Glass vs plastic

[SirBoneALot]

Hi Guys

New to the site, really look forward to chatting to you.

My question is does the bottle material make a difference to your brew? Ive always used glass but plastic bottles can be had for peanuts. I never drink from the bottle so if it makes no difference to the brew im going to give it a go.

Any thoughts welcome.

 

[Good Ed]

Welcome Sir Bone,

I'm quite new to this myself and have been using 1L plastic bottles (they must be PET plastic) and have not noticed any plastic taste; however I believe they are not good for long term storage, ie a few months, as they leak gas, (don't we all). I've also been building up my stocks of glass bottles by buying beer, not something I intend to get used to, and bottle these along with the plastic bottles. I find that the 1L bottles are quite managable for drinking if you are careful with the first pint. I've been buying the cheapest drinks in 1L bottles from Aldi then pouring it down the drain, works out at 33p each.

I found this quite useful fro Yobrew http://www.yobrew.co.uk/beer.php#Priming

Good luck :drink:

 

[paulpj26]

The main problem with plastic bottles is that they are not a tightly sealed container and therefore will allow air into the beer which gives the beer a much shorter shelf life. Also brown glass bottles filters UV light which stops the beer from "skunking" (off flavours).

Depends how fast you are going to drink your beer.

I've never personally used plastic bottles but I guess there will people who will use them without any problems but I suspect they will be drinking it pretty quickly!

:

 

[abeyptfc]

I've used both plastic bottles and glass bulmers bottles, it hasn't changed the flavour of the beer at all and the beer has stayed carbonated, the pain in the arse with plastic bottles is you have to individually sanitise each bottle whereas with the bulmers bottles I just stick them in the dashwasher, give them a rinse then bottle straight away. the pain in the arse with glass bottles is capping them!
I see asda are doing 8 bulmers for £7, I'll be having a few crates of that thankyou!

 

[Sean_Mc]

If your drinking the brew within 9-12 months plastic is fine. I've had beer stored for over 18months in 2ltr plastic lemonade bottles that tasted great :thumb:

 

[pondlife]

I am now using glass bottles for beer and wine, but the 2 litre ASDA plastic sparkling water bottles are ideal for cider.

I wish I could say the same for Highland Spring 500ml water bottles, but they just don't hold the fizz.

 

[Bribie]

Nowadays I keg in Cornie Kegs (I have ten of them) and still do 23L brews so end up with a keg plus four 750ml bottles over, which I prime and put into an archive. They last fine for up to six months but usually get given to people or drunk well before then. I use the purpose made Coopers brown bottles.
When I first started brewing again in 2008 however I stocked up on brand new 2L bottles first, to keep the whole process standardised and easy to handle - poured the contents down the drain but for around 60p a bottle, my collection didn't break the bank :lol: Another great advantage of big PETs is that you can easily prime them with two sugar lumps per bottle, and get a whole brew put away in 12 bottles.

After a few uses, about ten percent of them stopped sealing too well, so I went over to kegging eventually as humping those boxes was putting a strain on my stitches after the liver transplants and kegs were easier to handle :twisted:

 

[SirBoneALot]

Thanks guys, I think ill do a mix, glass for my stuff and plastic for the stuff I give away. Plastic is probably no good to me if they cant be reused as much as glass.

 

[MikeB]

Just ask your local boozer to keep aside all the Magners or Bulmers bottles that they'd otherwise be chucking into the bin or recycling. They'll be free and ideal in terms of size and strength.

 

[StubbsPKS]

If you have any pubs near you that serve loads of different beers, you could try and get them to store away the empties from Kapuziner (a German Weissbier). They're brown swingtops :)

I've only managed to get 3 so far though, so I'm going to have to go the magner's/bulmer's route

 

[Mark1964]

ive used old 2 litre coke bottles since i started never had any off tasting beer and it carbonates well too

 

[Moley]

Glass for me (when not using stainless steel), Magner's and Bulmer's pint bottles, plus a couple of 600ml Pepsi bottles for pressure testers. I have occasionally used 1 litre mixer bottles but would never want to open 2 litres of the same brew, pint bottles allow for a bit of variety.

 

[Mark1964]

When your drinking the 2 litres in 1 go then its not a real problem

 

[bomberns127]

i have always found glass to be the best, if you are a member of a social club or very friendly with your local landlord ask if you can leave a recycling box at their premises and ask them if they could save all the 500 ml glass bottles used, all bottles now are no longer returned to the brewer so we may as well make use of them, newcastle brown bottles i feel are the best(label comes off easy enough and you can see when the beer is clear) in no time at all you will have loads of bottles to use, i did and i have between 250-300 all collected in a very short space of time.

 

[SirBoneALot]

Thanks, I left 6 crates with the local boozer and he has already called to say they are full.

 

[Moley]

newcastle brown bottles i feel are the best (label comes off easy enough and you can see when the beer is clear)

If you use clear bottles for beer make sure you store them somewhere dark or in a closed cardboard box.

 

[rickthebrew]

newcastle brown bottles i feel are the best (label comes off easy enough and you can see when the beer is clear)

If you use clear bottles for beer make sure you store them somewhere dark or in a closed cardboard box.

I have a good supply of newcastle brown bottles and have collected around 400 The label does come of very easily and bottling up is easy compared to dark brown bottles. After I bottle a brew they get boxed and stored in the spare room cupboard (brew cupboard ) along with my grain and stuff. As Moley said as long as you keep them out of the light you won`t have a problem I save brown bottles whenever i get them and bottle gifts and bottleswaps etc in these - brown bottles really do look the part :thumb:

 

[fliski]

I just nip to the local and they let me have a rummage through their recycling. Stay away from Addlestons though as those labels are cemented on or something!

I just stick all the bottles in the bath with hot water and let them soak for 10 minutes or so, the labels usually just float off at that point. All I have to do afterwards is rub the left over glue off with a kitchen sponge. Job done!