Pet Bottles

[kenny23]

Does anyone use Pet soft drink bottles to bottle. If so what do you think. In my oppinion they are cheap any quite good. I left a beer in the freezer over night and where glass would have prob cracked and made a mess i lost abot a quater of the bottle and it was still caronated and actually still drinkable. Only problem is they are 2L and you have to want a couple of beers before cracking one open.

 

[loikar]

Does anyone use Pet soft drink bottles to bottle. If so what do you think.

BribieG...........Come on down!!

 

[geoffi]

I use them all the time. All shapes and sizes. Just used soft-drink bottles. I've never bought new ones.

The upsides are numerous. Much safer than glass. Don't need to be capped. Makes bottling quicker and easier. A squeeze test can let you know if the bottles are ready for drinking. Great for taking to parties.

I usually do a mix of PETs and glass. That way I have a some smaller glass bottles available if I feel like one drink only. If you do open a large PET but only want one drink, you can squeeze out the air and reseal it to stop it from de-carbonating.

Oh, the downside...not exactly 'classy'...if that's an issue.

 

[loikar]

If you do open a large PET but only want one drink, you can squeeze out the air and reseal it to stop it from de-carbonating.

Errrr, Wouldn't that allow the C02 escaping from the beer to push the bottle back out?

Wouldn't it be better not to squeeze the air out so you still have a pressure vessel?

BF

 

[scoundrel]

handy for a cheap brew for when your having large parties with the added bonus that when some wasted toolbag of a mate drops one there's only beer to clean up. on the other hand glass is none porous so no "other" flavour is ever pressent in your beers, and pets are prone to stress fracturing are a while.

 

[Bribie G]

BribieG...........Come on down!!

BWAHAHAHA....

Actually since I took that photo my system has changed. I now use 3 types of bottle. Each brew now goes into a carton of six 2L and a carton of 15 home brew 750 ml PETs.

The 2L PETs aren't quite as reliable as the home brew size. After a week in the bottle I can feel if there is a softie in the 2L and immediately rebottle it into two home brew size and bin the offending 2L. I seem to have weeded out the bad ones however and getting better results. Most of them are six months old and the bulk from last August so they have done a few trips now.

Also I have about 50 of the Bavaria tallies 660 ml and every few brews I bottle a lager style brew in 35 of them. So I'm a bit hybrid nowadays but still use the 2L for sure.

 

[geoffi]

Errrr, Wouldn't that allow the C02 escaping from the beer to push the bottle back out?

Wouldn't it be better not to squeeze the air out so you still have a pressure vessel?

BF

Yes, I should have qualified that this is OK for a short time, but if you leave it the gas will still escape from the beer.

 

[ianh]

Only use PET bottles, mine are the 750ml Coopers and I use 1.5 litre Soda water bottles.

I think that providing you don't want to store a beer for more than 6-8 months (none of mine have made it that long so far) then plastic bottles had a number of advantages.

Don't shatter, available in lots of sizes, you can tell when the beer is carbonated, easily sealed and resealed.

Don't have problems with drinking half the bottle, resealing and finishing the next day still well carbonated.

Just need to make sure the full clear PET bottles are stored in the dark.

 

[PHARSYDE]

I use the Coopers PET bottles for the excess beer that doesnt fit into my 19L corny keg and i find they are great, easy to clean and store and also alot safer.... Thats my 0.02c worth

 

[Nick JD]

On recycling night, a quick raid of everyone's yellow wheelie bins is all this brewer needs to "refresh" his bottle supply...

...go for areas with lots of grandmas - they often wash out their bottles for recycling! Although a bit of coke swirling about in a liddled bottle will brobably be better than starsan.

 

[discoloop]

I use a mixture of glass and Coopers PET. Plastic's OK but I've come to prefer glass:
- holds pressure pretty much indefinitely
- feels 'right'
- I'm pretty confident in my ability to avoid bottle bombs.

Loss of pressure is a big problem with PET for me. I have a few bottles at home that are 7 or 8 months old and flat as the day I bottled them. Plus, I don't care what anyone says, presentation matters and it's much nicer to crack open a glass tallie than unscrewing the lid off a softdrink bottle.

 

[blackbock]

Loss of pressure is a big problem with PET for me. I have a few bottles at home that are 7 or 8 months old and flat as the day I bottled them. Plus, I don't care what anyone says, presentation matters and it's much nicer to crack open a glass tallie than unscrewing the lid off a softdrink bottle.

If they are as flat as they day they were bottled, perhaps your lids have a faulty seal? I have plenty of PET-bottled brews which are over 12 months old and they are definitely holding pressure just fine.

 

[ianh]

I have plenty of PET-bottled brews which are over 12 months old and they are definitely holding pressure just fine.

Good to hear, I am keeping the odd bottle back to see how long they keep, would ideally like to be drinking stuff that is 4-6 month old, think the quality improves if stored for a reasonable length of time.

But as I drink a brew every 7-10 days it's a lot of bottles.

 

[discoloop]

If they are as flat as they day they were bottled, perhaps your lids have a faulty seal?

Not impossible but I doubt it. Seems to be a repeating pattern with the Coopers bottles. That said, I just checked my diary - the beers in question were actually bottled in Jan 2008! They're not 7-8 months old, they're about twice that! :huh:

Time flies.

 

[RdeVjun]

On recycling night, a quick raid of everyone's yellow wheelie bins is all this brewer needs to "refresh" his bottle supply...

Speaking of recycling, I've just come back from a work jaunt around St George and Roma, stopped for a spell at a few creek crossings where there's the usual campsite and ubiquitous scattering of both crown and twist top tallies, real motherlodes at some popular fishing holes. Of course, I take a few boxes and stock up when I'm out bush, what I don't keep for bottling, I recycle, with plastic and cans going in as well- doing my bit for tidying up the country & all, I guess...

Dunno what it is about the bush but there's always drink containers by the dozen just everywhere, many of them useable after a fair scrub and a serious sanitize. Even on the dusty and quite remote tracks where I was recently it didn't take much rooting around the side of the road to find evidence of a thirsty traveller that'd been this way before... I'm grateful for the restock, but geez, on the whole, we're just such a bunch of grubs sometimes... :angry: Fourex is the most common empty, just goes to show something about quality perhaps.