New brewer here!
I have been cleaning out old beer bottles and using them to bottle my homebrew. I just read that the glass most breweries use is only intended for one use and will degrade over time.
Has anyone had an issue using old bottles repeatedly?
About how many times can i use them safely? (forever was my original thought lol)
What is a good site to buy sturdy, bottles I can use indefinitely?
thanks!
-Zaxxle
Where did you read that? Glass “degrades?”
For the several years I bottled I had no problem with used bottles. Probably reused some as many as 10 times. Most of what I used were Sierra Nevada stubbies and long necks from Widmer Bros., Redhook and New Belgium.
I must say that The stubbies Redhook uses now look pretty flimsy compared to most. If the bottle looks to be of good quality it probably is. I would stay away from the thin looking glass and be sure to ferment your beers out before bottling.
I don’t believe glass degrades, but there are lower grades of glass bottles.
While the glass may not degrade, it isn’t meant to be used over and over forever. That said, it’s fine under normal circumstances.
Don’t sweat it. I’m a relative newbie and I’ve got bottles with 40 batches in them. There are folks on this forum that have bottled 10 times as much or more…though many have whimped out and gone to kegs. ;D
Unless you are making a highly carbonated belgian, you’ll be fine.
ive used the redhook stubbies for probably 3 or 4 brews now. Seems to be no issues.
^^This^^. Glass will not ‘degrade’ naturally, but will become stressed over time. Small flaws in the manufacture can cause fracture points. I’ve used bottles many times over but inspect them when cleaning and often toss anything I find with air bubbles or signs of stress.
I bottled many bbl of beer. I, knock on wood, have never had a bottle failure. I used short SN bottles. I also had about 20 cases of Stone bottles. I loved that I could drink and not remove labels. I still have them and still use them when I give out brew.
I think you are generally fine to reuse, but…I would advise carefully inspecting each and every bottle before refilling. Check particularly carefully around the lip of the bottle, which gets a lot of stress from the capper and will often show little chips or cracks on close inspection.
I was having issues with a bottle bomb or two in each batch, and traced it to “worn out” bottles as well as lingering crud in some that kicked off a secondary fermentation. By eliminating both, I cut out the problem.
cool thanks guys! for those interested, It was a Brew Your Own article.
Haven’t had a problem reusing but over 20+ batches I’ve had maybe 3 times when the lip of the bottle was stressed enough to break off when capped.
This is more geek info than you probably need, but… weigh a bottle on your hop scale. The ones you buy from the a LHB shop will be in the 8 oz range. Bottles from breweries will be in the 7 oz range. Anything under 7 oz I toss. They just feel too light and fragile. They are probably fine, but why chance it. Otherwise, just reuse them over and over.
how does the 8oz test stand up to things like different bottle styles. Like the bottle from firestone walker is a short little guy.
I don’t believe the 8oz test. In the Bay Area many breweries get their bottles from the same manufacture in Oakland, California Glass. Often times the bottles I would buy form MoreBeer, and other shops all the way up to Sacramento and Folsom, were in overrun cases and all from California Glass.
ETA - I’m sure variation exists, I just doubt it’s a brewery vs homebrew shop distinction.
I’m not buying it either.
The most common bottle failures I had when bottling were when the neck snapped off while capping. Too many uses stresses the glass, and tiny cracks build up.
Use them, but be careful.
I’d bet that most bottle failures happen from capping with wing cappers. A bench capper is a good investment. Probably faster too.
When I was first bottling with a wing capper, I broke two or three. It just doesn’t take that much muscle to get a good seal. Otherwise, I’ve got bottles that have been capped 30 plus times with no issues.
Cumulative damage happens.
Most breweries use one way bottles that are thin and light, saves on shipping costs. Those might be 180-190 grams IIRC. I weighed some Belgian bottles I brought back from Belgium. Those are more robust due to multiple uses and high carbonation. Those were in the 320-330 gram range for 330 ml. You can tell the difference!
When touring Ayinger, they would remove labels and clean the bottles in a large piece of equipment. Then the bottles went down a line where tests were done on the bottles, defective one were automatically kicked off the line into a bin.