Grolsch bottles

[1776]

Bought 2 cases of the old 16oz Grolsch bottles from a buddy recently. I was needing to get some more, and like you know, they switched to the newer 15.2oz bottles. I was wondering if they are both equally as strong as the other, any pro's/cons between the 16 and 15.2? Can one withstand more pressure than the other? To the eye it just seems like the newer 15.2oz bottles are taller and a little more skinny.

But yeah, second question. I did some bottling today of a winter brew in my new Grolsch bottles and realized half way through that I should've took in mind the size of the bottles to how much priming sugar to add. It seems as though I should be adding a little less sugar when bottling in 16oz bottles compared to the normal 12's. I threw in a 5 ounces pre-packaged bag of priming sugar and continued to bottle up the 5 gallons of brew. Am I going to have a problem with bottle bombs? I remember reading that the Grolsch bottles aren't as strong and durable as more 12oz bottles, so it's got me kind of worried. Thanks guys.

 

[audger]

for Q1- i have no idea about how they each were made, but if all else were equal, i would assume the newer bottles, which have not been kicked around or banged together for a long time, would have less microfractures and be overall stronger.

Q2- it shouldnt matter very much. if you had been brewing this recipe for years and years you might want to throw in a little less sugar when using a bigger bottle, but otherwise i dont think you would see (taste?) the difference.

 

[Gaso]

I think your bottles wont explode or something. Some say, that those bottles aren't so strong, because they don't hold the pressure good, but the truth is, that's true only if they are not sealed properly. I had similar problems, with my rubber gaskets which didn't seal good.

Now when I am bottling, I always clean the top of the bottle with soaked cloth, soaked with sanitizer, to clean any priming sugar if there is any left after priming bottles, I think the remaining sugar on the top of the bottle is common mistake which may lead to bad seal. After cleaning top of the bottles, I sink all bottle caps into sanitizer to soak the gaskets and close the bottles, after that, I shake the bottles a bit, to mix the priming sugar and sink bottle necks into sanitizer to soak the rubber gaskets again. If your bottles aren't sealed good you will hear leaking Co2, but being able to detect that, all rubber gaskets have to be wet. After that procedure you may be confident in your bottles. If you detect leak just change gasket with new one.

I have 0.5l bottles, that's 16oz, I put into bottles dextrose, you have to put a bit more than table sugar approx 20% more if you are using dextrose. If you have plastics for measuring volume of priming sugar, just put 2x volume for 12oz bottles of dextrose to 16oz bottle, for 12oz bottle, I would suggest 1x measure for 16oz bottles. But that's for dextrose, for table sugars, which I don't suggest you have to put into the bottles as it is written on the plastic for measuring volume of sugar. All those measures are for some Pilsner or Lager, for stout and I would put a bit less of sugar, approx 20% less.