I am looking to use larger vessels for bottling and was wondering if anyone uses growlers?
I use 1 and 2 liter to bottle with and just leave a little more head space(not much) if using a bottle filler and all mine come out good.
Just remember the larger the (glass) bottle the higher the risk of it rupturing under pressure.
IIRC, growlers can hold the pressure of already carbed beer for a short while. but don’t try to bottle condition in them or they explode. There’s a thread about that somewhere here (or another forum) with some significant glass shrapnel stuck in walls…
I tried this many times when I started. It worked great about 95% of the time, but the other 5% was not fun at all.
We did talk about this before here: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=3290.0
It depends on what you mean by “growler” the big, heavy swing-top bottles or the 1/2 gallon screw-cap ones. Carbonating in the latter could be risky assuming the variables of residual sugar and overcarbonation. They look a little weak to me for something as unpredictable as homebrew.
I use any size bottle, small or big to bottle condition…I just add sugar according to the volume of the bottle, it works great. Some times I’ll bottle the whole 5 gallon batch into all 2 litter growlers. It usually takes about 9- 2 litter growlers to bottle all 5 gallons… I have about 35-2 litter swing top growlers and about 40 1-liter growlers… I like to age beer in these bulky bottles. I bought mine here when they were about nine dollars a bottle. http://www.breworganic.com/2literswingtopgrowlerwithhandlecaseof6.aspx…
I’ve never encountered a problem using swing top 2L growlers. I’ve aged high gravity beers for years in these growlers, and as one would expect from any good bottle, I’ve only experienced great bottling results using these growlers. By mistake, a couple times, I did over carbonate some batches, and when that has happened in the past the swing top growlers did not explode like regular capped bottles, instead the gas leaks through the rubber seal. I guess you can look at it as a safety release valve, idk.
By mistake, an over carbonated brew. I opened the cap, released some pressure, let it age for a year or so, drank it, and all was good. I don’t do that often.
