DeanMcMullen
Active Member
Hello All,
1st Post to the AHB forum.
A little about me, I’m 33, living in BrisVegas and relatively new to brewing. My Brother Lord Raja Goomba has gotten me into All Grain Brewing, which I’m enjoying (brewed 2 brews, I’ll explain about 1 of them soon), however I have used a few FWK’s, 3 of which have been from All Inn brewing. If I can I’d love to give a shout out to the guys at All Inn, who have consistently made me happy with their beers, and their FWK’s are top quality and massively enjoyable when completed.
Enough about me, I thought I might use my first post to give you all a warning regarding the 15x PET Beer Bottles that Big W supplies.
After my first AGB I completed with my Bro, I wanted, by way of experimentation, to create a very hoppy beer. I employed Vic Secret (20g start of boil), Chinook (20g 10m) and Cascade (30gx2 10mins and Dry Hopped) hops at the start of the boil, 10 mins prior to the end of boil, and then dry hopped 3 days before FG. (Look at me using all these jargon things…cue Han Solo *Thats Great Kid, Don’t get Cocky*). Please note, all measurements and suggestions and time frames were all recommended, I just followed the guidelines my bro had provided.
Now, I understand you are probably all thinking, “Muppet, he’s trying too much too soon.” And I will concede that for a little while I think I’ll stick to recipes until I understand the basics a bit more. But I’m a throw me in the deep end kind of person. Sink or Swim.
But I digress. Wort production went fine, and with my Temp Controller I can get fermenting temps accurate, so no issues there. At the same time I had only just bought a new box of 15 PET Beer Bottles from Big W from their HB section. These bottles seemed weaker, with a thinner wall than the Coopers bottles I had obtained in the Coopers kit from Aldi (the coopers kit now acts as a secondary rack prior to bottle filling, as I’ve since moved up to a 30L blue fermenter from Bunnings which doesn’t have a good bottle filling head on it, yet. Ghetto Brewing). I thought nothing more of it and filled them up, and dropped in 2 Carb drops per bottle as per the directions on the carb drop packets.
Sidenote: To compare, the plastic screw cap bottles I got in the coopers beer kit have a thicker wall, more like a 600ml coke bottle, whereas the bottles I bought from Big W are thin, like bottled homebrand water from Coles or Woolies.
I was concerned at this time that, because the hops used for dry hopping was sitting above the brew line and not actually in the wort/pre-beer that I should scrape it off the side and mix it in, so I did about 1 day prior to bottling.
That was around March this year.
I thought everything seemed to be going alright until about 1 week later I opened the box with all the bottles in it and noticed it was wet at the bottom of the box. I checked all the bottles and they weren’t wet, so I thought maybe it had happened when I put them in the box.
Skip forward 2 weeks and I checked the box and sadly it was soggy at the bottom. I figured 1 of the bottles must be leaking, but I couldn’t tell which one still… they all seemed the same.
At this point as there were fruit flies in the box I had to ditch it. We were moving at the time so I had the bottles sitting on the ground. Sure enough more fruit flies and more liquid on the ground, so I shifted all 10 bottles to a Plastic Tub with Lid that I had bought from SuperCheap in preparation for moving house. I also packed my temp controller in the same box on top of the bottles, and other than moving them to the new place, completely forgot about them for a while, thinking my brew had been a failure because I had stuffed up the dry hopping or something.
So, I looked into my HoppyHop™ beer last night. And I’ve identified that there is something wrong with the bottles I used from Big W, the plastic twist caps. I kept meaning to get around to them, but just kept forgetting as well. So last night I went to the garage and opened the plastic tub that held all the bottles. There was about 2 inches of off “beer” sitting in the bottom of it, and smelled like really strong vinegar. And a lot of scum floating in it.
I didn’t realise when I filled them that the plastic bottles were so weak they leaked beer. I would say over-carbonation, but I put in the 2 carb drops per 740ml that the batch required, so I’m not sure.
Anyhow the vinegar smell was overwhelming, but because there were thousands of fruit fly looking bugs swimming around and flying everywhere it needed to be dealt with immediately (the house sometimes ends up with bugs, and now we have found the culprit). So I picked out the bottles and seeing as some of them had only about 100ml in the bottom I opened them up and drained out the liquid. I couldn’t help but notice 2 things though. First, the bottles even with only about 100ml of liquid, still had a lot of carbonated pressure. And secondly, although the bottom of the plastic tub had liquid that had gone off and smelled of vinegar, when I opened the bottles they smelled good. Like beer. Flavoursome beer.
SO I sifted through the bottles and found 2 that still had all their liquid, and another 3 or 4 that had about 75% of their contents. I washed all the bugs off and wrapped them in plastic freezer bags (in case of freakage leakage) and took them upstairs to put in the fridge.
So I’m hoping 2 things. First, that I can still drink the beer (looking for positives), and second that if I can drink the beer and it tastes good (hoppy and bitter) that I didn’t fail in my experiment. That it wasn’t my production or preparation that needs work, but that it was this batch of bottles that needed fixing. That would fill me with confidence that I do actually have a handle on making this wonderful beverage and that the problem was storage, not production. So I will go home and test my brew, and if it’s a success (as far as experiments can be successes first time around) then I will push ahead with the Chocolate Stout and Lawnmower Pale Ale that I’m planning and see if I can again do these by myself if time is possible as well. If not, going to ask the Oracle (bro) more questions until I get the basics right. Plus another brew day. Probably a Celebration Ale. It shall be called "No. 5 Trevorbration Ale" Or something equally applicable with the Choc Stout.
On the down side, the Temp Controller was sitting in the bucket as well, although on top of the bottles. So I have to go home and open it and clean it up and check it. If it’s just the extension cable that is damaged then I can cut it and put a new cable on, but if liquid has gotten inside the controller (and not just sprayed lightly on the outside) then I’ll need to buy a new one). Dang.
TL;DR – Big W PET Beer Bottles do not have the structure to withstand normal beer pressure for carbonation. Be warned. They may be $15, but you might as well spend this and get some tallies from Gumtree or elsewhere, and a bench capper.
PS. If anyone in Brisbane (Northside or Closer to the CBD) is selling a bench capper cheap enough, I’m interested. And an extra 30L fermenter wouldn’t go astray as well. :icon_cheers:
1st Post to the AHB forum.
A little about me, I’m 33, living in BrisVegas and relatively new to brewing. My Brother Lord Raja Goomba has gotten me into All Grain Brewing, which I’m enjoying (brewed 2 brews, I’ll explain about 1 of them soon), however I have used a few FWK’s, 3 of which have been from All Inn brewing. If I can I’d love to give a shout out to the guys at All Inn, who have consistently made me happy with their beers, and their FWK’s are top quality and massively enjoyable when completed.
Enough about me, I thought I might use my first post to give you all a warning regarding the 15x PET Beer Bottles that Big W supplies.
After my first AGB I completed with my Bro, I wanted, by way of experimentation, to create a very hoppy beer. I employed Vic Secret (20g start of boil), Chinook (20g 10m) and Cascade (30gx2 10mins and Dry Hopped) hops at the start of the boil, 10 mins prior to the end of boil, and then dry hopped 3 days before FG. (Look at me using all these jargon things…cue Han Solo *Thats Great Kid, Don’t get Cocky*). Please note, all measurements and suggestions and time frames were all recommended, I just followed the guidelines my bro had provided.
Now, I understand you are probably all thinking, “Muppet, he’s trying too much too soon.” And I will concede that for a little while I think I’ll stick to recipes until I understand the basics a bit more. But I’m a throw me in the deep end kind of person. Sink or Swim.
But I digress. Wort production went fine, and with my Temp Controller I can get fermenting temps accurate, so no issues there. At the same time I had only just bought a new box of 15 PET Beer Bottles from Big W from their HB section. These bottles seemed weaker, with a thinner wall than the Coopers bottles I had obtained in the Coopers kit from Aldi (the coopers kit now acts as a secondary rack prior to bottle filling, as I’ve since moved up to a 30L blue fermenter from Bunnings which doesn’t have a good bottle filling head on it, yet. Ghetto Brewing). I thought nothing more of it and filled them up, and dropped in 2 Carb drops per bottle as per the directions on the carb drop packets.
Sidenote: To compare, the plastic screw cap bottles I got in the coopers beer kit have a thicker wall, more like a 600ml coke bottle, whereas the bottles I bought from Big W are thin, like bottled homebrand water from Coles or Woolies.
I was concerned at this time that, because the hops used for dry hopping was sitting above the brew line and not actually in the wort/pre-beer that I should scrape it off the side and mix it in, so I did about 1 day prior to bottling.
That was around March this year.
I thought everything seemed to be going alright until about 1 week later I opened the box with all the bottles in it and noticed it was wet at the bottom of the box. I checked all the bottles and they weren’t wet, so I thought maybe it had happened when I put them in the box.
Skip forward 2 weeks and I checked the box and sadly it was soggy at the bottom. I figured 1 of the bottles must be leaking, but I couldn’t tell which one still… they all seemed the same.
At this point as there were fruit flies in the box I had to ditch it. We were moving at the time so I had the bottles sitting on the ground. Sure enough more fruit flies and more liquid on the ground, so I shifted all 10 bottles to a Plastic Tub with Lid that I had bought from SuperCheap in preparation for moving house. I also packed my temp controller in the same box on top of the bottles, and other than moving them to the new place, completely forgot about them for a while, thinking my brew had been a failure because I had stuffed up the dry hopping or something.
So, I looked into my HoppyHop™ beer last night. And I’ve identified that there is something wrong with the bottles I used from Big W, the plastic twist caps. I kept meaning to get around to them, but just kept forgetting as well. So last night I went to the garage and opened the plastic tub that held all the bottles. There was about 2 inches of off “beer” sitting in the bottom of it, and smelled like really strong vinegar. And a lot of scum floating in it.
I didn’t realise when I filled them that the plastic bottles were so weak they leaked beer. I would say over-carbonation, but I put in the 2 carb drops per 740ml that the batch required, so I’m not sure.
Anyhow the vinegar smell was overwhelming, but because there were thousands of fruit fly looking bugs swimming around and flying everywhere it needed to be dealt with immediately (the house sometimes ends up with bugs, and now we have found the culprit). So I picked out the bottles and seeing as some of them had only about 100ml in the bottom I opened them up and drained out the liquid. I couldn’t help but notice 2 things though. First, the bottles even with only about 100ml of liquid, still had a lot of carbonated pressure. And secondly, although the bottom of the plastic tub had liquid that had gone off and smelled of vinegar, when I opened the bottles they smelled good. Like beer. Flavoursome beer.
SO I sifted through the bottles and found 2 that still had all their liquid, and another 3 or 4 that had about 75% of their contents. I washed all the bugs off and wrapped them in plastic freezer bags (in case of freakage leakage) and took them upstairs to put in the fridge.
So I’m hoping 2 things. First, that I can still drink the beer (looking for positives), and second that if I can drink the beer and it tastes good (hoppy and bitter) that I didn’t fail in my experiment. That it wasn’t my production or preparation that needs work, but that it was this batch of bottles that needed fixing. That would fill me with confidence that I do actually have a handle on making this wonderful beverage and that the problem was storage, not production. So I will go home and test my brew, and if it’s a success (as far as experiments can be successes first time around) then I will push ahead with the Chocolate Stout and Lawnmower Pale Ale that I’m planning and see if I can again do these by myself if time is possible as well. If not, going to ask the Oracle (bro) more questions until I get the basics right. Plus another brew day. Probably a Celebration Ale. It shall be called "No. 5 Trevorbration Ale" Or something equally applicable with the Choc Stout.
On the down side, the Temp Controller was sitting in the bucket as well, although on top of the bottles. So I have to go home and open it and clean it up and check it. If it’s just the extension cable that is damaged then I can cut it and put a new cable on, but if liquid has gotten inside the controller (and not just sprayed lightly on the outside) then I’ll need to buy a new one). Dang.
TL;DR – Big W PET Beer Bottles do not have the structure to withstand normal beer pressure for carbonation. Be warned. They may be $15, but you might as well spend this and get some tallies from Gumtree or elsewhere, and a bench capper.
PS. If anyone in Brisbane (Northside or Closer to the CBD) is selling a bench capper cheap enough, I’m interested. And an extra 30L fermenter wouldn’t go astray as well. :icon_cheers:
