Bottling a batch

LK_Dave

Saruman wrote: »

Ah ok, I use a corny system in a kegerator that takes two kegs. When you factor in the price of keg, disconnects, beerline, gas bottle, gas regulator and then the kegerator equipment it adds up.

Point taken on the full set-up cost and it is hard to cool the keg I have- I have setup a system in the garage so I can pile ice around the keg and the runoff water just goes down a sink.

rubadub wrote: »

I presume your keg is plastic so would you be totally against plastic bottles?

Not at all.

I used to use reusable crown lids, they were plastic and they had a safety system so they would blow off if over pressurised, there was a bubble thing on them which rose up first to you could tell in advance if they were overdone. €92 for 80 empty bottles is madness! 6x500ml brown perlenbacher bottles are about €6.35 in lidl, and its a decent enough beer. 80 of them would be €85. The perlenbachers are twist offs though, so the lid might not be suitable, but I am sure there are other cheap beers in brown bottles.

You do not need to buy gas either, so the cost is a once off

And the easier storing also means far easier to refrigerate.

I have in the past purchased Perlenbacher in Lidl and I agree it is a decent enough pilsner. But the glass on these bottles appears to be very thin/light and I must admit that I would be hesitant to trust a whole batch in them.

rubadub

LK_Dave wrote: »

Point taken on the full set-up cost and it is hard to cool the keg I have- I have setup a system in the garage so I can pile ice around the keg and the runoff water just goes down a sink.

You might be able to get cooler jackets or something, those ones full of salt type gel.

LK_Dave wrote: »

But the glass on these bottles appears to be very thin/light

This is a danger with proper crown caps, esp. if people are just guessing priming sugar amounts (I preferred to mix all the sugar in a batch and then bottle). I would think the reusable caps would blow off well before the glass would explode. Dunno if you can still get them, I got them in easons a good 18 years ago!

Tesco do a german or belgian beer in green PET bottles, with regular coke type lids. Another one I used to use was bulmers 1L bottles which have these standard lids too. I remember having an overpressured schweppes glass bottle once, the lid on it was so under pressure it was completely round at the top!

irokie

Aldi do several beers that come in reasonably strong brown crown-cap bottles. We're currently disposing of a 12-pack of Shöfferhoffer Hefeweize. It's very drinkable, and should leave us with enough bottles for our cider by the time the cider stops smelling like rhino farts.

I like bottling the beer because it means that we can have a few in the fridge at any one time, and if we're going to a party or a BBQ or something, we can bring a few with us. If you're bottling, though, I would advise getting a few bottle-crates. They make it so much easier to transport and/or store your bottles.

hamsterboy

LK_Dave wrote: »

I have in the past purchased Perlenbacher in Lidl and I agree it is a decent enough pilsner. But the glass on these bottles appears to be very thin/light and I must admit that I would be hesitant to trust a whole batch in them.

Have a batch of Coopers Wheat Beer in Perlenbacher bottles for the last 2 weeks and it seems to be grand. Never really thought the glass on the bottles was thin. Have already used them for my nettle and ginger beer during the summer and that was pretty fizztastic.
I gave a few bottles to a mate and he asked if the secret ingredient was Alka-Seltzer

Would have no problem using the bottles dude

HB