Carbonation In Glass Or Plastic

[mikeBt]

Just tried one of my Cascade Mahogany Porter that I bottled 5 days ago with 1/2 teaspoon of sugar in a 330 swing top bottle and it was sensational. I am concerned however as I bottled two swing tops as testers and they carbed up very rapidly and the the remainder of the brew was bottled in pet bottles and they appear to be very pressurised and feel like glass with no give. The SG was steady on 1012 for 4 days so I'm pretty sure it was done.

Brew: Cascade Mahogany Porter with 220gram dark flavour pack steeped for 20 mins, 0.5 kg BE2 and 1 kg old fashioned booster pack. OG was 1070 with kit yeast (bohemian).

This brew tastes bloody marvelous and will definitely be on my list for a another go.


My questions are:

Did I bottle it too early
Does it carb better in glass rather than pet bottles
Do pet bottles explode if they are over carbonated ( I would really hate to lose this magic drop).

PS. I think the secret ingredient was the steeped grains which has given me the strong desire to get into AG soon as I can marshal my gadgets.

Cheers Mike with a beer breath.

 

[mikeBt]

Aha, I just discovered something interesting, well to me anyway, I opened a pet bottle which appeared to be starting bulge and poured it. I doesn't have a very pronounced head where the glass bottle head was far creamier and nearly white where the pet head is thin and dark brown. There is a noticeable taste difference between the two, I like the glass bottle brew much better (better mouth feel and head retention). I will have to start increasing my glass collection. Still want to know if pet will explode though.

Cheers

 

[Prawned]

Pretty sure they can explode, the bottom of them gives way after too much pressure and it takes off like a rocket. You would have to over carb by a fair bit for that to happen though i guess

 

[Tyred]

I've had a pet bottle explode (actually two of them). When the top starts to bulge and the bottle starts to look more cylindrical then you know it's over carbonated.

I had two bottles explode when I was at work. The ones that didn't were almost cylindrical. Took a fair bit of effort to de-gas them without getting coated. Never had the bottom blow off them. I thought the plastic would be thicker there and less likely to give.

 

[chris.taylor.98]

PET definitely can explode, but they have some insanely high psi rating ( 190 psi?? ) I remember Myth Busters attempting to blow up a plastic soft drink bottle ( which the did manage to do). Your glass bottles will go way before the PET ones will.

The down side of PET is that it will not hold pressure long term ( > 9 mths is when it starts to loose pressure ). Here is a link which explains a bit more about PET and beer storage:

http://www.azom.com/details.asp?ArticleID=351

I don't think there should be any great difference in the rate of carbonation though. I usually bottle at least one in a PET bottle so I can gauge how carbonated the beer is. Good for an early warning on exploding glass bottles too.

 

[Rysa]

I had a lid lift off on one just today and it wasn't a reused bottle.
Had them in the fridge for a few days, went to grab one earlier and it was all soft and flat.
Couldn't figure out why at first till i saw the lid had lifted on one side, fairly sure that it was screwed on properly too.
All others in the batch were fine.

 

[mikeBt]

Well I don't think I am going to have any problem storing my beers for nine months. Friends, my sons and I keep drinking them as fast as I can make them. But I will put some in resealable swing tops and keep them for RON. No bulges at the base yet but they are damn hard to open. I might try cracking them all briefly to allow gas reduction and just accept a lower cab beer. Diagnosis seems to be I must have not let the yeast completely munch away at the sugars or not enough yeast to begin with.

I live and learn.

Chris T thanks for the link, good explanation, and thanks to all who replied.

Cheers

brewing is additive, just like consumption....