greenhorn61
New Member
Can I bottle my IPA in growlers? If so any special tricks I need to know about!
Growlers
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Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
I've never tried this but I've read in HBT that it's not a good idea. Growlers aren't made to contain pressure and, since you're looking at bottling 1/2 gallon in a growler, it'll produce a lot of CO2 pressure as it carbonates. That can, of course, lead to some real danger.
NHBeerDude
Well-Known Member
On the very first batch I ever made, I ran out of bottles and decided to fill a growler with the rest. The growler didn't hold any carbonation. I'm guessing it had to do with the threading on the cap letting co2 escape
beerkrump
Well-Known Member
Growlers are made for carrying beer from point A to point B. They are not designed to handle the pressure generated by fermenting yeast for an extended period. You would be creating big bottle bombs.
I've done it several times without any incident. I like to do it so I can bring the growler to a party or whatever. Even after 6 weeks it was fully carbed with no leaks. I tighten the cap down and then tape over it to help prevent co2 getting out.
lbaker
Well-Known Member
Funny story, my first keg in my kegerator was Franziskaner Hefeweizen. My wife wanted to fill a growler for her boss wanting to try it and she ran home on lunch, cranked the co2 up to 40 and let it sit for 3 hours! Then she filled the growler with my siphon tubing attached to the spout...good form, but bad prep. When I got home I pour a glass, it shoots out like a bat out of hell and appears bubbly like a champagne. I get a full report that night that her boss opened the growler only to have the top fly off, hit the ceiling, and hosed him down head to toe. Wife learned a valuable lesson that you dont jack with husbands co2 levels, I learned a lesson that if it could handle that type of pressure for 8 hours it could probably handle it for weeks...but then again, I feel like growlers should be a travel means only. The Upland tap room in Indy has a growler filler designed to eliminate oxygen entrance and they give those puppies 2 weeks tops unopened. I too doubt if anything would last longer than this and maintain quality even if properly filled.
depends on the growler. i buy flip top growlers that are pretty thick and bottle in them with no problems. a guy on youtube has a few videos where he cranks up the pressure on a growler to some insane level and it doesn't burst, i'll look for it...
nostalgia
Well-Known Member
And I can find plenty of how to videos on Youtube with people working under a car with only a jack supporting the vehicle.
Moral of the story: You can find anything you want on Youtube to attempt to justify your own stupid decisions...
lbaker
Well-Known Member
IffyG said:
Hehe. I like this thread.
i don't think anyone is insisting that growlers should be used for bottling but there are various types of growlers, some safer than others. i have two that have been conditioning for more than two months without a problem.
RugerRedhawk
Well-Known Member
I had read that the screw tops should not be used, but the flip tops should be. Guess we'll see in about 3-4 weeks. I bottled two batches last night. Got lazy toward the end and used a flip top growler and six bottles that I didn't bother stripping the labels from.
DoubleAught
Well-Known Member
I was a good boy and actually searched before making a new thread.
So, thinking it would be easier to bottle 10 growlers rather than 40 bottles I bought the CBD growlers from Northern Brewing. Looking at the caps I didnt see how it would build carbination and hold it, so I bought 38mm poly screw caps, which look as though they may hold the carb.
Now Im reading that bottling in a growler isn't a good idea. These growlers I bought are said to hold 2.4 volumes of co2, and since I don't keg yet that means nothing to me.
My question is I want to bottle a low carbed porter with the poly screw caps. I know I will get varying opinions but will it work and hold the carb or am I still risking some bottle bombs?
So, thinking it would be easier to bottle 10 growlers rather than 40 bottles I bought the CBD growlers from Northern Brewing. Looking at the caps I didnt see how it would build carbination and hold it, so I bought 38mm poly screw caps, which look as though they may hold the carb.
Now Im reading that bottling in a growler isn't a good idea. These growlers I bought are said to hold 2.4 volumes of co2, and since I don't keg yet that means nothing to me.
My question is I want to bottle a low carbed porter with the poly screw caps. I know I will get varying opinions but will it work and hold the carb or am I still risking some bottle bombs?
NB is selling those for bottling according to their website so i'd guess you would be fine as long as you kept the CO2 volume within the stated parameters, 2.4 is a normally carbed beer.
DoubleAught
Well-Known Member
Thanks! I'm bottling in a little over a week and really want to use these. Think I'll give them a go.
Volumes of CO2 have nothing to do with kegging alone. You should read up on it. It is the amount of CO2 in solution so 2.4 volumes means 2.4 gallons of CO2 in a gallon of beer. It is used to describe how well carbonated a beer is. 2.4 volumes is about what you would say the "average" American craft beer is carbonated to. If you are looking for "low carbonated" you are looking at 1.5 or so volumes. So, if they say they will hold 2.4, you should be fine.
DoubleAught
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the correction, something I know very little about yet. Looks like I have some learning to do
Tall_Yotie
Well-Known Member
How is that different than a bottle I bought at the store and re-used? If anything, the growlers have thicker glass than a beer bottle that was filled with force-carbed beer.
I have carbed in growlers with absolutely no issues. However, this is with the correct amount of priming sugar with an even mix. If you are uneven and going to have bottle bombs then you just have a very large bottle bomb.
Tall_Yotie said:
You can use growlers if you want but it is recommended that you don't because they aren't made to hold a lot of pressure. That doesn't mean they wont hold the pressure, it just means they don't hold pressure as well as bottles.
The growlers I get locally are screw tops and would not trust them with pressure.
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I think we can all agree that:
Of the people that don't bottle in growlers - 0% have had a growler blow up.
Of the people that do bottle in growlers - 0%< have had a growler blow up.
Of the people that don't bottle in growlers - 0% have had a growler blow up.
Of the people that do bottle in growlers - 0%< have had a growler blow up.
Interesting that those are the stats for bottling all together too.
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ReverseApacheMaster
Well-Known Member
I have growlers that seem thicker than the glass in beer bottles, maybe even thicker than some champagne bottles. However, I'm not sure if the design of the growler is sufficient to withstand pressure.
Given the possibility of losing that much beer and have that much glass flying around my house/car/etc. and the likelihood that screwtop growlers won't hold pressure, I would rather just toss beer in some 22's for large volume transportation. It's not harder to cap three 22oz bottles and carry them around than try to tape down a screwtop on a half gallon growler.
Given the possibility of losing that much beer and have that much glass flying around my house/car/etc. and the likelihood that screwtop growlers won't hold pressure, I would rather just toss beer in some 22's for large volume transportation. It's not harder to cap three 22oz bottles and carry them around than try to tape down a screwtop on a half gallon growler.
I have done three batches so far bottling a few growlers and have have no issues with holding pressure or bottle bombs although I typically short the priming sugar just a little being that I plan on letting them sit for longer than the usual ~3 weeks
