be tougher than ordinary mead bottles. I am not a beer drinking, so I am not sure if I am getting the right ones. I have been gathering Austin Amber and Fireman 4 bottles, the labels just fall off in the dishwater. I just want to make sure I am using the correct bottles. I have never had a bottle bomb to date and am not wanting to start now, if you know what I mean.

 

[Pappers_]

Hi MW. I wonder if your perception is due to weight - the beer bottles weigh less than the wine/mead bottles you've been using so you perceive that they are thinner and weaker, perhaps?

Ordinary wine bottles cannot, as I understand it, be used to bottle a carbonated beverage because they are not strong enough to hold in the pressure, they will burst. Sparkling wine bottles and beer bottles are made strong enough to withhold the pressure.

I don't know your particular beer bottles, but if they held beer (which is always carbonated), they are strong enough.

Your bottles for sparkling mead would work for the cider, I think. I've used sparkling wine bottles for beer, also.

 

[Edcculus]

If you don't try to carb the cider past 3 volumes, you should be fine. For beer, the average amount of priming sugar is about 5oz for a 5 gallon batch. That won't get you close to getting bottle bombs in regular beer bottles. That is provided the cider is finished fermenting.

 

[Pappers_]

If you don't try to carb the cider past 3 volumes, you should be fine. For beer, the average amount of priming sugar is about 5oz for a 5 gallon batch. That won't get you close to getting bottle bombs in regular beer bottles. That is provided the cider is finished fermenting.

Ed, from previous posts, I think MW is planning on using the pastuerizing method to stop fermentation when the cider is carbonated, leaving her with a semi-dry sparkling cider.

 

[Edcculus]

ah, that makes sense. Regular beer bottles should work for that too right?

Also, are your sparkling wine bottles like champagne bottles? If so, thats where you are feeling the difference. Sparkling wine is carbonated MUCH higher than beer or cider, so it needs a thicker bottle.

 

[Pappers_]

ah, that makes sense. Regular beer bottles should work for that too right?

Also, are your sparkling wine bottles like champagne bottles? If so, thats where you are feeling the difference. Sparkling wine is carbonated MUCH higher than beer or cider, so it needs a thicker bottle.

Yes, beer bottles work fine for stove-top pasteurizing.

 

[JoshuaWhite5522]

If you had any worrys about beer bottles think about it this way, they hold the pressure from beer with out bursting don't they? So if you carb to the same degree as most comercial ciders you should be fine.

Also, I once mistakenly put 3/4 cup of table sugar in a 5 gallon batch of dunkelwizen to prime, did have some bottle bombs, but not all of them. That being said i think regular old beer bottles can take a good deal of pressure

 

[MeadWitch]

Thanks for the reassurance guys. Pappers, I guess I am being misled by the weight of the bottles. They just seem so light weight and fragile. I suppose with experience will come confidence in my equipment.

Ed, I am planning on using the stove top pasteurization method that Pappers posted in the Cider House Rules post. I cannot use campden tabs as I have reactions to the chemical and I would rather keep my cider as natural as possible.

Josh, I did actually add to much honey to my last batch of JAOM when I back sweetened it (it went dry on me, didn't start with enough honey), so I ended up using the stovetop method and so far so good.