Bottling preferences?

[Gedge]

I really dislike the green plastic bottles you get at homebrew shops (just seems wrong, not to mention the awful white plastic caps and that they are GREEN).

Anyway, so far I have only bottled with glass empties. I use a crown capper and I find that some bottles are not so good for capping and that some are more prone than others to break. Absolute best bottles so far in my experience are either size (330ml or 650ml) from Anchor. So easy to cap.

Anyone got any tips for bottling with glass?

[jaymack]

Only used the green plastic bottles once and that was enough.

I like using the 500 ml bottles (hacker-pschorr) or non-threaded 355 ml bottles. I'll re-use about 4 times then return them.

It may sound kind of dorky, but I also wear safety glasses when capping. I chipped a bottle once with small debris falling off.

[Derek]

I always put them through the dishwasher (without detergent) and heat dry them. I figure it'll wash off any remaining sanitizer, and the heat should help sanitize as well (I don't always sanitize clean bottles right before filling them). Once they're cool, I pull them directly from the washer as I'm filling.

I tried that with plastic bottles once... the heat cycle did a number on them!

Bigger bottles = less capping

But I do like using the little stubbies, as they'll fit on a regular fridge shelf height... so you can really pack them into the fridge!

Milk crates are great for moving bottles them around. I usually put the carboy in a heavy milk crate as well... easy to move, and less chance of breaking it on a concrete floor.

[Gedge]

Bigger bottles = less capping

For sure. Bottled last night and I had amassed a decent quantity of large Anchor, Rogue and Southern Tier bottles. Really saves time.

[The_Jester]

My routine is very similar to Derek's.
I use 500 mL bottles - Schneider style. I sanitize, then dishwash without detergent. (This is great for removing labels, as well).
I also tried putting plastic thru the dishwasher. Many ended up with lopsided necks and crooked mouths - impossible to cap. (At least they were brown plastic - I've never seen green!?)
I've never had any trouble with the Schneider's bottles, and some are on their fifth or sixth batch. It never occurred to me that they wouldn't last indefinitely!? Is this something I should be concerned about?

[acromion23]

I like the Youngs Double Chocolate Stout bottles. They're 500 ml. and the labels come off easier than any others, I think.

[Gedge]

So putting bottles with labels on in the dishwasher won't gunk up or damage your machine?

[acromion23]

Well, since ~I'm~ the dishwasher, this would be uncomfortable, labels or not.

I just fill up the laundry tub and fill it with water and maybe 1/4 litre of Oxi Clean. I submerge the bottles overnight and they just slide right off.

[Derek]

To remove labels, I soak them in a solution of household ammonia... it's cheap & works alright for most labels.

I've used bottles at least half a dozen times...

[jaymack]

Depending on the type of lable and glue that's been used to hold the lable on, I've found just soaking the bottles in scalding hot water in the laundry sink overnight an easy, chemical-free way of burning those bad boys off.

[The_Jester]

So putting bottles with labels on in the dishwasher won't gunk up or damage your machine?

Not so far. I just open it up after the first cycle, and the labels are either hanging off of the bottles, or floating at the bottom. At this point, you can re-apply them all to the front of your dishwasher, giving yourself the coolest-looking dishwasher in town, until your wife discovers them, beats you with a rake and makes you take them off.

[grub]

rule #1: rinse every bottle as soon as you empty it. it will make your life sooo much easier down the line. that's also why i don't usually take bottles from anyone that doesn't do this. too much hassle to clean them.

skip the chemicals. for the most part, a soak in hot water will remove the labels, and it's waaay less hassle than having to rinse bleach/ammonia/etc off. i have a big rubbermaid bin that i fill with straight hot water. holds roughly 3 cases of empties. i soak for a day or so - any longer and it can start to get funky.

i have a big enough stockpile that i can be picky. i ditch anything that has the sticker-style labels and any brewery that i know is a PITA to remove. ditto for painted labels and any twist off. i try to only hang on to bottles if i have a whole bunch of a particular size, since with my bench capper it's a hassle to adjust the height all the time. and it just makes storage easier too.

i have a ton of standard non-twist 12oz and 22oz, and smaller collections of 330ml and 500ml bottles and 12oz stubbys. since getting a corker last year i've also developed a decent collection of belgian 375ml and 750ml bottles. corked and caged homebrew looks pretty damn sweet.

happy to say that i have never put homebrew in a plastic bottle, and i intend to keep it that way.

once label-free, they get a good rinse inside and out. i use no-rinse sanitizer (iodophor), a spritzer thingy, and a bottle tree. a few pumps and i put them on the tree, then fill them as needed.

[Hamilton Brian]

If it's an ordinary brew such as a pale ale, I'll use growlers. Oxidation from a loose cap-fitting may be an issue, but that's why I use them for the small beers. For the big ones that need some time aging (Xmas ales, DIPAs) I'll use regular bottles. I used minikegs for years but lost favour with them once the interior eroded and the beer tasted metallic. I have one keg with beer left...might have to bring it down to the Judge for beerfest and tap it.

[markaberrant]

I have a ton of brown 500ml EZCap flip tops. I use 12oz bottles for competitions (I fill up a dozen per batch), and fill a couple 22oz bottles for trading, or sharing with large groups. When I make the odd session beer for friends and family, the whole batch goes into 500ml glass and 22oz bottles.

I pretty much follow Grub's process, life is too short to screw around trying to salvage imperfect bottles. I toss all my commercial bottles, or homebrew bottles from others, in a sink of hot water and oxyclean; they come clean in about 30 - 60 minutes, and if a label is being stubborn, the bottle gets recylced. I don't cap that many bottles, so my hand capper works just fine. All of my own bottles are rinsed with hot water immediately after drinking; on bottling day, I run them through my dishwasher on the "sanitize" setting.

And I will admit to starting out with 24 500ml brown plastic bottles. They lasted about 3 months.

[mjohnston]

I've gotta say I like heavier crown cap bottles, with oxygen fixing caps. You can usually tell how sturdy the bottle is by the look and weight of it. Try to build collections of same-size bottles so that you can easily fill cases.

Bottling the same batch into different size bottles (do a case of 330mls and a case of 500s/650s) is nice as you can have bottles for sharing and bottles for yourself to drink.

For labeling, I like writing a batch number with a sharpie on the cap, and recording the batch/recipe in a notebook.

I wonder whether taller or stubbier are better for sediment caking (how well it'll stick to the bottom).

Grub, the corker concept sounds really neat - how much does that cost?

If you make a lot of sessionable beers, kegging might be a reasonable system too. If you make a lot of stronger beers, bottling is generally better as you don't want to have to drink a whole keg at a time.