Bottles

[LavaChild]

Hello again!

Yes, I'm going round all of the components of home brew in turn! My apologies

Anyway, bottles:

I have a quantity of St Peters bottles... Was considering buying a capper (I think bottles are a much better idea for me than pressure keg). Then I thought - What about either (a) Swing top bottles or (b) PET screw cap bottles.

Can you please advise if there any any beers for which any of the above (cap/swing top/screw cap) are/are not suitable for? In the end I guess I'll go with the cheapest to begin with (which I think is screw cap - cheaper than a capper and caps, even considering I have bottles already!) and go from there.

Thanks again!!

 

[Underground Joe]

PET bottles will let oxygen in so aren't suitable for long term storage, not a problem if you get through your batch quickly. Plastic also absorbs flavour, particularly hop flavour and aroma. Just stick your nose into a clean plastic fermenter that has had a hoppy beer in it.

 

[LavaChild]

That's the sort of info I needed - Thank you! I'm preparing for my first brew so I'm not used to 'that' flavour but I'm not a particularly fast drinker and I imagine the time it'd take me to get through 40 pints the flavour might become impaired. So PET are possibly a no-go.

How do swing top compared to capped bottles? Do they take the pressure well? Any disadvantages? E.g., does the seal get worse over time, etc?

Thanks again!

 

[Fil]

450ml swingtop bottles at 3 for £5 from asda filled with grolsh is cheaper than 500ml brown swingtops from most hb shops empty.

pet botles will be fine, but when using larger ones its best to decant the volume out into a jug off the sediment rather than pouring a pint at a time out. if your brewing a big beer u intent to mature over 12-18months perhaps reconsider using pet fro that, but if u intend to drink within a year they should be fine imho

if stuck for bottles and need to get some quick 11 x 2l pet bottles with budget water in em will cost u less than £2.50


dont reuse bottles that didnt have a presurised contents originally like whiskry or vodka bottles.

and keep all bottles in the dark, while brown bottles are uv proof, its not a bad habit, and using at least 1 transpaernt/clear bottle per batch is useful for monitoring how it is clearing

enjoy your brews..

 

[LavaChild]

Oh wow now you've got another question brewing!! :hmm:

Does bottle colour matter? What impact does it have? Wilko have clear swing top that work out only a little over £1 ea. Clear, though!

 

[Rolfster]

Brown bottles prevent light getting to the beer. clear glass bottles and green bottles don't.

As Fil said its best to keep your beer in the dark. This is because light will react with the chemicals from the hops and give you a tcp flavour. So bottle colour is your choice, but brown is good for keeping the light out.

Again as Fill said 1 clear glass bottle is good to see how the beer is clearing!

I currently have a 2thirds to 1 third split in my bottle colour (brown /clear).
Hope that helps.
R

 

[LeithR]

Its also worth having at least 1 PET bottle 500mL per batch so you can monitor the carbonation of your brew. Simply fill it and give it a squeeze during the period after priming when you keep the bottled batch in the warmth. The PET bottle should get progressively harder to squeeze as carbonation builds up.

I tend to have more per batch so that I can give bottles away as gifts etc...

 

[LavaChild]

Gotcha. So I think the plan - possibly down the line when I've got more spare cash - is a set of brown swing tops, and one clear PET to keep an eye on (a) clearing and (b) carbonation. Thanks! :)

 

[Maysie]

If you are anywhere near mid-Suffolk, I have loads of brown 500ml beer bottles.
They need a good wash as they have been stored outside.

 

[LeithR]

You don't have to wait til you can afford to buy bottles. Get out to your local pub/club etc... and ask for the bottles they emptied the night before. As they have to pay to have these bottles removed from their premises I think they would be only too pleased for you to take them. Obviously keep your eyes out for swing tops and try and select only brown bottles.

Good luck with this approach

 

[LavaChild]

Not near Suffolk I'm afraid but thank you for the generous offer -I've got some St Peter bottles for a first brew, so I should be good to go (though perhaps not ideal)...

Will have to try the pub trick out too :) Thanks.

EDIT: Fixed typo.

 

[Maysie]

No problem..
The St Peters brewery isn't that far away from me, so I put two and two together and came up with 5 it seems!

Nice bottles those St Peters ones!

 

[morethanworts]

I bottled a very typical batch (bottle-wise) last night: 41 standard 500ml brown glass bottles, one PET bottle to assess carbonation and three 300ml Bud bottles, which are easy to post - they fit inside an 8cm tube with space for a few layers of bubblewrap. Here's why I do that last bit (click)!

 

[mattyhall22]

PET bottles will let oxygen in so aren't suitable for long term storage, not a problem if you get through your batch quickly. Plastic also absorbs flavour, particularly hop flavour and aroma. Just stick your nose into a clean plastic fermenter that has had a hoppy beer in it.

Unless you get the coopers PET bottles they have a nylon barrier to stop O2 ingress and CO2 leakage. I havent had any problems with mine at all :

http://www.innhousebrewery.co.uk/p44946 ... ttles.html

this is where I got mine from :thumb:

 

[Monte Cristo]

Let your family and friends know you are after brown beer bottles and you can end up with a flow of bottles, eventually you end up with a stock of clean glass bottles that you can reuse.
Failing that leave an empty box at your local bottle bank for a day or so (Saturday/Sunday best days) with a note letting people know your requirements this works well, then just chuck any suspect ones.
This will basically cost you very little :hat: