Beer for wedding favours?

[shacked]

I'm getting hitched in April and was thinking of making a few batches up (~60L) with my groomsmen, bottling and giving them away as favours.

I'm a little concerned about glass bottles exploding because who knows what will happen to them after they are given away (car boot, sunlight etc). I've bottled about 800L and only ever had one bottle bomb (cherry wheat beer - notwithstanding I pasteurised the cherries first) but I'm still a little bit paranoid.

I see my options as follows:

1. Bottle in glass bottles, hope for the best; or
2. Use PET bottles (probably not the nicest package); or
3. Buy 90x 750ml champagne bottles ($$$); or
4. Buy a filter, filter each batch, force carb and then fill from the keg with a beer gun.

I've thought about pasteurising but that seems a little tough on a homebrew scale.

Any ideas?

Also keen on any thoughts on solid, proven AG (no-chill) recipes that would appeal to the masses?

Cheers!

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Just issue one of these to every guest

 

[TwoCrows]

You Pastafarians always think ahead !

I like no. 4 if you want total safety in any vessel.

At the end of the day it is a gift a bit of fun.


If you get serious 10 kegs all nighter.

 

[droid]

Brown plastic PET might not look great but would be the easy choice, combined with a good label they would be pretty cool

A pale ale would be alright, around 25-30ibu's with a touch of flavour and aroma hops but light on, maybe a bit on the dryer side

 

[danestead]

I wouldn't trust #4 personally. If you get an infection which decides to continue fermenting your beer in the bottle/s it will still over carb it even if you have filtered all the yeast out. I also wouldn't trust a filter to get every last little yeast cell out of a beer on a homebrew scale either. I don't bottle often however I recently did a RIS, carbed to 1.5 volumes and I put 1 in plastic to monitor the carbing up process. It sat there (at room temp.) for 3 months at the same low carb level and then within a week decided to carb up hardcore. I fridged it and released the pressure then drunk it. It tasted fine to me but who knows what could hide behind the robust flavours of a RIS. I also quick smart chilled 1 of my glass bottled RIS' and drank that to check the carb. It was still at the low 1.5 volumes of carb thank god. Moral of the story, be careful, no matter how careful you have been at bottling.

 

[Bribie G]

"wedding favours" sounds like an old German video that still comes up on certain sites.

 

[antiphile]

"wedding favours" sounds like an old German video that still comes up on certain sites.

That would explain the author's expert knowledge on prison brewing! :lol:

However, IMHO, as long you are meticulous about getting to FG and giving it sufficient time, as well as not overpriming, you'll be fine with good strong bottles. If I'm in doubt, I tend to use the Grolsch-style flip top bottles, but Coopers longneck ones are very sturdy too and can handle 3 volumes of CO2 easily which will be more than you want.

Good luck on the nuptials!
Phil

 

[Benn]

I don't filter but my mate does.
He transfers all the fermented beer from the FV to another sanitised vessel via a fine filter*, he then kegs the bulk of the filtered beer and bottle's the remainder. The filtered beer carbs up in the bottles as per normal meaning that a sufficient amount of yeast makes it past his filter.

*finest available filter from eBay...

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

You Pastafarians always think ahead !

This is true

 

[TwoCrows]

Using c02 to carb the beer in a bottle will result in less sediment / (trub) on the bottom.

I have only bottled my beer and I don't travel and drink as it stirs up the sediment, I would not think many would like to drink this ( it is not the end of the world if they did) but as a gift it may spoil the gesture and nice beer flavour.

Coopers PET bottles at Dan Murphys at the moment are $12.00 per 15 bottles c/w lids.

6 x boxes @ $12.00 $72.00 for 90 bottles total

 

[madpierre06]

Just issue one of these to every guest

No, just give 'em ACA's phone number.

I'd be looking into Droid's option. PET's still look fancy with a decent label.

 

[Blind Dog]

I don't think option 4 is any safer than the others - I filter about 1 in 3 beers, and there's still yeast at the bottom of the keg when it blows, albeit a lot less than the unfiltered beers. plus you'd be bottling into glass under pressure which, as pointed out to me in another thread, is perhaps not the smartest idea. And, as has been said already, you still have the risk of infection,causing bottle bombs, low as that might be. Finally, it's a PITA bottling from a keg, at least that's what I've found.

Personally, I'd go the normal bottling route with new bottles designed for the task and be super careful with sanitation etc.

As for recipe, if you can lager, a Boston lager clone or even Brooklyn lager clone (the latter have the recipe on their website - blog 6 March 2012) should appeal to the masses and have enough for those interested in more than megaswill. If ales, the standard cross-over beer in US brewpubs is a blonde ale or a cream ale, or the good dr smurtos golden ale is a great intro beer with a bit more going on.

 

[shacked]

Thanks for the advice.

I think I might go with these: http://www.ibrew.com.au/products/flip-top-500ml-bottle and a simple blonde ale (pale with a touch of light crystal) with cascade and another slightly more "adventurous" pale ale (pale, munich, wheat, light crystal).

With the smaller bottle size, I could probably get away with 2 batches.

I've also been looking at some custom labels from GrogTag that look really cool

 

[TheBlackAdder]

I did exactly this in September with labels from Brewtopia with DSGA and a karma citra clone (very adventurous!) toned down a bit on hops

I managed to get away with 2 batches (just)

Went with normal bottling and as blind dog said, careful with sanitation, checked every bottle over, under-primed a little.

No complaints to date

 

[shacked]

Went with normal bottling and as blind dog said, careful with sanitation, checked every bottle over, under-primed a little.

[slight] under-priming sounds like a good idea.

 

[TheBlackAdder]

or get detailed handling instructions printed on the label

 

[shacked]

or get detailed handling instructions printed on the label

Or both!

Did you use the 500ml swing top bottles?

 

[TheBlackAdder]

I went with standard 330ml, bench capped.

I think paranoia-wise swing top would be ideal as I'm guessing the cap will fail before the glass

 

[Yob]

You can always gladwrap the bottles, while it won't stop a bomb it will contain shrapnel...

 

[Yob]

I went with standard 330ml, bench capped.

I think paranoia-wise swing top would be ideal as I'm guessing the cap will fail before the glass

Not always though, I've heard some pretty scary stories about those bottles too.