Plastic or glass bottles

davidfromUS said:

Why not just use kegs or just use PBs? PBs and kegs do nearly the same thing as far as I can tell. Is it just that PBs have a different purpose or something like that?

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The answer is that many people haven't got the space or the technical know how to hook up a keg and all that goes with it, and in the UK plastic PBs can be hit or miss i.e. they are fine when they work but often fail so you either like them or you don't (in four years I have had four PBs and now only one is functional and am now giving up on them)
So people stay with bottles or mix the types for conveneience

Hopperty said:

how do you get them to stand upside down ?

I often stick 2 or 3 in but it always seems a bit precarious (makes a good job of cleaning them though)

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My dishwasher has some sticks that prevent plates to hit each other during washing - something like that - https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/...9M01GB-dishwasher-WORKS-BUT-HAS-E09-ERROR.jpg

So I put 20 bottles to these sticks and they are perfectly stable and dry in the end of the washing programme.

I've spoken to various bars and getting some rekordling bottles. What's the easiest way to remove the labels?

Mastersmithson said:

I've spoken to various bars and getting some rekordling bottles. What's the easiest way to remove the labels?

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Depends on the labels.Paperbis a hot soak but those plastic labels are PITA.

Mastersmithson said:

I've spoken to various bars and getting some rekordling bottles. What's the easiest way to remove the labels?

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https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/how-to-remove-bottle-labels-the-easy-way.63664/

melhaer said:

My dishwasher has some sticks that prevent plates to hit each other during washing - something like that - https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/...9M01GB-dishwasher-WORKS-BUT-HAS-E09-ERROR.jpg

So I put 20 bottles to these sticks and they are perfectly stable and dry in the end of the washing programme.

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I tried this a while ago with mixed results, I felt the prongs created too much restriction in the neck of the bottles, and although most bottles seemed to get cleaned well, there was some where where the crud on the bottom of the bottle had not been removed (may be poor alignment with the spray jets)

Not putting the bottle on the prongs give far better results but balancing them was too precarious.

here is a pic from underneath showing the restriction the prongs cause in the neck.

terrym said:

My comment was a slightly tongue in cheek as I'm sure you deduced, and perhaps yours is too?. However there are people on this forum who seem to get concerned about a few ppb of leached plasticer in their beer, or other equally barely detectable concentrations of something or another from who knows where on the understanding that it presents a perceived risk to their well being, and so will take steps to avoid these things. But they will quite happily consume alcohol, a known poison, some of their own making, which realistically poses a much greater threat to their well being by several orders of magnitude. Where's the logic in that?

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I'm a little late to the party, but there is a really important idea here (not mine), and that is that the dose makes the poison. This idea dates bake to the 1300s and is credited to Paracelsus. Essentially the message is that everything is a poison if you are exposed to too much of it (water, oxygen, ethanol...). The key difference is how much of the stuff causes problems. We breathe air that is 20% oxygen with no problem and drink water with abandon, but have to be more careful with ethanol. But any of these things could kill us if we get too much of it. Some things are poisons at very low levels of exposure, and some things we don't have a good idea of what a safe level of exposure is. The plasticisers fall into this category, particularly as some act as hormone mimics and can be active at very low levels of exposure. So yes, you should be careful about drinking too much ethanol, and yes, you are right to be concerned about exposure to too much plasticiser. Just be aware that the safe exposure limits are very different for these substances.

terrym said:

I have kept beer in a PET bottle for 12 months and it was neither oxidised or depressurised.

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Ditto.

terrym said:

The answer is that many people haven't got the space or the technical know how to hook up a keg and all that goes with it, and in the UK plastic PBs can be hit or miss i.e. they are fine when they work but often fail so you either like them or you don't (in four years I have had four PBs and now only one is functional and am now giving up on them)
So people stay with bottles or mix the types for conveneience

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When I was in the UK I used mainly PBs, for quick-drinking beers, not the King-Keg ones with the tap at the top but old school Boots ones with a bottom tap. I used a Hambleton Bard gas bottle to regas and, while they sometimes leaked, a bit of Vaseline on the lid seal would usually fix that. More annoying was the gas bottles. I might start a new one and find it empty the next morning, or half use it and then find it empty the following day. However, it was easy and relatively cheap to get refills. Now I use only bottles.
The biggest difference is that I have to wait 4 to 6 weeks for the beer to be conditioned in the bottles, when I could drink it within days from the pressure barrel. I also toyed with 5 litre party kegs and I'm going to get a couple of these and try them again.

An Ankoù said:

The biggest difference is that I have to wait 4 to 6 weeks for the beer to be conditioned in the bottles, when I could drink it within days from the pressure barrel.

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I've never had that happen (4-6 weeks). In practice, it's usually about 6 days to respectability and 2 weeks for completely carbonated. My Quads, very big beers, follow the same pattern. I store at 22C, maybe a degree or so lower or higher. I don't think it should take that long in a bottle.

As far as flavor, they're good at 2 but get much better after 3 months.

Would you mind sharing your basic info for conditioning?

Indeed. PB conditioning meant the beer went into the PB right towards the end of its fermentation, the same time as a real ale would go into a cask. It would drop bright in the PB. If I'd left it a day or two late, I might add a couple of tablespoonsful of sugar to get things going again. A PB doesn't usually get moved so the yeast deposit isn't disturbed.
When bottling, I run off the nearly finished beer into a secondary FV and dry hop. When it's bright, I might even crash chill. Then a measured amount of sugar goes into each bottle according to Brewer's Friend carbonation calculator. The low level of suspended yeast and the relatively high amount of additional sugar mean that the fermentation has to get going again. I don't have much temperature control, but I''ll allow the crates to stay at room temperature for 4-5 days to get going and then take them to a cooler (but not much cooler) place until I'm ready to drink them. I don't do batch priming for reasons I've mentioned elsewhere. We're talking about bitters, pale, ales, stouts here. Lagers and other speciality beers take longer to much longer.
I really don't like the taste of sugar and even a bit of residual priming sugar indicated it's not ready. That would be the same for pub drawn beers, too.

Oh, that's like/is spunding. Thanks @An Ankoù
Your schedule makes perfect sense now; I hadn't considered cold crashing. I've never cold-crashed thus my schedule is what it is.

davidfromUS said:

Oh, that's like/is spunding. Thanks @An Ankoù
Your schedule makes perfect sense now; I hadn't considered cold crashing. I've never cold-crashed thus my schedule is what it is.

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I hadn't heard the word "spunding" before. Just googled it and will read later. Thanks.

If you know you want to try a bottle in just a few days, ......4% beer fermented 4 to 6 days then bottle....the drink quick bottles are not primed and are filled to within 1 cm of the top...if not drunk within a week remove tops to degass then re-seal....works for me...but don't often do it as I have considerable stocks ready to drink....

Hopperty said:

...there was some where where the crud on the bottom of the bottle had not been removed (may be poor alignment with the spray jets)

Not putting the bottle on the prongs give far better results but balancing them was too precarious.

here is a pic from underneath showing the restriction the prongs cause in the neck.

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If some crud I am trying to remove it before washing machine. These are mainly bottles I got from some bars and they stayed a lot of time unwashed. Some of them goes into trash as it is impossible or pointless to try to wash them.

I am only trying to clean perfectly a swing top bottles as I prefer them because I skip the capping:)

Putting it through a hot dishwasher cycle should sterilise the crud so just leave it there for a bit of additional character. Otherwise bleach and warm water will have it gone by morning.

bleach dilute and fine gravel shake well for 30 seconds spotless.....

An Ankoù said:

Putting it through a hot dishwasher cycle should sterilise the crud so just leave it there for a bit of additional character. Otherwise bleach and warm water will have it gone by morning.

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I left it for a night with really hot water, but the crud was not removed, I found the easiest way is to use some thin bottle brush - the third:



But also I have a friend working in a bar and he gives me a lot of bottles so if a bottle has too crud I just don't use it.