Yoour Bottle Of Choice

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Re priming with odd bottle sizes.

I make up a sugar solution, and prime with a syringe - tallies get 10ml, stubbies half that, and other sizes are easy to adjust to.

https://sites.google.com/site/goatherder/bulkpriming

Saves the whole bulk priming step, and ensures each bottle has the correct amount of sugar.


I like this concept for when I have one brew in secondary and primary also in use i.e. can't pour a batch into another vessel for bulk priming. Thanks.
 
I hated PET bottles but they are great until you get used to everything, especially how *not* to make an exploding bottle of beer.

I keg but bottle-wise, I use the best remaining from what I drank. That's tended to be the larger Young's London Special Ale over time. Grosch style bottles are a bonus too.

Bigger beers I use stubby sized bottles, as I might not want to drink so much in one hit.
 
I always split each batch into a combo of glass tallies and stubbies. The former are great for having mates around, particularly for brews I always pour anyway, like my highly carbed weizen's. Stubbies handy for just grabbing a quick one out of the fridge and necking from the bottle when you don't want to dirty a glass.

I can't bring myself to put beer in plastic, it just doesn't feel right. I know it's probably fine, but it just feels plain weird.
 
I use 19L stainless steel bottles. To keep the beer fresh I use pressurised CO2 to pour it.

Seriously the best step in homebrewing. When I hear of people who brew kit beers "because they don't have the time to make AG" ... but then bottle, I do a facepalm in my mind.

Back on topic - I used to bottle into 2L PET. 12 per batch.


Fair enough, but there's a few caveats to that for me, personally:

1) Imposition of cost for keg system setup
2) The reuirment to have a dedicated fridge for your keg
3) Only having one beer to choose from at a time.... unless you spend even more money on kegs and fridges

I also doubt the cleaning/bottling process requires the time and dedicated, non-interruptable concentration that is involved in AG.

However, as I said earlier, I understand why kegging is preferred. If I had space and money to do such a thing, I wouldn't hesitate and probably just keep a few bottles for touring.
 
Not a fan of PET bottles, tried spliting a batch into some in glass and some in PET a couple of times. THE PET ones taste suitably oxidised :icon_vomit:

I agree, PET suck. I get stale cardboard flavours after a few months.
 
I also doubt the cleaning/bottling process requires the time and dedicated, non-interruptable concentration that is involved in AG.
I spent the majority of my last AG brew day replacing a spark plug and cleaning the carb on my motorbike...
Concentration is for whimps
 
I'm working hard on amassing a bunch of LCPA dreadnoughts - at 568ml they are a great size. I also have a bunch of various 500ml bottles, my favourite of which are some Hackor Schorr swingtops - much darker than Grolsch. I also picked up 50 or so tallies from a guy on zillch.com - these are the old, old Manufacturer's Bottle Company of Victoria ones - designed for refilling. The guy reckoned some predate WWII, though I'm doubtful.
 
Any of the Gage Road 640ml long necks are awesome. I use a carton of Atomic Pale Ale ones that I picked up cheap :) I reckon this size is just perfect.
 
If you have a paved/easy to clean yard and a little time and make it easier on yourself with the process, bottling is just fine. Bottles do take up space though... It's amazing how much less space a keg of beer takes. Especially if you have 3-4 kegs in the fridge.

Always liked bottling in the half litre euro bottles or pints or grolsch bottles. Just the right size to fit a pint glass.

Be wary of Belgian bottles. Especially stubbies. Had mixed results with them exploding when the rest of the batch is fine. Leffe bottles I think.
 
If you have a paved/easy to clean yard and a little time and make it easier on yourself with the process, bottling is just fine. Bottles do take up space though... It's amazing how much less space a keg of beer takes. Especially if you have 3-4 kegs in the fridge.

Always liked bottling in the half litre euro bottles or pints or grolsch bottles. Just the right size to fit a pint glass.

Be wary of Belgian bottles. Especially stubbies. Had mixed results with them exploding when the rest of the batch is fine. Leffe bottles I think.


In Nu Zeelund the swappa crates (12x 750ml) are still in enough demand that we homebrewers can go in and pick them up for $5 (albeit full of spit/dregs/smokes and mould) leave them in the bathtub at 1 million degrees (actual temp may differ) with napisan to clean the buggers out.
Otherwise if like me we could have a stash of around 100 500ml bottles from various craft companies and wash them out ready to bottle with (takes up less space but costs a shit tonne more to accumulate and approximately 10% naggier/angrier swmbo). Both are good options I would just rather enjoy a night having two (if we talk weekdays or other occasions where functionality is important the next day) 500ml bottles rather than a 750ml which doesn't seem like enough on it's own and then have another and wake up with the urge for a pie and wonder what someone has drawn on your face.
 
Champagne bottles for sure.
Get yourself a tirage bell & caps for your bench capper, and your life will be changed.
They're sturdy, good size, look great, and in good supply - especially this time of year...think how many people get into the bubbles this time of year.

My personal preference are Antique Green Skittle bottles, if we wanna get specific ;)
 
How would the Boags lager stubbies do?
Also, silly question, if you using bottles of another company / brand (i,e boags) do you remove the labeling?
 
I keg first then what remains goes into 500ml Rekorderlig cider bottles. All the girls were drinking them about a year ago and I ended up with 45 bottles. Each brew normally gets a keg and 5 bottles.

I did find one that had a defect and broke during some rough handling but the others have held up well and they're perfect size for a pint glass. I didn't do a specific label removing wash but most of the labels have now come off during normal bottle washing.
 
Instead of sanitising them by hand, stick them in a dishwasher at the hottest cycle once. The labels come off too.
 
practicalfool said:
Instead of sanitising them by hand, stick them in a dishwasher at the hottest cycle once. The labels come off too.
the only problem with that is the bottles need to be clean before hand
 
Coopers long necks are great - don't have many. I have lots of CUB.
I always like grolsch stubbies for part of a batch for size variation, but being green they need light protection.

I have different sized brown swing tops, but the recent ones i've bought are crap - the plastic is malformed in some, and the wire on some is bent incorrectly. So quite a few haven't sealed properly for one or both of those reasons. Bought them for a christmas ale brewed in May, so more difficult to take them back, and really fiddly, but I did let the retailer know. I assume it's a different company to my old ones, fooling the retailers into thinking they're the same thing at a lower price. Dunno.
 
I don't know boags lager stubbies, but I simply avoid
* anything that's too thin - reduce risk of breakage
* If it isn't brown, you have to protect it from the light
* Don't particularly like screwtops, but find they work fine
 
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