dlbarncord
Member
I am almost ready to bottle my first brew and am wondering what is the best bottles to use. I am looking at flip top bottles and really can't find a great price for them.
What are the best bottles to use?
- Thread starter dlbarncord
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EvilGnome6
Well-Known Member
Most any pry off top bottle is good for recapping. I use all New Belgium bottles (I buy a Folly Pack every week) and they work great and the labels come off easily. There are a lot of threads here about which other bottles are good.
I used to bottle in Swing Tops but have found that they are really unreliable for carbonation. I was getting a lot of variance from bottle to bottle and about 10% of them were completely flat. The capped bottles are perfectly consistent for me now.
I used to bottle in Swing Tops but have found that they are really unreliable for carbonation. I was getting a lot of variance from bottle to bottle and about 10% of them were completely flat. The capped bottles are perfectly consistent for me now.
TipsyDragon
Well-Known Member
brown commercial bottles are the best. swing tops are going to be more expensive as a general rule because of the extra hardware and cost in making.
Yankeehillbrewer
Well-Known Member
I like Sierra Nevada stubbies myself for 12oz, but much prefer to bottle in Bombers now.
Kershner_Ale
Well-Known Member
Yep, any brown commercial bottles will work great. You'll find some company labels are easier to remove than others. I mostly bottle in 22 ouncers as it means that many fewer bottles I have to store, wash, and deal with in general. I stop into the local liquor store every so often and buy one or two single 22 oz bottles of some brew I've never tried before. That allows me to 1) try something new and 2) add to my bottle collection for bottling homebrew. If you have a LHBS nearby, stop in and see if they have free used bottles for the taking. I walked out of my LHBS store with 50 22 ounce bottles one day for free. Score!
Kerberbb
Well-Known Member
+1 on the New Belgium bottles, Warsteiner and Sam Adams are good too. I only use twistys for Root Beer. I get alot of good bottles from my buddy. He owns Owasso Liqour here in town and just saves any bottle at his house for me. I ususally get 4-5 cases a month which is cool because I don't worry if what I give away does get returned.
I get all my bottles for free. Of course I have to pay for the beer in them. Never understood the need to 'buy' empty bottles. You all gotta drink more!! If you want flip top you gotta find a good beer store that sells import beers. A lot of German brews come in brown flip top bottles, which IMO are alot better than Grolsh bottles (damn green things).
This comes up a lot, but like others said commercial pry off bottles. You will get to know your favs after a few batches but it also depends on what you can get.
Also, keep in mind that if you submit your beers to any competitions, you will need label and imprint free bottles like Sierra Nevada or a lot of smaller micros have.
Also, keep in mind that if you submit your beers to any competitions, you will need label and imprint free bottles like Sierra Nevada or a lot of smaller micros have.
Yankeehillbrewer
Well-Known Member
I've used a few in the past without issue, but I never really trusted them for some reason. I think others around here have had issues with carbonation on them. I would stay away from them.
RyanPDX
Well-Known Member
When I first started a few months ago, I tried capping a 6pack of twistys with just water, to see how well they would work. I got one of the six to seal properly, and promptly decided to not bother.
rico567
Well-Known Member
I won't brew in New Belgium, because they're about 1/2" shorter than a standard 9" longneck. Sierra Nevada (although I like their beers, as opposed to New Belgium...which I don't really care for) is even shorter, so they're out. These shorter bottles wouldn't matter at all if I were still using the "Red Baron" wing capper. But I've gone over to Grandpa's old Prohibition-era bench capper, and it has to be readjusted for bottles of varying heights. Just about any other 9" pry-off bottle is a candidate: Sam Adams, Red Hook, Celis, Schlafly, Big Sky, Boulder Beer, Saranac & etc. & so forth.
Photopilot
Well-Known Member
you could go to a recycling center and pick through some brown bottles.
I am thinking of doing this for wine, as we do not drink so much wine but have 6 gallons to bottle coming up. I used to work in a restaurant that served 220z beers, I managed to save 100+ bottles from there and use them. That is a good single serving sized beer. Certain Champagne bottles work also. Just try an empty cap on it first. You can tell if it is too big when putting on a bottling cap.
I am thinking of doing this for wine, as we do not drink so much wine but have 6 gallons to bottle coming up. I used to work in a restaurant that served 220z beers, I managed to save 100+ bottles from there and use them. That is a good single serving sized beer. Certain Champagne bottles work also. Just try an empty cap on it first. You can tell if it is too big when putting on a bottling cap.
I have a bunch of plain 12oz longnecks (which I bought at Austin Homebrew Supply) that I alternate with 12oz Sierra Nevada stubbies. This way, each batch is bottled in bottles that are visibly different from the one before, so I can tell which is which without the need for labels.
Edit: I like the Sierra Nevada stubbies for the distinctive shape, but also because the labels are easy to remove by soaking them in water for a couple hours, and the bottle itself doesn't have any branding on it.
Edit: I like the Sierra Nevada stubbies for the distinctive shape, but also because the labels are easy to remove by soaking them in water for a couple hours, and the bottle itself doesn't have any branding on it.
Grolsch swing-tops are my favorite, never a problem with carbonation, lots of mileage out of the original gaskets plus it is easy to find replacement gaskets when needed.
The best bottles to use are the ones that would have ended up in the landfill if you didn't use them.
Ok, I'm being a smart-ass, but seriously, I get all my bottles now from a pub I occasionally frequent and they don't even recycle. *face-palm*
FWIW, I love the Duvel bottles.
Ok, I'm being a smart-ass, but seriously, I get all my bottles now from a pub I occasionally frequent and they don't even recycle. *face-palm*
FWIW, I love the Duvel bottles.
ChshreCat
Well-Known Member
New Belgium bottles give me nothing but trouble, but other folks love 'em so I think it's just my capper that doesn't like them. YMMV
AS for twist off bottles... if you have a bench capper, you can probably use them fine. With a wing capper, they're problematic.
AS for twist off bottles... if you have a bench capper, you can probably use them fine. With a wing capper, they're problematic.
I've switched over to mostly bombers. My LHBS sells them for $12 or $13 a case (12), but a local brewery sells them to me at cost for $6 per case which is much more reasonable. I recently bought 36 cases to bottle my 1 bbl batches and I don't think I'll need more anytime soon. I still use my 32 oz flip tops and plenty of grolsch (16 oz), and a mix for 12 oz bottles in case I want to enter them into competitions.
Hermit
fuddle
For the price of empty new bottles? Yeah. It just makes the beer in them cheaper if you look at it that way. :rockin: $0.50 empty or about $1.10 filled ......... No brainer for me....
ChshreCat
Well-Known Member
Yeah, but if you buy bottles with beer in 'em, then you have to empty all that beer out before you can use 'em! It's a tough job... but somebody has to do it...
Hermit
fuddle
I some how manage....
