I am new to home-brewing and am uncertain about whether the bottles I have will be okay for brewing. I recently got three cases of re-used bottles from a guy off craigslist who no longer brews. I believe that the bottles are at least 15 years old and had been sitting in his garage for quite some time. I am planning on making a belgian tripel for my next batch and know that there are higher levels of carbonation with this beer. Will these bottles be able to support the higher carbonation?
Several things to consider. Are they screw on type? If so, they won’t work. Most regular bottles, I’ve heard, are good up to around 3 levels of carb, but I don’t ever go above about 2.6. You’ll need thicker bottles for the Belgians if you’re planning on staying in style. At 15 years old, I’d check these pretty thoroughly for chips and cracks.
New bottles are not that expensive either. Plus, you can just buy commercial beer that you like and save the bottles. That’s what I’ve done. Or get friends to donate their recent empties. Whatever you do, just be cautious. Bottle bombs are no joke.
Welcome to the forum!
Cheers,
Ron
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I use bottles from commercial beers in lately had a couple break when bottling they were German ayringer bottles. 15 years old maybe maybe not like @frenchie says bottles are cheap
Thank you so much for the informative response! I am still waiting for my first brew to be ready to drink after bottling and am very excited to try it out. I understand that a Belgian Tripel will require more time and patience but I am looking forward to trying it out. The bottles aren’t twist offs and look to be in good condition but I might get some bombers to try out as well. Would you recommend secondary fermentation for the Tripel or would It be okay leaving it in the primary fermenter for a longer period?
Thanks!
And dont forget clean clean sanatize. Your bottles. I would use secondary fermenting for your brew you do plan. Me dont bottle. But keg beer. Been reading about. Exploding bottles. Be carefull. Like what ron said
Bottles have gotten more cheaply made. I have bottles from the mid 70s and they have at least 50% thicker glass.
@davisjayhawk move to a secondary if you wish. It’s good to practice… practice cleaning/sanitizing a whole bunch of extra equipment before and after you transfer. haha.
The old bottles that were actually made to be refilled were much more heavy duty than today. Used to be if you ordered a bottle of Bud in a bar, it was put back in the case when you were done and went back to the brewery to be cleaned, sanitized and refilled. Compare the bottles you got to a sixer of craft beer from the store with non-screw tops. The old ones will be thicker, darker and probably a little scratched up on the outside. If you got them, you scored some good bottles.
Non-screw top bottles of craft beer are great to reuse for homebrew but not really designed for reuse. We all do it though. One thing that helps is to be careful when capping them. You don’t have to strong arm the crowns. You will know if they are going on right quickly. It also helps to be careful handling them and not knock them around. Lastly, it doesn’t hurt to store them in a sealed container like one of those plastic bins. If one lets go, it will be contained.
By some miracle I never had a bottle bomb. I have had some gushers and broken the top off a few while bottling.
Next step is getting kegs of course.
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