Plastic bottles

[MashBag]

Purely for their lightweight I am going to trial a few PET bottles. .

Any better / worse. Tips. Prices. Preferred manufacturers or brands.

 

[Agentgonzo]

Purely for their lightweight I am going to trial a few PET bottles. .

Any better / worse. Tips. Prices. Preferred manufacturers or brands.

I reuse soft drinks/water bottles. I only use them a couple of times at most as there used to be an almost infinite supply coming back with my stepson from college

 

[Chippy_Tea]

These have always been popular with members -

Coopers Pet Bottles 24 x 500ml - £12.00​

Coopers PET bottles are sold in packs of 24 with caps. They are reusable, lightweight and shatterproof.
Oxygen Baring (Ox-Bar) These can be re-used a number of times but will not last forever
Remember the slogan, "Good things come in glass" This slogan is also true for your brew but finding good quality glass beer bottles is a very difficult task for the new home brewer. Now PET plastics technology has evolved to a level which allows home brew to be stored effectively.
Coopers PET bottles are; reusable, lightweight, easy to clean, shatterproof, U.V. protective, Oxygen Baring

 

[Agentgonzo]

Oxygen Baring (Ox-Bar)

Oh! That's what Oxbar means. I hadn't really paid much attention to it, just assumed it was a product name like Cornelius

 

[RichardM]

Make sure you screw the top on tightly and before re-using them make sure you clean them well

 

[Agentgonzo]

Make sure you screw the top on tightly and before re-using them make sure you clean them well

That's a good point, and it took me 2 bottles to figure it out. They come with security collar (whatever is called - that plastic collar that detaches from the cap when you unscrew it).

Given we all consumers never actually put the caps with those collars on, we're not used to it. You get a fair bit of resistance when you put the cap on that makes it feel like it might be tightened - but it's fooling you. It's the collar stretching over the part of the neck. Screw tighter past that point (you'll hear it click over) until it really can't go any tighter. Otherwise you wonder why it's not holding pressure

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Oh! That's what Oxbar means.

Old thread -

Then I saw these Coopers Ox-Bar bottles, supposedly better than glass. Apparently they have an oxygen blocking layer between 2 layers of PET. They seem the ideal solution but is the hype a reality?

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...e-got-experience-with-these.15277/post-143524

 

[starseeker]

These are great bottles ,been using them for a few years now

 

[tigertim]

Another +1 for Coopers PET bottles.

I originally got a counter-pressure bottle filler to use with swing-top glass bottles but it always seemed to make a mess, no matter how careful I was.

In the end, after buying a bunch of these PET bottles and using them in conjunction with the carbonation cap I already had, I wondered why I”d bothered with the CPBF at all.

It may have been worth persevering if I did a lot of bottling, but I keg 95% and just use bottles for the litre or two left in the fermenter when the keg is full, or for giving bright beer to friends. And, for that, these are perfect.

 

[Rwilts]

I bottle a fair bit, I have about 50 coopers bottles and they are great. I bought 100 of a cheaper version from eBay , you can tell they are not as thick but they have lasted just as well and I can't tell any difference in quality of the beer stored in the different bottles.

I have also bottled squeezing all the remaining air out of the bottles when bottling and leaving the inch head space and not noticed any difference.

 

[hoppyscotty]

I've had a few different kinds just randomly off eBay..whicever the cheapest are. Only use bottles for convenience so beer never stays in them for long so not really been concerned with the O2 diffusion thing...but pretty convenient. Annoyingly the wife keeps on throwing away the caps with the rest of the recycling so need a way to keep them segregated from the rest of the washing up.

 

[old dog new tricks]

I have mix of Coopers and generic they all work fine the generic at slightly shorter and such stack better in the plastic boxes I store them in.

The Coopers caps are better they have a better seal then generic, i use them for beer and cider and find they work fine

 

[MashBag]

Thanks guys.

I can pick up some coopers locally, so we may have a winner.

Make sure you screw the top on tightly and before re-using them make sure you clean them well

Wash them? I thought that as they were brown, you didn't need to.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Wash them? I thought that as they were brown, you didn't need to.

Do you apply the same logic to your brown under-crackers?

 

[stubrewworx]

I used the coppers 740ml for a while. Handy as they reduced the time bottling and good for a pint and then some. Caps were always difficult to unscrew.

I've used cheaper eBay 500ml. Great to know when carbed up, but they definitely became squishy when I chilled them in the fridge?

Back to trying glass now.

Last plastic bottle as just being sent for the July comp.

 

[MashBag]

I will continue with glass, just fancied a few for loading up for holidays & parties.

 

[parpot]

I transport a lot of beer to friends events and use about 50 2000ml cheap cola bottles from Aldi with Kegland pressure caps on. I use the cola as drain cleaner in my Motorhome as its around .49p a bottle and now get my caps from Aliexpress some times for less than £1 each, they arrive in 5/6 days. I like this method as I can take up to 22 different beers at times!

 

[Sadfield]

It's a no from me. Unless it's for drawing some off a keg with a carbonation cap, to take somewhere, like homebrew club.

The bottoms are very difficult to clean.

Caps need to be sealed on very tightly. The seal is never as good on reuse.

Will need replacing sooner than glass.

 

[moto748]

Me too. I used to use a few of them in a batch, encouraged by posts here, but I just don't bother with them now. It's glass bottles all the way for me. Endlessly re-usable, perfect seal every time with a crown top; I just don't see that PET bottles offer any advantage other than weight.

 

[Agentgonzo]

I just don't see that PET bottles offer any advantage other than weight

I use glass bottles all the time, but I use one PET bottle per batch to do a squeeze test to see when carbonation is done.

And I use PET bottles of I'm intending to post them to forum members