Question regarding MB 375ml bottles.

[Ganjatobi]

First, apologies for asking this, I know its most likely common here.

Just curious whether anyone has had any experience with using Melbourne Bitter bottles for bottling? I love the stuff, and can easily obtain empty's.

Not sure if its me, but over the years, MB bottles seem to feel lighter, and the manufacturing just feels different(dont recall the the mold? lines either side).

Cheers for any info

GT

 

[Benn]

Welcome to AHB Ganjatobi,
I used Carlton,Vic,MB stubbies & Longnecks a few years ago to bottle my beers. They began to develop fractures in the necks so I stopped using them. I would advise against using them mate.

 

[Ganjatobi]

Welcome to AHB Ganjatobi,
I used Carlton,Vic,MB stubbies & Longnecks a few years ago to bottle my beers. They began to develop fractures in the necks so I stopped using them. I would advise against using them mate.

Cheers for the reply mate.

I'll avoid using them. They were just a easy bottle for me to obtain.

Might just stick with the plastics till I obtain some of the mentioned in previous threads.

Cheers

GT

 

[fattima]

They are not designed to be reused but melted down again, far too thin. Coopers long necks are fine to refill if you can find some of them,

 

[Crakkers]

Cheers for the reply mate.

I'll avoid using them.

I'd avoid drinking them as well, but that's just me.

 

[kaiserben]

I use long necks from Cartlon, VB etc without any problems (so far). I haven't tended to re-use them indefinitely though. I use glass longies for lagers, or for comps & giveaways (where bottles won't come back to me). Ales mostly go in PET. So I churn through glass longies without re-using any one bottle for much longer than a year or two.

Anything with the CO2 level over 3.0 volumes (ie Weizens and Belgians) I'll use champagne bottles. That 3.0 volume limit is just an arbitrary number I picked (based on reading about the safety ratings of CO2 levels for different containers).

It's true that these bottles are not rated for re-use (safety ratings are always way over the top to avoid potential law suits), and they will apparently degrade over time, particularly with loads of heating and cooling, but I'm pretty confident they're fine for at least a few re-uses.

 

[klangers]

The whole no re-use thing is just because they are light-weight bottles, known as "one-way packaging". The coopers bottles are simply heavier gauge glass.

The bottles generally will only fail (in my experience using one way bottles for years) during capping or when you open it. They typically fail at the mouth or neck of the bottle from the capping forces, not from carbonation pressure. So at least you'll know it's failed and mostly can recover the beer if it does. If you're not too rough with your capping and opening then you'll be fine.

I'm not sure that glass can really "degrade" with thermal expansion fatigue like metal does. What can happen is that the internal stresses in the glass (caused by uneven cooling of the molded bottle) can overcome the strength of the glass when heated or cooled excessively fast. To avoid this don't use boiling water and then quench in cold water.

 

[Vini2ton]

I've been re-using CUB stubbies and big bottles for many years now without a problem. But as said if you want to bang up the bubbles' go to the champers ones. I bottle still wine in brown flip-top 750 ml beer bottles. I reckon those buggers could handle big bubbles. Any losses I've had with CUB glass has always been because of my my brutal need to get a bottling job over as quickly as possible.

 

[warra48]

I have CUB roll top longnecks I've been using for the last 10 years, without problems. I've also used Tooheys and VB longnecks multiple times without problems, but they've now all hit the recycle bin.

Fortunately, I have a steady supply of Coopers longnecks as needed, because the bar manager at my golf club drinks Coopers Pale and Sparkling, and saves me the empties. I give him samples of my brews in exchange.

 

[Ganjatobi]

Cheers for all the info everyone! Much appreciated.

Have read some good things about the Coopers longnecks, so might go that approach. Somewhat hard to get down, but till I find a good source for them, can push through drinking a box a week, haha.

Cheers

GT

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Nothing wrong with Melbourne bitter I used to drink a fair bit of it!

I bottle in old Monteiths stubbies, they are pretty thin too - but haven't had one crack yet. I usually bottle at 12psi with a counter pressure bottle filler.

 

[stm]

James Squire stubbies are quite good. And the beer in them is okay.

 

[laxation]

I've brewed many a beer into standard stubbies of all sorts. Never had a problem... ever.

 

[brianman]

I've brewed many a beer into standard stubbies of all sorts. Never had a problem... ever.

I too have reused the same stubbies for 10 or more years, mostly Carlton cold, only a problem when overcarbed, veerrry messy.