Bottle Conditioning in a 1 Gallon Growler?

Brewing Processes
1

Hey,

I was wondering if it is possible to achieve similar results when bottle conditioning in a 1gallon growler as compared to normal 12-22oz bottle conditioning using new caps and a bottle capper?  Will just having a screw-cap not work as well?

I should be able to go through a gallon when sharing with friends and family, so it would be nice to be able to bottle 1/5 of my batch in 1 bottle, but also, it would suck to screw up 1/5 of my batch at the same time too  ;D

2

Yeah, you can do that.  It might take a little longer to fully carbonate and you’ll be swishing that sediment around a bit more than you would with smaller containers.  But it’ll carbonate fine.

3

I have tried bottle conditioning in some 1 quart growlers I have.  I had mixed results.  Some carbonated okay others not.  One recommendation is to not use the caps that have the cardboard liner.  They do not seem to seal as well.  Try and get the ones that brewpubs use for growler sales.  They have a sort of rubber(silicone?) adhesive ring inside the top of the cap.  Northern Brewer sells them.  they look like this inside:

The other thing you can do is wrap a length of vinyl electrical tape around the cap once it is on.  It is still possible to have it not seal well enough.  As Tygo mentioned it will take longer to carbonate.  I am not sure about this, but you may want to use less priming sugar for the 1 gallon portion than you would for the rest of the bottles.  I know you do when priming a keg.  Hopefully someone else can pick that one up…

4

The main problem with growlers is most of them are not conditioned to withstand higher pressure. You can do it, just try to keep the carbonation at lower levels. I imagine, as enso has said, that leaky caps could be an issue as well. But the swing top growlers shouldn’t leak.

5

Here’s a link on another forum from a brewer that did just what your asking: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/1-gallon-bomb-fml-242335/  Most 1/2 to 1 gallon jugs are good for uncarbonated beverages (wine or mead) or transporting beer from a keg that’s already carbonated & won’t carbonate any more. Cheers!!!

6

i’ll usually put my beer in at least one growler while i’m bottling.  i don’t particularly care for the sediment, but it’s nice to have a jug on hand that anyone can pour any size glass from rather than have people committing to a bottle and/or having to find someone to share it with.  i find that it carbonates at the same speed.

7

I have a nice 5 liter bottle with a nice grolsch type swing top, which I’d like to use sometime for the reason above.  Is the rule still the same about how much air space to leave in the bottle (about 1 inch)?  Or should the air space vary by bottle size?

8

It is on my list to try for beer, but the old 2L soda bottles should work just fine.  They do for making root beer at least.

9

+1 I’m fairly sure the growler could take normal volumes of co2- but the ubiquitous 2L PET are perfect and safe. They especially won’t leak.