Suitability Of Certain Bottles

[GreenGumby]

Hi all,

Is there any rough way to gauge how suitable certain bottles would be and whether they will hold the pressure? I've always bottled into old XXXX or coopers tallies but have been wanting to do a few 500ml bottles from each batch.

I've collected some Rekorderlig Cider bottles but I'm unsure as to whether they will stand up to continual re-use without eventually exploding.

Matt

 

[sim]

if you already use xxxx bottles without any trouble then dont worry i guess. but from what im led to believe, some bottles these days are made quite weak and so are probably unsuitable for safe on-going re-use. it might be heresay, but for example the tooheys new tallies have a collar at the neck that is a super weak point so it will fail at a higher than required pressure. that said, im sure it would be fine, at least for a while.

if your looking for a good sturdy bottle to collect for lengevity sake, id just make sure it looks like thick glass and has a crown seal (twist tops will chip at the top eventually). i think the little creatures pints fit that bill, and they come filled with tasty beer when you buy them :lol:

the rekorderlig ones looked fine from memory.


sim

 

[sim]

if you already use xxxx bottles without any trouble then dont worry

..ohh the old ones are strong, yes. new ones not so much.


sim

 

[domix]

I only save 330ml bottles of a certain kind. Generally they are the same kind used by most Aussie microbreweries. From memory they weight just over 200g per empty bottle.
As a few of the breweries bottle condition their beer I reckon they're of suitable quality.
I have a few Rekorderlig bottles and they do look slightly thinner but seem strong enough.

 

[pk.sax]

Be careful about making assumptions on foreign bottles too. I've had had a leffe bottle explode where cider bottles etc were just fine.

I like to trust the 500 ml bottles hefe come in from Germany. My all time favourites for consistency. Also adnam bottles are rock solid. Altenmunster bottles are very solid too. Lately I'd been buying bitter and twisted blonde beer in 500 ml bottles. They look the goods too.

Also, some glass is more prone to chip on the surface. These look like deep scratches and you will only know by experience which bottles do or don't.

 

[sim]

I like to trust the 500 ml bottles hefe come in from Germany. My all time favourites for consistency.

Yeah me too. although i noticed that schofferhofferboffer ones are thinner looking so i had to sort through my collection and bin em.


sim

 

[pk.sax]

Yeah me too. although i noticed that schofferhofferboffer ones are thinner looking so i had to sort through my collection and bin em.


sim

I don't drink schofferhoffer. No offense to anyone that does .... Etc... I think they are a pretty fake take on a real bavarian wheat beer. Been disappointed twice by their dumbed down esters and haven't tried again. I even steer clear of weihenstephan, that though is personal preference I don't like their taste (at least as delivered in oz). Franziskaner and Schneider weisse get my vote.

Ok, I'm done taking it OT.

Those 750 ml duvet bottles look super tough. Damned if I will get a corker though.
As an interesting aside, Altenmunster swingtops still use a ceramic stopper. Grolsch now use plastic ones.

 

[MaltyHops]

Also, some glass is more prone to chip on the surface. These look like deep scratches and
you will only know by experience which bottles do or don't.

Are these scratches anything like ones shown on my photos
in Bottle Scratches/fractures?, ... rather mysterious

Mine are mostly Coopers tallies and have found two pickaxe style tallies
from a past case swap that also have these type of long, thin scratches.

Would really like to know what what causes this - over-carbing? knocking
against other bottles? I did soak some of mine in sodium perc for long
periods (~a few weks) - though wouldn't know if the affected bottles
were already scratched before I got them (from recycling depot).

Actully, guy at the depot told me that bottle glass is different to glass used
in windows etc. and some bottles made these days can be contaminated
with some of the windows type glass making them weaker.

As to how safe it is to use bottles with these scratches, be good if there
was somewhere they could be taken for testing. Not game to use them
at this stage so marking them and putting them aside for now (the count
is rising :angry.

I did some bottle weight comparisons some while ago here and an old
style 750ml pickaxe bottle I've got weighed about 650g!

T.

 

[pk.sax]

I got a scratch like that recently on a new Aspall cider bottle. Beautiful bottle, brand new. Friggin heavy glass too. I saw that last thread you made earlier and also know from when I'd put away a lot of glass bottles in milk crates in the shed, the scratches seem to happen when you squeeze 'softer' glass bottles against 'harder' glass bottles. Going on that observation/assumption, those bottles should be OK by themselves but are made of a softer glass than normal bottles. So, either take care to segregate them and avoid scratching or avoid them altogether!!!

Well, PITA. I can totally see some manufacturers using softer more heat workable glass, it might be just that they aren't even getting scratched but rather on hot days, squeezed in a crate, they just relieve some stress with a thin groove appearing on the surface. Do you tend to pack in rigid crates as well? I'm sure someone somewhere has a more definite answer, but I'm - for now - sticking to using them carefully or for low carbed drinks.

PS: I can totally see some 'greenie' or some 'cheapie' glass makers with low QA letting in flat pane type of glass into bottle glass during the recycling process. Or just plain been counters in charge vetoing small costs at the factory to squeeze every dollar.

 

[super_simian]

Rekorderlig Cider bottles look the tits, are 500ml and the hipster kids around here drink them like water - I usually pick up 1/2 dozen on my way through the park to the supermarket!

They look damn near the classic UK 500ml:

Anyway, they are what I put 1/2 my UK style beers in atm, the other 1/2 go in Grolsch swing-tops. The crown sealed bottles are to give away or take to places, the Grolsch are for home...

 

[GreenGumby]

Thanks all. Will give it a whirl!

 

[Bribie G]

Another good bet are the Iron Curtain brews like Zywiec ,Kozel and Budovicewykiwaky or however the hell you spell it - available very reasonably from Dan Murphys in 500s at the moment especially if you buy them by the six. Good quaffing too, an evening on the Zywiec is more like a trip than a drunk :blink: