Bottling in champagne bottles

[RegBadgery]

With the festive season approaching there'll be loads of champagne and sparkling wine bottles in the recycling tubs. I like these as they're very sturdy and well suited to any highly carbonated brews.

If you have a bench capper with a removable capping bell you can make use of these bottles by purchasing a tirage bell. Though available at many homebrew stores, the best price I've found was via Grain and Grape in Victoria - around 6-7 dollars (as opposed to up to $18 at some other outlets). The crown seals cost a little more than regular.

cheers
reg

 

[Boots]

I actually do this myself - I'm running out of longnecks, and hate cleaning twice as many stubbies :angry: I'm also yet to try plastic bottles.

Probably about a quarter of all the bottles I use now a champagne bottles, coz they're so easy to source. They also look good when you bring them out of the fridge.

Unfortunately I don't have a bench capper as in your suggestion RegBadgery, so I bought the larger Tirage (didn't know that's what it's called) bell, and screwed it onto some cut off broom stick (yeah I know - dodgey :unsure: ) like the old handle cappers. Because the bottles are so strong, I haven't had any problems with chipped bottles, and so no reason why I would.

I got my bell from the HBS on Payneham Rd (nth east homebrew i think it's called near the maid and magpie) for around $10-$12 i think, but that was a few years back.

Cheers

 

[Kumamoto_Ken]

Necro bump.

I recently purchased a tirage bell and crown seals, and have been collecting a variety of sparkling wine bottles with a view to bottling some strong Belgian brews in them in the coming months.
Rightly or wrongly we (SWMBO mostly) seem to have acquired a number of empty Riccadonna bottles and if I can I'd like to use them. They're not a standard shape, they have a relatively long neck and I am wondering if that'll cause any problems with using the bottles.

I was thinking it might impact the pour a bit. If I use a standard bottler and allow the usual ullage is there any reason not to use these?

 

[spog]

I can't see any probs with using them, cap them correctly and your set like jelly.
I am guessing you want to use these bottles for presentation/ bung a nice label on them,or simply why waste them.
As for the pour,with a long neck on them a slow pour should sort that issue.

 

[Milk-lizard84]

I'm looking at doing more of this. Been saving the la sirene bottles I've been getting. They are just 375ml champagne bottles. They look nice and are good for well carbed saisons.

 

[JDW81]

Necro bump.

I recently purchased a tirage bell and crown seals, and have been collecting a variety of sparkling wine bottles with a view to bottling some strong Belgian brews in them in the coming months.
Rightly or wrongly we (SWMBO mostly) seem to have acquired a number of empty Riccadonna bottles and if I can I'd like to use them. They're not a standard shape, they have a relatively long neck and I am wondering if that'll cause any problems with using the bottles.

I was thinking it might impact the pour a bit. If I use a standard bottler and allow the usual ullage is there any reason not to use these?

Totally fine to use these. I've got a dozen of them with various brews in them.

I almost exclusively use champagne bottles for my beers.

JD

 

[Kumamoto_Ken]

Good stuff, I'll use 'em. Thanks for the responses.

 

[mje1980]

I'm a champas bottle fan as well. Plastic corks and cages are so easy to use, and as someone mentioned they're great for highly carbed beers.

 

[Tahoose]

Massive fan here also, most of my case swap beers were in champagne bottles as I generally find them easier to source.

If you think about it you use less caps anyway than if you use stubbies, unless you have a solid longneck collection.

 

[drtomc]

Me too. I also have a corker - for putting the champagne corks or Belgian corks in, which I'm happy to loan out for day loans to anyone local.

My 2c is to observe that there is significant variation in the height of champagne punts, and if like me, you stack boxes of bottles, then it's worth being slightly picky and getting bottles of matching heights so your boxes stack. If you're not too proud to scavenge from restaurant/bar recycling bins, they're easy to get hold of, and I've never had one explode.

T.

 

[bigmacthepunker]

I'm savaging at the caravan park at the moment. Has anybody had any issues with cleaning due the hump at bottom?. I want to bottle my Saison when done.

 

[crowmanz]

Hmm I might have to have a look at my 2 old school op shop cappers to see if I can modify them, I have a steady supply of champagne and sparkling bottles from the GFs folks who are big on the French stuff.

 

[Adr_0]

yeah I've done this for the first time with the saison I just did. worked absolutely great with the 29mm tirage caps vs the normall 22mm caps. I think I paid $10-15 for the bell but it has worked really well.

the only thing is if you're looking into the tirage bell + tirage caps, the caps didn't fit over the top of a few Belgian bottles (previously corked) e.g. L'oreffe, Du Bocq saison, and probably the Chimays. The l'Achouffe blond/golden bottles work great though as these are obviously capped already.

 

[slcmorro]

Necro bump.

Holy crap. A 13 year old necro bump! That's some kinda record.

 

[hoppinmad]

Holy crap. A 13 year old necro bump! That's some kinda record.

And 10 years since the op'er has visited the site!

 

[spog]

And 10 years since the op'er has visited the site!

A Champagne cork from an over carbed bottle between the eyes maybe.

 

[Adr_0]

A Champagne cork from an over carbed bottle between the eyes maybe.

More likely the DMS/botulism double from no-chilling...

Before I moved house I had a bit of a bad experience with a wheat beer carbed to 3.5vol or so and some Burleigh bottles. I should have known better. They look amazing and contain great beer but I really can't recommend them for homebrew. Most other bottles are ok for the majority of styles but wheat beers and Belgians are best (if carbonated properly, i.e. pretty bloody high) in champagne bottles I'm starting to think. Will definitely be hoarding them from here on out for these styles.

 

[mje1980]

That's why the plastic corks are so easy to use. They allow for small variations in neck diameter no problems. They are nowhere near as fancy as real champagne corks though, that would be seriously ******* cool whipping out a brett porter in a corked champagne bottle.

 

[mje1980]

More likely the DMS/botulism double from no-chilling...

Before I moved house I had a bit of a bad experience with a wheat beer carbed to 3.5vol or so and some Burleigh bottles. I should have known better. They look amazing and contain great beer but I really can't recommend them for homebrew. Most other bottles are ok for the majority of styles but wheat beers and Belgians are best (if carbonated properly, i.e. pretty bloody high) in champagne bottles I'm starting to think. Will definitely be hoarding them from here on out for these styles.

My last 2 saisons I bottled into champagne bottles at 8g/litre. I was still a little worried about too much carb, but then I researched champagne carbonation levels and they add something like 16g per bottle. I don't stress now, even with funky beers that may continue to ferment over a long period.



I'm slowly replacing all my bottles with these. Need to hit up a restaurant or something.

How cool are the 330ml champagne bottles? I've got a few boon Kriek ones. Sensational beer and you get a bottle too

 

[mje1980]

Wonder if there'd be any way to do an ahb bulk buy on the small champagne bottles?