What bottles are best

[James85]

Hi all I'm still pretty new to brewing and I'm using the plastic bottles that came with my kit.
A mate of mine told me if I wanted to move to glass he would keep all of his VB tallies for me.
My question is can I use the screw top bottles and how do I put the caps on, also is there a
special cap for screw top bottles.
I know that it has probably been covered numerous times on here but my searches didn't help me too much. Thank you for all your help

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Use same caps and capper as you would use for crown seals.

 

[Bentnose]

I find that the crown seals don't go on quite as easily with the twist tops, also the glass is quite thin in VB bottles. You can use them but I prefer the none twist off type. Only bottle I ever broke capping it was a twist off type.

 

[Dan Dan]

Tell your mate to start drinking Coopers. Their bottles are much thicker, and less prone to chipping

 

[DU99]

Or Swing tops..cooper's are the best

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Coopers deliberatly went to thick glass crown seals for home brewing

 

[mmmyummybeer]

If you really want to move to glass then I would only go for something decent like coopers or Grolch swing tops. Otherwise I recon your better off to just stick to the plastic bottles they work just fine and plenty of places sell them if you need more.

 

[warra48]

Yeah, Coopers longnecks and Grolsch type swingtops are great.

So are many of the Euro / UK half litre or pint bottles.

 

[Bentnose]

Aldi are selling some bottle with 330ml swing tops, a Flensburger Weizen and Pilsener, 6 for $14.99. On sale from the 24th of August.

 

[Bizier]

I admit to not bottling from sheer laziness, but I keep Harviestoun 500ml bottles, dark, heavy glass and the contents is delicious.

 

[KingKong]

Coopers deliberatly went to thick glass crown seals for home brewing

I wouldnt of thought it would be cost effective for the few extra bottles of beer that would sell to the minority that would base their choice on the thicker bottles.

 

[hoppy2B]

I get my bottles from Plasdene.

 

[Yob]

Coopers deliberatly went to thick glass crown seals for home brewing

Superb marketing if that's true.. Not sure that it is, probably more likely that they were made to withstand carbonation in the bottle, which is a happy coincidence for us..

 

[yum beer]

If you use twist top bottles make sure the caps are on well. Use a lever capper if you can.
Use two pulls to seal the cap, do the first pull, turn the bottle 1/4 turn and pull again, I find it ensures the cap folds around as much thread as possible.
Just be prepared to lose bottles to lack of carb occasionally.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Superb marketing if that's true.. Not sure that it is, probably more likely that they were made to withstand carbonation in the bottle, which is a happy coincidence for us..

It is true. They wanted the bottles to withstand re-capping for home brew use. Got that from Dr Tim when I met him a few yrs back at my local. Found out heaps if interesting stuff from him.

 

[lael]

I'm a big fan of swingtops. They handle the pressure well if you are carbonating highly. (in my experience). Haven't tried Coopers bottles at the same volumes. The easiest tell for how durable a bottle is seems to be weight.

Notes from when I was researching:


BOTTLE TYPES AND PRESSURE
Most of the bottles you will use will be the standard 12oz bottle. These are suitable for the vast majority of styles but we don't suggest you use them for beers with over 3 volumes of CO2. Below is a chart based on CO2 volume and suggested bottle usage. These are approximate guidelines and demand that the bottles be free of cracks or chips.

BOTTLE:VOLUME CHART
Bottle type
Max. CO2 Volume
12oz
3
33cl Belgian
3.5
500ml European
3.5
Swing top
4
Champagne
7
PET - lots of comments about these NOT being for storing beer for over 6 months of age - as they don't prevent oxygen getting into the beer. Use glass if possible.
10

Comments seem to indicate Belgian bottles are generally thicker, with Orval being the best


- - - - -

Did some measuring of Bottle weights:

750ml Coopers - 552gr
650ml homebrew - 490?
500ml hacker pschorr swingtop - 478gr
500ml euro wheat beer - 273gr
500ml euro weihenstephan - 367gr
330ml delirium - 258gr
330ml la trappe - 236gr
330ml 'normal' beer factory - 218gr



hth - Lael

edit: note the difference between weihenstephan bottles and the rest of the Euro ones I measured - the 'normal' euro wheat beer bottles seem to be super thin - I wouldn't recommend them.

 

[KingKong]

I guess Tim Cooper would know!

 

[MartinOC]

Contrary to popular belief, the modern screw-tops are actually better pressure-tolerant than all the "old" style, heavy, over-engineered crown-seal types of bottles. I think it's a perception of "Thicker is better" ('must be a boy-thing!).

 

[bradsbrew]

Contrary to popular belief, the modern screw-tops are actually better pressure-tolerant than all the "old" style, heavy, over-engineered crown-seal types of bottles. I think it's a perception of "Thicker is better" ('must be a boy-thing!).

It's not the pressure tolerance, it's the whacking a new cap on tolerance that is the problem with twist tops/thinner glassed bottles.

 

[hoppy2B]

The Bundaberg ginger beer screw top 750ml bottles are actually rated at 5 vol.