# Bottling Your Brew In Pet



## The Giant (12/11/10)

Hi All

My first batch of home brew has quite a high alcohol content due to me adding sugar when I shouldn't have.

A thought was to bottle it in PET to avoid any exploding bottles.

I work for a well know drink manufacturer so have access to plenty of PET bottle of various sizes, and the new sealable caps

Pros?
Cons?

I know from working here that PET is not great at retaining carbonation, so I assume this would be the same problem bottling my brew this way. But if I know i'm making a brew that will be consumed quickly, ie xmas then this wouldnt be to much of an issue.

Thanks again
Sorry if these questions have been asked before, just couldnt find any topics on it.


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## J Grimmer (12/11/10)

Hi There Giant,

Welcome aboard, Hope my 2c helps:

Alcohol % wont cause your bottles to blow up only excess unfermented sugars do that, take readings with you hydro and when you have you no longer have variations in the reading over 2 days you'll be ready to bottle, For me i generally leave beers in the fermenter for 2 weeks and half way ythrought the second week i pull out the hydrometer and check for changes. In all the brews ive done ive had a 1 blow up. Their is also thread on here for exploding PET bottles. Not to scare you off but its good info to know. The key is to finish the bulk of fermentation in the fermenter. and then bottle. 

Personally i like glass ive had beer out of pet, but simply prefer glass to ferment in, PET dose have an up side in transportation if it moves generally they dont break etc and the lhbs stock a basic ones at a reasonable price and they seem to work.

The only thing i can think of light getting into the beer using a clear plastic and destroying the flavour profiles etc, not sure of the technical terms but this why generally beer is stored in brown or green bottles. Just ensure you prime with right amount of sugar when bottling if they vary in size.

Cheers and enjoy the HB ride.

J


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## mwd (12/11/10)

+1 the pros of PET is that you can tell when the beer is carbed up as they go hard to the touch.
I bottle mostly in glass but always bottle one in PET so can test for carbonation levels.

For short term storage i.e. Xmas you should have no problem with PET. 

As J says if you are using clear bottles you may have a problem with lightstrike which gives the term skunked beer I think the word conveys how bad they will taste. 
Better to use brown bottles if possible otherwise store the clear bottles in a dark cupboard or fridge.

Short term should be fine skunking takes quite a while if stored in full sunlight.

BribieG used to bottle in Cola bottles with no problems but probably stored them in boxes and the beer didn't sit around long enough to get lightstrike.


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## J Grimmer (12/11/10)

"lightstrike", i learnt something today, Cheers Tropical_Brews

J


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## keifer33 (12/11/10)

I have been bottling in PET exclusively and to date have had no problems with carbonation loss with some beers at 6 months and still going strong. I do tighten the lid and replace the lid every time I bottled to ensure its a fresh seal. I also use a fair few 1.25-1.5l clear bottles and they are stored in a cupboard and in an esky when moved. Make great beers to take away/camping when space is of a premium.


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## MaltyHops (12/11/10)

Do have a look through the New brewer questions article and the linked sub-articles
- you may find something relating your current question and most likely your
upcoming brewing adventures (welcome by the way). The articles are due for
a good update but there should be enough info to be of use.

As for PET bottles, go for it, especially if you can get them really cheaply. I think
the Coopers PET bottles are designed for beer for better CO2 retention and are
considered to be good for at least 6 months (I've still got one from my first brew
back last January and it's still quite hard). 

Point is, if you will drink your brew within 4 to 6 months, PETS are quite OK re. CO2
retention even if typical soft drink PET bottles are not as good as the Coopers PET
bottles - lots of people apparently use the 2L PET bottles for homebrew.

I have opened a couple of year old bottle of tonic water and it was pretty flat.

The other issue is daylight (UV?) can spoil beer hence the brown/green coloured
bottles used but if you can keep your bottles in boxes or dark cupboards, then this
is also not an issue.

Eventually you could start collecting and using glass bottles once you have a good
grasp of priming (but beware, not all glass bottles are equal re. safety)

T.


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## Brewlord (12/11/10)

As with everyone else, my humble 2c: When I started brewing I was using clear 1.25 and 3 litre PET bottles, replacing the caps every second brew. For ease of less washing and storage these worked a treat. As I moved on and made heaps more and therefore they were stored longer, I found that they retained their carbonation but when refrigerated, they tended to lose it quite rapidly and then I ended up drinking almost flat beer. I kept them stored dark and relatively cool so light strike was not really an issue.

Like you I did some research and was told that the coopers PET (the 750ml brown one) apparently have a liner inside which gives the bottle structure and minimises loss of carb. I also found that the inside of the bottles tended to stain after a while although I was not using strong cleaning agents such as PSR between uses. I also found that the coopers replacement lids did not fit really well on the clear cola / lemonade / soda water etc PET 1250ml. And I only ever had one let go - through the lid! Bit of a clean up but no broken glass.

Eventually, I went back to glass and with my keg set up, havent looked back. So I guess if you are turning the batch over quickly then PET would work for you but any longer term storage seems to work better in glass.

Good luck.


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## The Giant (12/11/10)

Sweet

Thanks guys, can get them all new, clean and free through my employer so might give them a shot

Got a nice storage cupboard under the stairs that stays nice and cool, so i will put them into cartons and in there so "lightstrike" shouldn't be an issue.

I've got about 120 glass stubbies so far, so thinking i will need about 180, so might top the rest up with PET


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## MaltyHops (12/11/10)

The Giant said:


> ...
> I've got about 120 glass stubbies so far, so thinking i will need about 180, so might top the rest up with PET


Can I suggest to consider the weight (amount of glass) of each stubbie - I wrote
about this _here_.

T.


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## The Giant (12/11/10)

Good advice 
I'm actually picking up some bottles this arvo from a guy that used to do home brew so they should be safe

Although looking at those weights i think i may have some issue with corona bottle as they seem pretty light!


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## MaltyHops (12/11/10)

The Giant said:


> Good advice
> I'm actually picking up some bottles this arvo from a guy that used to do home brew so they should be safe
> 
> Although looking at those weights i think i may have some issue with corona bottle as they seem pretty light!


Bear in mind the bottle volume as well - from memory, corona bottles were only
about 330mL and seemed quite solid so might be ok - they are clear glass though.

T.


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