'Strong' beer bottles

10-10-20

Hi guys,

I've made the plunge and started off Batch #1. It's fermenting well at 22 degrees C.
I started collecting bottles to allow me to bottle the beer for the secondary fermentation next week, but I'm wondering if what I have are strong enough.
I was going to use Stella 33cl bottles, but from reading online here, I'm wondering what the defintion of a 'strong bottle' is?

Are Stella's up to the mark?
If not, I'll second-ferment in the batch in my other bucket and then bottle later.

oblivious

Green bottles are not really a good option, people use bulmers or Guinness one with success. Or another option is hefeweizen bottle tend to of a good quality

BeerNut

Pretty much any commercial bottle will be fine, strength-wise. Things to look out for are glass colour, as oblivious says: anything other than brown leaves beer susceptible to lightstrike. Keep the bottled beer in the dark and your Stella ones will be fine.

Capping is the other thing to look out for: Wychwood bottles won't cap with anything other than a free-standing bench-capper. I'd also be wary of twist-off bottles as the seal won't be as good.

10-10-20

So, strength-wise, Stella are OK?
It's just the risk of spoiling from light I need to be careful of with green bottles?

murrayp4

Try to swipe some from your local. Most bottles used in bars are returnable and therefore much thicker and stronger than the ones you'd get in the off-licence

BeerNut

10-10-20 wrote: »

So, strength-wise, Stella are OK?

I'd say so. I can see force-carbonated Stella presenting a much bigger pressure challenge than naturally carbonated homebrew. If the bottles explode, it's because you over-primed

10-10-20 wrote: »

It's just the risk of spoiling from light I need to be careful of with green bottles?

Yep.

murrayp4 wrote: »

Try to swipe some from your local. Most bottles used in bars are returnable and therefore much thicker and stronger than the ones you'd get in the off-licence

Not many are big and brown, though. Pint bottles of Guinness/Smithwick's/Macardle's/Bulmer's are brilliant: big capacity and seriously heavy duty. Similarly, German 50cls like Erdinger and Paulaner are great: designed for re-use so robust and very easy to clean. Miller bottles are armour-plated, but crappily small and clear. Heineken aren't returnable AFAIK, and are green.

oblivious

BeerNut wrote: »

If the bottles explode, it's because you over-primed

Also if the beer has not full fermented out and or infection

rubadub

BeerNut wrote: »

If the bottles explode, it's because you over-primed

I used to have plastic reusable snap on caps, they had a weak dish shape in the middle, so if they were overpressured the bubble would pop up, sort of like those jars of food with the button on top that pops up if opened or gone off. If it went way over pressure the caps would blow off the top as they were only snap on.

If I was to start again I would get brown swingtops as recommended in the other thread.

oblivious

rubadub wrote: »

If I was to start again I would get brown swingtops as recommended in the other thread.

They are handy and do look good

Blisterman

English Ale bottles are usually very sturdy, brown, and a decent size too.

IronMan

London Pride bottles are great. I once used a single London Pride bottle to beat an entire busload of nuns to death.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

kenmc

I broken the top off several different bottles when capping - they tended to be longneck 33s e.g. coors or mudweiser, they don't seem to be strong enough to handle a 2-handed capper gripping their neck. Never had any explode though. I've since made a conscious decision to only keep hefe bottles.

oblivious

kenmc wrote: »

I broken the top off several different bottles when capping - they tended to be longneck 33s e.g. coors or mudweiser, they don't seem to be strong enough to handle a 2-handed capper gripping their neck. Never had any explode though. I've since made a conscious decision to only keep hefe bottles.

I have some issues with those 2 handed capers, once some of the plastic coating goes they can brake the top of bottle!

A small bench one is a good investment

kenmc

I'm thinking of seeing if I can adapt a drill press
But it's only broken thin-glass ones - never had an issue with a proper bottle.