# Home Brew Stubbies



## jamieh (8/10/09)

Gday fellas,

does anyone know what stubbies are best for putting home brew beer into? ive got heaps of longnecks but want to put my beer into stubbies now...are the darker stubbies (vb and carlton draught) better or the clear stubbies better? guessing it'd help if the bottles were a thicker glass so they didnt smash when bottling them....any help with this would be good...cheers.


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## chappo1970 (8/10/09)

Darker coloured one's and definitely crown seals. Twisties will be a PITA as they, for me anyway, break too easily when capping.
Try these types of stubbies

Coopers
Little Creatures
Old style crownies stubbies
Chappo


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## bum (8/10/09)

Aren't the Coopers stubbies twisties these days?


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## davewaldo (8/10/09)

I like the James squire bottles too


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## jdsaint (8/10/09)

In my experience vb stubbies are hard to cap and dangerous to your wrist had many a few smash...
I use barons stubbies, or coopers, I really try hard to get as many crown sealed stubbies as i can....as for colour brown bottles are best!


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## jdsaint (8/10/09)

coopers are twist off now (stubbies)


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## chappo1970 (8/10/09)

bum said:


> Aren't the Coopers stubbies twisties these days?




Yeah they are Bum. I did mean to say the older crown seal type  But I thought I made that clear in my post? :huh:


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## bum (8/10/09)

Then why the "old style" for Crown Lager?

OH SNAP! You got faced, brah.


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## chappo1970 (8/10/09)

bum said:


> Then why the "old style" for Crown Lager?
> 
> OH SNAP! You got faced, brah.



Because I remembered they have been twisties for some time now. Mr Nit Picker  .


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## tcraig20 (8/10/09)

Matilda Bay bottles are good, nice and heavy. 

There's lots of cheap eurolager about these days that comes in brown, crown seal stubbies (Oettinger, Oranjebloom, Furstenberg, etc. etc.)


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## skippy (8/10/09)

switch to kegs if you have a spare fridge....


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## Pollux (8/10/09)

Monteiths and JS are both crown seal, as are Little creatures......


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## kevo (8/10/09)

A mate at work keeps me in a reasonable supply of Asahi bottle.

Strong enough, crown seals, brown.


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## MarkBastard (8/10/09)

any beer worth drinking comes in crown seal stubbies and not twist tops


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## bum (8/10/09)

Lucky Beer bottles are pretty good. Try those.


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## DUANNE (8/10/09)

i find that belgian stubbies are the best . theyre all crown seal,dark and you need to do something crazy to blow one up!


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## mwd (8/10/09)

Little Creatures bottles are quite thin and fragile, I prefer the James Squire stubbies a bit tougher.


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## Pennywise (8/10/09)

It really doesn't matter what "brand" of bottle you use, you just need to make sure it's a nice thick/strong bottle, the VB stubbies are very thin walled, but bottles like LC or even cooperes stubbies are good, I keep my yeast in the Coopers bottles, preferably brown (although really if you keep them out of the light that doesn't really matter either, I have several empties of Ruddles that will never see the light of day).


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## boingk (8/10/09)

How the hell are you guys capping? 

I've bottled a swathe of batches, coming up on 50. Quite a few of those were with only a few cases worth of Tooheys and VB bottles as I didn't have the space at uni for more, and had to 'blend in' to disguise my HBing (damn burocracy).

I would say that VB are the go. They are compact, don't have a massive neck that'll fill with dead space, and are very easy to get. They might not be the most rubust of things, but theres 24 in a case and they hold beer perfectly well in my experience. Ask mates to save them for you, or cruise past the local recycling depot now and then - thats where I got mine from while I was at uni.

Don't use any clear bottles, every beer I've bottled in clear has gotten fouled over time.

Get yourself a bench-type 'Superautomatica' capper. It's an investment well worth the return and will last for as long as you choose to brew as far as I can see. 

Cheers - boingk


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## petesbrew (8/10/09)

skippy said:


> switch to kegs if you have a spare fridge....


ugh, there's always one!


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## brando (8/10/09)

i know this sounds unconventional, but I always bottle some of my brews into stubbie bottles (XXXX) and just screw the original cap back on, after a fully cleaning and sanitation process or course.

Over the years I've done hundreds of bottles this way, and no throw-aways due to infection yet. No carbonation probs either.

I actually don't know why more people don't do this. It's really simple!


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## tcraig20 (8/10/09)

brando said:


> i know this sounds unconventional, but I always bottle some of my brews into stubbie bottles (XXXX) and just screw the original cap back on, after a fully cleaning and sanitation process or course.
> 
> Over the years I've done hundreds of bottles this way, and no throw-aways due to infection yet. No carbonation probs either.
> 
> I actually don't know why more people don't do this. It's really simple!



Had an uncle who did this for years without any problems at all. 

He also used to soak the caps in boiling water prior to capping - apparently it 'puffed up' the plastic a bit, helping make a good seal.


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## Spartan 117 (8/10/09)

As many of the guys here have said make sure they're dark, don't use corona bottles whatever you do. However the twist top bottles I find work fine, I cap with a bench capper and would recomend you invest in one (only about $55 tops anything over and its a rip off), compare this with its ease of use and you wont regret it. As for the caps themselves I find that the softer the metal the better the seal (this is a must when using twist top bottles), I buy mine from teh LHBS and they work a treat for all the bottles I, mostly crown but about a thirsd are twist top. 

Good Luck 

Aaron


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## Ivan Other One (8/10/09)

Interesting thread,

Has anyone tried using the Bundaberg softdrink stubbies as these are a crown seal?

Ivan.

PS. Had a couple of twist top stubbies break whilst bottling but tracked this down to a faulty lever style capper. It was slightly askew which was fixed with an old knife jammed into the front of it to stop it kiicking of centre.


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## Dementedchook (8/10/09)

Ivan Other One said:


> Interesting thread,
> 
> Has anyone tried using the Bundaberg softdrink stubbies as these are a crown seal?
> 
> ...



Funnily enough, I've used them recently. Worked just fine.


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## MarkBastard (8/10/09)

Ivan Other One said:


> Interesting thread,
> 
> Has anyone tried using the Bundaberg softdrink stubbies as these are a crown seal?
> 
> ...



My pop used them exclusively for stubbies, along with his vintage 1970's collection of Castlemaine tallies hahaha.

They can be a bitch to cap but once they're capped they're very solid indeed.


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## Ivan Other One (8/10/09)

Mark^Bastard said:


> My pop used them exclusively for stubbies, along with his vintage 1970's collection of Castlemaine tallies hahaha.
> 
> They can be a bitch to cap but once they're capped they're very solid indeed.




Cool, and thanks
just went bin diving and rescued one before the mornin' pickup. :lol: 

vow not to throw any others away now.


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## Bribie G (8/10/09)

Oettinger


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## boingk (9/10/09)

Meh, Oettinger is better value in cans. Plus, seems to mask some of the water quality I'm not used to. Or something.

But yes, Bundaberg bottles are very good for bottling with. Fairly robust, too.

- boingk


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## MarkBastard (9/10/09)

boingk said:


> Fairly robust, too.



Only fairly? Come on I reckon I could chuck an empty at an elephant and knock it out!


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## Midnight Brew (9/10/09)

hey hey

Dark bottles are the best to use like everyone has said and if you invest in a bench capper the twist-top vs crown seal shouldn't matter. When I was collecting bottles the most common bottles I came across were Carlton Draught and VB and after 40 odd batches using these bottles I have never had a problem. The bench capper does a good job for either type of bottle so shouldn't matter whether you choose twist top or crown seal. Hope that helps.

Cheers

dickman


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