Commercial UK crown cap bottle recommendations

[BasementArtie]

+1 for the springy wire things, I leave the bottles to soak in hot washing up water for a 20 mins or so, then use this / the back of a bread knife to remove the paper type labels, the plastic type labels take some pulling off with wet hands but come off whole, the glue can be a pain though, the springy thing works on that too.

I have mostly been collecting Adnams bottles, I would say they are middle of the road for how hard they are to remove. Hobgoblin / wychwood pretty much the same. I just buy 3 or 4 of what I fancy and remove, if one is well hard then I just ditch it in the recycling. As I only seem to do 3 or 4 the morning after a few bottles the night before it is never too laborious.

With regards to hand cappers, never had much issue although I stay away from cider bottles i've had a few where it doesn't seal well. I might upgrade to a bench capper in future.

I have always used priming tablets or the 2.5g tate and lyle catering sticks in all the different 500ml bottles and I have never had a bottle bomb..... until last week, however that was a full batch of belgian dubbel and I tried to go for 3+ vols of co2, so I tried batch priming for the first time in a bottling bucket, I am going to blame the batch priming being uneven and / or the higher carbonation for the style being too much for english ale bottles. In future irrespective of the style I think I will shoot for 2-2.5 vols, I wont bother with batch priming either, just don't think its worth the risk of either explosions or 40 gushers of beer you don't get to drink as its all over the draining board in foam! Too much hard work / time goes in to it to get to that point I think.

Tip - maybe obvious but, luckily I put all my bottles in cardboard boxes I have kept from mail order beer places (beer52 / honestbrew / beers of europe etc) so the bottle bomb wasn't dangerous it just caused a slight mess in the box and on the garage floor (good job it wasn't in the airing cupboard or I'd have been for it!)

I use repurposed Belgian bottles especially by Westmalle for Belgian style beer which I aim 3+ as they should be safe above 4 vol.co².

I have never batched primed I always create the solution then syringe the correct amount into each bottle. Reduces o2 exposure and means I bottle straight from the primary.

 

[BasementArtie]

So I've started my learning. Banks Bitter bottle isn't that bad as 303g which by my calculations would be a max "safe" of 2.3 vol.co2 (conservative estimate) for 89p this isn't bad at all and the label came off piss easy in got water.

The random Aldi ruby bottle was 281g this would have a maximum theoretical limit of 2.1 vol.co2 so I'm going to disregard this one.

I'm thinking the only brews I carb higher than 2.3 is the Belgian style beers which I used reused Westmalle, Duvel and St Bernardus bottles. Maybe the banks bitter will be the cheapest way to accumulate crown caps and oooooh noooo I'll have to drink more for empties. Not a bad beer but not the greatest. Getting through 40-50 bottles may take a while

 

[Clint]

You do what you think best...but I think you're over thinking it a bit. Without much messing about you could amass a load of bottles probably for free very quickly.

 

[H0PM0NSTER]

I've never been able to cap a Badger Beer bottle...even with my bench capper....I always drink contents and the bottles go to recycling!!!

How strange. I've never had a problem with them. They work fine with my bench capper. (I'm not even sure which of my bottles are old badger ones as they're very standard, unmarked brown 500ml bottles, but never had any trouble capping any of them).

 

[Siscokid85]

I use repurposed Belgian bottles especially by Westmalle for Belgian style beer which I aim 3+ as they should be safe above 4 vol.co².

I have never batched primed I always create the solution then syringe the correct amount into each bottle. Reduces o2 exposure and means I bottle straight from the primary.

Yeah I have been saving a few more of the belgian bottles for future belgian style brews now. again will take a while to get enough for me especially due to lack of sessionability and they are more the dumpy 330ml size. I have been saving Franziskanar bottles on the basis weisse beer is a highly carbonated style but they are 500ml size, the Franziskaner Weizen ones look quite thin though (might be just a lighter tint).

*Update* - Just weighed a Franziskaner bottle out of interest and it is 276g! Should I be using them? That doesnt seem to add up based on the high carbonation of the beer style??

I would be interested to hear your method for the syringe priming method with a syrup if you don't mind please? We have loads of the kids calpol syringes about that hold 5ml so might be able to use them. Shouldnt really be much more faff than using the sugar sachets. I would probably only employ that method for the belgian styles where I bottle a full batch. All other batches go in a keg and I just bottle what is left in 4 or 5 bottles.

 

[BasementArtie]

*Update* - Just weighed a Franziskaner bottle out of interest and it is 276g! Should I be using them? That doesnt seem to add up based on the high carbonation of the beer style??

I wouldn't use it if it were me unless I was only using it for a max of 2.1vol.co2. It may be that they designed the bottle for one use as it should be able to take 2.8vol.co2 easily for its first use. However I'm overly cautious. But put it this way Westmalle bottles are 33cl but weigh like 50g more. However they're carbed to 3.5-4vol.co2

I would be interested to hear your method for the syringe priming method with a syrup if you don't mind please? We have loads of the kids calpol syringes about that hold 5ml so might be able to use them. Shouldnt really be much more faff than using the sugar sachets. I would probably only employ that method for the belgian styles where I bottle a full batch.

I used homebrewdads priming calculator for a 0.33l bottle at what ever co2 vol you want put this into my precalculated spreadsheet which tells me how much sugar I need and water I need to attain the amount of solution for the number of bottles I select (I always overestimate so I have some solution left over) I used a BD medical 10ml syringe to draw up the amount and then inject the bottle the second before filling.

 

[colliefish]

Go to your local pub. Ask them to save the copperberg bottles. They’ll be free but it’s a nice gesture to offer popping a donation in the charity box. Labels come off cleanly with a soak and cap ok with a 2 handle crown capper.

 

[Siscokid85]

I wouldn't use it if it were me unless I was only using it for a max of 2.1vol.co2. It may be that they designed the bottle for one use as it should be able to take 2.8vol.co2 easily for its first use. However I'm overly cautious. But put it this way Westmalle bottles are 33cl but weigh like 50g more. However they're carbed to 3.5-4vol.co2


I used homebrewdads priming calculator for a 0.33l bottle at what ever co2 vol you want put this into my precalculated spreadsheet which tells me how much sugar I need and water I need to attain the amount of solution for the number of bottles I select (I always overestimate so I have some solution left over) I used a BD medical 10ml syringe to draw up the amount and then inject the bottle the second before filling.

Ahh that looks like a useful spreadsheet, do you have a link to it by any chance. Seems farily straightforward other than the increase in volume caused by dissolved sugar.

 

[BasementArtie]

Ahh that looks like a useful spreadsheet, do you have a link to it by any chance. Seems farily straightforward other than the increase in volume caused by dissolved sugar.

Priming spreadsheet
I think this will link you to a shared version. If just copy and paste it into your own spreadsheet. Let me know when you've done it as I'll change the access.

So when I measure the water I do it Grams.

 

[KentishMan]

That is odd. Are these the ones you got? Brown Glass Beer Bottles x 24 With Crown Caps or the 12 pack?

I emailed them and they said they weighed 330g

Sorry, been away for a few days.
Those are the bottles I used, and weighed some more…all 289g

maybe my scales are wrong, but very consistent.
feel like good bottles though.

 

[moto748]

I've seen these complaints here about Hobgoblin bottles before. I can only say this: I have a lever type capper, and not only do Hobgoblin bottles work fine in my experience, I'd go further, and say that they are my favourite, seem to give a better seal!

And I have never ever had a bottle break for any reason, well, not since the Stone Age when I used to literally hammer the tops on! Never seen the need to start weighing bottles either.

 

[Siscokid85]

Priming spreadsheet
I think this will link you to a shared version. If just copy and paste it into your own spreadsheet. Let me know when you've done it as I'll change the access.

So when I measure the water I do it Grams.

Thanks, got it downloaded.

One last question, you say you make up more solution than you need. so if you have say 23l in the fermenter, but you know some will be lost due to the trub / yeast cake,

Would you do the beer priming calculator for 23l and the number of bottles in the spread sheet to 46 x 500ml bottles then in theory you prime at the correct rate it tells you and if you only manage to bottle 43 bottles, you just have a bit of solution left that you discard?

Guess it is better to make up too much solution at the right concentration than to fall short.

 

[BasementArtie]

Exactly that. However it tends to be that I know I have let's say 19L and 500ml bottles so I calculate the amount of sugar water etc for 44 bottle rather than 38 bottle so I have excess 1) for just incase and 2) it's so hard to draw up into the syringe with not much at the bottom of the container you're taking from 3) if I'm filling up multiple size bottles it removes the boringness of calculating how many bottles you actually need.

If you look at the calculator when you change the number of bottles the amount you draw up for each bottle remains the same it only changes when you increase the amount of sugar you want for each bottle. Which makes it easy so just add on the extra bottles just incase without the worry of over priming.