Brewing Master

Question:

A friend of mine gave me two cases of Heineken non-returnable bottles, can I use these or are they  to thin to use? They are the non-screw cap type. TIA, -Harve "My grandmother is over eighty and still doesn’t need glasses.  Drinks right out of the bottle." – Henry Youngman Richard Harvey aka "The Harve"

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A friend of mine gave me two cases of Heineken non-returnable bottles, can I use these or are they  to thin to use? They are the non-screw cap type.

They have thinner glass than many other bottles – Ive had them break in the capper – it creates quite a mess, and it wastes Beer !. I’d stick with the Sam Adams bottles if I were you. Dave.

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A friend of mine gave me two cases of Heineken non-returnable bottles, can I use these or are they  to thin to use? They are the non-screw cap type.

I work by one rule: If I can crimp a bottle cap on it, I can use it. I’ve only broken 4-5 bottles in over 1,500 bottles. I keep the broken ones in the garage as souvenirs, I guess. JP

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– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – A friend of mine gave me two cases of Heineken non-returnable bottles, can I use these or are they  to thin to use? They are the non-screw cap type. They have thinner glass than many other bottles – Ive had them break in the capper – it creates quite a mess, and it wastes Beer !. I’d stick with the Sam Adams bottles if I were you. Dave.

Did you break the bottle with a wing capper? I have used Heineke bottles in the past without any problem,  but I also have a bench capper. I think the wing cappers apply lateral pressure to the neck of the bottle causing the breaking problem, while the bench capper applies pressure straight down through the strongest part of the bottle. I have heard of this problem with guinness bottles also, but again I’ve never had a bottle break with the bench capper. If you have a wing capper use stronger bottles like Sam Adams or Blue Moon. Mark Hafterson Don’t let your beer be a stranger.  HOMEBREW! http://www.jcave.com/~dejabru/

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: A friend of mine gave me two cases of Heineken non-returnable bottles, can : I use these or are they  to thin to use? They are the non-screw cap type. I have used them for the last 5 batches without a problem.

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said:     A friend of mine gave me two cases of Heineken non-returnable bottles, can     I use these or are they  to thin to use? They are the non-screw cap type.     i’d use them, then again  i use any bottle i get. don’t tell any of those guys tell you other wise. just don’t use south of the border bottles if you no what i mean. they are too cheap to use good bottles. heinekens a big company and so they use not bad bottles, not the best but hey. also after you bottle your beer you may like keep it in a dark place as that it well bad faster then a brown bottle well. so just keep that in mind when you use green bottles. jdc  Three C’s Consulting       Please No Junk Mail                                        Edmonton Alberta Canada    Or onwanted mail. :-]

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A friend of mine gave me two cases of Heineken non-returnable bottles, can I use these or are they  to thin to use? They are the non-screw cap type. They have thinner glass than many other bottles – Ive had them break in the capper – it creates quite a mess, and it wastes Beer !. I’d stick with the Sam Adams bottles if I were you. Dave.

Gee… I love the Heineken bottles.   I do prefer green bottles.  They fit in the refrigerator using less head room.  When filling,  you can see the fill level easier than you can with brown bottles.   I pack all my bottles, in the cases,   inside  heavy black plastic bags. Should any explode,  the mess will be contained in the bag and not on the rug.   This also excludes harmful light .   Over sixty batch’s done this way   and no bombs or skunked beer. I

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A friend of mine gave me two cases of Heineken non-returnable bottles, can I use these or are they  to thin to use? They are the non-screw cap type. Don’t fall for the old myth that you can only use SA or imported beer bottles.  The thinner american beer bottles work fine.  The consensus seem to be that you can expect to have about 1 in every 300-500 bottles crack when you are capping.  I would consider that to be an acceptable amount of breakage.

Do not use screw tops for homebrew obviously. Do not use green bottles either, obviously. I doubt your bottles are too thin. If your Heineken bottles fall into either of these two categories then junk ‘em, recycle ‘em. (and read the FAQ) — Ken Papai                            -Racer 5- Wannabee Marin County, California             [subliminal ad for Bear Republic here] http://www.rahul.net/kpapai/         Northern California Brewpub FAQkeeper

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A friend of mine gave me two cases of Heineken non-returnable bottles, can I use these or are they  to thin to use? They are the non-screw cap type.

Don’t fall for the old myth that you can only use SA or imported beer bottles.  The thinner american beer bottles work fine.  The consensus seem to be that you can expect to have about 1 in every 300-500 bottles crack when you are capping.  I would consider that to be an acceptable amount of breakage.

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: Do not use screw tops for homebrew obviously. : Do not use green bottles either, obviously. : Screw top bottles work fine for homebrewing.  Don’t condemn them until : you have tried them. Really!  I’d like to get ahold of the person who started this myth and give them a good shaking. That said, I used to find that I broke quite a few necks when I was using my butterfly capper.  But ever since I bought my big orange plastic bench capper about a year and a half ago, I haven’t broken a single twist-off. As for the matter of not getting a good seal, after many hundreds if not thousands of bottles, I only ever recall once opening a beer of mine that didn’t seem to have a good seal, and was therefore not carbonated. -Alan — as this email account will only be valid until December 20th, 1996 http://alpha.rollanet.org/~mckay/brew/tips/

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A friend of mine gave me two cases of Heineken non-returnable bottles, can I use these or are they  to thin to use? They are the non-screw cap type. TIA, -Harve "My grandmother is over eighty and still doesn’t need glasses.  Drinks right out of the bottle." – Henry Youngman Richard Harvey aka "The Harve"

I have used plenty of Heiney bottles, but they dont work as well with my wing capper as other types. Rolland Everitt

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id you break the bottle with a wing capper?I have used Heineke bottles in the : past without any problem,  but I also have a bench capper. I think the wing : cappers apply lateral pressure to the neck of the bottle causing the breaking : problem, while the bench capper applies pressure straight down through the : strongest part of the bottle. : I have heard of this problem with guinness bottles also, but again I’ve never : had a bottle break with the bench capper. : If you have a wing capper use stronger bottles like Sam Adams or Blue Moon. I used to regularly break the necks off of bottles with my old butterfly (wing) capper.  But ever since I bought a nice bench capper over 1.5 years ago, I haven’t broken a single bottle. I’m using all the same bottles that I ever did, too. -Alan —          Diplomacy – the art of letting someone have your way. http://alpha.rollanet.org/~mckay/brew/tips/

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Do not use screw tops for homebrew obviously. Do not use green bottles either, obviously.

Ken, First of all…nice home page.   Now down to business.  Please don’t perpetuate the myth of the necessity of using dark brown imported beer bottles for homebrewing.   Screw top bottles work fine for homebrewing.  Don’t condemn them until you have tried them. Same goes for green bottles.  They only pose a problem if they are exposed to direct sunlight while they hold beer.  Beer should be kept in a cool, dark place for aging anyway. Let’s use this forum to inform each other.  Please avoid confusing the newbies with an innacurate answer.

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    Do not use screw tops for homebrew obviously.     Do not use green bottles either, obviously. what you talking about ! green bottles are Ok as long as you keep them in a nice dark place. and screw tops work ok I’ve never had any of my beer go bad as of a screw top. maybe you don’t have the righ type of botte caper.     I doubt your bottles are too thin.         If your Heineken bottles fall into either of     these two categories then junk ‘em, recycle ‘em.     (and read the FAQ)  Three C’s Consulting       Please No Junk Mail                                        Edmonton Alberta Canada    Or onwanted mail. :-]

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        Really!  I’d like to get ahold of the person who started this myth     and give them a good shaking.         That said, I used to find that I broke quite a few necks when I was     using my butterfly capper.  But ever since I bought my big orange     plastic bench capper about a year and a half ago, I haven’t broken     a single twist-off. you can break a twistoff if you don’t bottle them right just take your time and do it right by the book. i’d like to get a hold of the guy who makes Butterfly Cappers he must be stoped.   I never used them but I hear alot about them. i have one of the standup press type Capper and it works great.  I just bottled a 5 G of beer and found that it takes me longer to bottle with twist off bottles. if you don’t line it up right with the top of the capper it well not lock right and may break the bottle.  but I’ve done like too many bottles in my life time and i’ve only break one bottle so fare so go ahead and use them. a friend at brew crew told me that you can use any bottle as lot as beer was in it and the Label does not say none refillable. JDC  Three C’s Consulting            Please No Junk Mail                            Edmonton Alberta Canada         Or unwanted mail.

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a friend at brew crew told me that you can use any bottle as lot as beer was in it and the Label does not say none refillable.

IMO, it doesn’t really matter whether a bottle says "no refill" on it. I’m pretty sure all this means that the bottle isn’t designed to hold up to the same level of physical abuse that *returnable* bottles are. I’m sure most homebrewers are a lot easier on their bottles than multiple passes through a commercial bottling line… go ahead and use them. Quite a few of my bottles have the words "no refill" molded into the glass, near the bottom of the bottle. I’ve only broken one bottle during capping, and I’ve never had a single bottle explode. Unless you count the one I dropped onto a concrete floor. Bottom line is, if your capper will cap it reliably, go ahead and use it; but be aware that some double-lever hand cappers have problems with twist-off bottles, or bottles with a non-standard shape of neck. If your bottles are green (or clear), just make sure you store the beer in a dark place, to keep it from getting lightstruck ("skunked"). —

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- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – a friend at brew crew told me that you can use any bottle as lot as beer was in it and the Label does not say none refillable. IMO, it doesn’t really matter whether a bottle says "no refill" on it. I’m pretty sure all this means that the bottle isn’t designed to hold up to the same level of physical abuse that *returnable* bottles are. I’m sure most homebrewers are a lot easier on their bottles than multiple passes through a commercial bottling line… go ahead and use them. Quite a few of my bottles have the words "no refill" molded into the glass, near the bottom of the bottle. I’ve only broken one bottle during capping, and I’ve never had a single bottle explode. Unless you count the one I dropped onto a concrete floor. Bottom line is, if your capper will cap it reliably, go ahead and use it; but be aware that some double-lever hand cappers have problems with twist-off bottles, or bottles with a non-standard shape of neck. If your bottles are green (or clear), just make sure you store the beer in a dark place, to keep it from getting lightstruck ("skunked"). —

Mike’s post is a good one.  I have used SA, Jack Daniels, Dergy’s, Harp, Highland 22 oz  etc… H.

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said:     A friend of mine gave me two cases of Heineken non-returnable bottles, can     I use these or are they  to thin to use? They are the non-screw cap type.

Heineken bottles are also good because they’re short!  They fit places other bottles don’t.  I’ve used them for years, and, yes, I try to keep them out of the light. But, BTW, some of my favorite bottles come from south of the border!   For example, I always keep around a few Corona bottles (which are VERY strong) so I can see how my brew is clearing.  Dos Equis bottles are great, except they must use industrial strength glue for the labels.

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Heineken bottles are also good because they’re short!  They fit places other bottles don’t.  I’ve used them for years, and, yes, I try to keep them out of the light.

If that’s what you need, then Chimay, Duvel, Maredsous use squat bottles, and _they_ are brown as well. Pierre — Pierre Jelenc              Know what’s weird? Day by day nothing seems to                    http://www.columbia.edu/~pcj1/

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But, BTW, some of my favorite bottles come from south of the border! For example, I always keep around a few Corona bottles (which are VERY strong) so I can see how my brew is clearing.  Dos Equis bottles are great, except they must use industrial strength glue for the labels.

I believe James Corneil was refering to the lower 48 when he said ’south of the border.’  Actually, I doubt that the major beer brewers in the US use bottles of any lesser quality than major brewers in Canada do.  Your observation about Mexican beer bottles, I agree with.  That’s probably because we can only get ‘micro’ brews from Mexico in the US. In any country, it’s the mini/micros that tend to use the strong bottles. But this is an obvious point. -jim — Jim Schlemmer                   http://grunt.asrc.albany.edu/~jim ASRC, Albany, NY.               (518) 442-3792

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Heineken bottles are also good because they’re short!  They fit places other bottles don’t.  I’ve used them for years, and, yes, I try to keep them out of the light. If that’s what you need, then Chimay, Duvel, Maredsous use squat bottles, and _they_ are brown as well.

…not to mention, Chimay is more enjoyable to drink. Minor annoyance: The squat Chimay bottles are actually 1/3 liter (around 11 oz), not 12 oz… so you’d need more of ‘em to bottle a batch. They sure do seem nice and heavy, though — really thick glass. —

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Heineken bottles are also good because they’re short!  They fit places other bottles don’t.  I’ve used them for years, and, yes, I try to

keep  them out of the light.  If that’s what you need, then Chimay, Duvel, Maredsous use squat bottles,  and _they_ are brown as well. …not to mention, Chimay is more enjoyable to drink. Minor annoyance: The squat Chimay bottles are actually 1/3 liter (around 11 oz), not 12 oz… so you’d need more of ‘em to bottle a batch. They sure do seem nice and heavy, though — really thick glass.

I like these bottles because they are so reuseable and avoid hammering caps on. I have been using the few i have for about eight years now without even changing the seals. They are also a nice size to drink from. I still use these bottles but I have discovered the plastic soft drink bottle and these have won me over. They are light, easy to clean, you can see inside and they dont break. They chill more quickly. I look forward to commercial beer in this convenient medium. Owen

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<snip just don’t use south of the border bottles if you no what i mean. they are too cheap to use good bottles.

<snip Much as I hate to admit it, we’ve been using Corona bottles for years to bottle our homebrews.  They are very strong, and it’s easy to see if there are any critters growing in the bottom – even lots of bleach won’t get rid of some of the visible (mold?, mildew?), we throw those bottles away.   I don’t know how you’d see that stuff in dark bottles. When we bottle, the brews go right into the case to carbonate, and stay there until we’re ready to enjoy them.  No light gets into the case, and we’ve never had off tastes.                                                 Scott

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Much as I hate to admit it, we’ve been using Corona bottles for years to bottle our homebrews.  They are very strong, and it’s easy to see if there are any critters growing in the bottom – even lots of bleach won’t get rid of some of the visible (mold?, mildew?), we throw those bottles away.   I don’t know how you’d see that stuff in dark bottles.

Easy. Hold the bottom of the bottle up towards a light, and look in thru the opening. Just don’t dribble sanitizer in your eye when you do this! When we bottle, the brews go right into the case to carbonate, and stay there until we’re ready to enjoy them.  No light gets into the case, and we’ve never had off tastes.

Yep, as long as you keep ‘em in the dark, there shouldn’t be any difference between different colors of glass. I stick to the brown bottles anyhow, so I don’t have to be as careful to always keep ‘em completely dark. —

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Do not use screw tops for homebrew obviously. Do not use green bottles either, obviously.

Ken, First of all…nice home page. Now on to business.  While you are obviously learned in the consumption of beer, your comments (shown above) show your ignorance in the area of bottling.   I know plenty of people who frequently use screw top bottles for homebrew.  The only problem any of us have had is the rare broken bottle at capping time.  Please give this a try before condemning the practice. Also the ONLY problem with using green glass bottles occurs if you expose them to bright sunlight while they contain beer.  If homebrewers keep their beer in a cool dark place while it ages then there will be no problem. The myth of the necissity of the dark brown imported bottle for homebrewing is just that, a myth.

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