Is it possible to bottle homebrew in 750 ml wine bottles? I guess anything is possible, but is it safe? Any advantages/disadvantages as far as beer quality, or aging?
I’m sure you’ll be fine, but I believe you’ll have to cork them. Remember that a lot of the big boys bottle in 750’s and cork.
This is great news! I have a dozen wine bottles that accidentally got shipped to me through Amazon. Score!
2 issues.
Can it accept a cap. If not, you will need to cork/cage them.
Wines are normally not carbonated. The bottle probably will hold up to the carbonation pressure. But…
It wouldn’t hurt to try a couple out.
[quote=“Nighthawk”]2 issues.
Can it accept a cap. If not, you will need to cork/cage them.
Wines are normally not carbonated. The bottle probably will hold up to the carbonation pressure. But…
It wouldn’t hurt to try a couple out.[/quote]
I’ve thought about this. In the cases of champagne and specialty beers from breweries there are corks on 750 ml. bottles (Odell’s Woodcutter, Dogfish Head’s Red and White, Chimay’s larger bottles, etc.). Is there anything different happening there? My friend has corks and a corking press (likened to a bottler)… I’ve always wanted to try, but… you know, if it doesn’t work then it’s ruined beer too.
You should be fine as far as pressure goes. Though unless its a very low level carb, I would cork and cage them as opposed to just corking them. The vast majority of wines are not carbonated and I don’t know how much pressure those corks will hold up to.
[quote=“Hoppenheimer”][quote=“Nighthawk”]2 issues.
Can it accept a cap. If not, you will need to cork/cage them.
Wines are normally not carbonated. The bottle probably will hold up to the carbonation pressure. But…
It wouldn’t hurt to try a couple out.[/quote]
I’ve thought about this. In the cases of champagne and specialty beers from breweries there are corks on 750 ml. bottles (Odell’s Woodcutter, Dogfish Head’s Red and White, Chimay’s larger bottles, etc.). Is there anything different happening there? My friend has corks and a corking press (likened to a bottler)… I’ve always wanted to try, but… you know, if it doesn’t work then it’s ruined beer too.[/quote]
Many of the 750ml bottles that beer companies use CAN take a bottle cap. I reuse and cap them all the time. I know some bottles are different and the lip is too wide to take a standard cap, but many cap just fine. When I pour beers from my kegerator to take places I either use a growler or if I don’t want to take that much, I use 750ml bottles. Dogfish Head bottles can definitely be reused. I also use 750ml bottles when brewing something special/unique. I’ll bottle 2 or 3 750ml bottles to take places. It looks impressive when you show up with a different unique beer in a big fancy bottle.
Champagne ottles would be OK, but I’d adviseyou avoid wine bottles. They aren’t made to handle the pressure and could explode.
and that would be bad. 
Wine bottles aren’t made for pressure, but I think they’d hold a limited amount like 1.5-2vol. Champagne bottles are a lot sturdier because champagne has something like 7vol CO2.
You will have to figure out how to keep corks in though. A normal wine cork is going to get pushed out by the carbonation. Belgian corks are a lot bigger and fit tighter.
Personally I’d donate/trade the wine bottles and stick with beer bottles.
Thanks guys. I don’t have a corker, but would invest in one if wine/champagne bottles will work. Im fine with caging them aswell. Just trying to cut down on the use of so many bottles. Im not able to keg where I currently live. I have access to hundreds of wine bottles, for free, thats why Im asking!
