Beer Brewing Bottles: Give Your Homebrew a Professional Edge

There is nothing more enjoyable than kicking your feet up and grabbing a beer after a long day at work. You come home, crack open a cold one, and wind down. What’s more satisfying is having your fridge fully stocked with your very own beer tailored specifically to your liking. Nowadays homebrewing surges in popularity. Everyone can brew a great beer at home, instead of hopping down to the store. There’s a tool for every job, and this applies to homebrewing too. If you are a beginner at homebrewing, all you need is to find a well-stocked homebrew shop that offers kits designed to help you make your delicious craft beer.

Once you put time and energy into creating your own beer, you will want to class things up by presenting and storing your beer in handsome bottles. Bottling will give your homebrew a professional edge, especially if you are planning to gift it or serve it up for a special occasion. You will find a wide variety of brewing bottles to store your prized homebrew. Selecting the right bottles is important so that you avoid leakage issues. Continue reading to find out how to select the ideal bottles for bottling your homebrew.

How to Select the Perfect Bottles for Your Homebrew

You probably think every bottle is the same, but bottling your beer isn’t just to store it conveniently so that you can enjoy it later. A bottle is used to carbonate the beer as it ages over a couple of weeks. Therefore, finding the perfect ones for your particular recipe is so important. Given the plenty of options available, the major considerations for choosing brewing bottles are quality, aesthetics, and whether or not the bottles are suited for what’s inside.

Type of bottle

Not every bottle is the same. Each one has to be specially designed for the beverage which is stored inside. Wine belongs in wine bottles and homebrew requires a different kind of container altogether. Choose a bottle that is strong enough to withstand the internal pressure due to carbonation. Clear glass bottles are the traditional choice for many homebrewers. Green and brown glass bottles are also perfectly suited to beer homebrew. For some reason, some homebrewers prefer using plastic for bottling their beer. If you are retailing what you have made for customers, you might even consider aluminium cans.

Quality

Quality is a very important factor to consider when choosing bottles for your homebrew. Even if you are not retailing your beer, the question of quality is still important. While plastic bottles are lightweight and inexpensive chose, they are low-quality that will not only be less attractive but could also have an impact on the taste of your homebrew. You will want to get the most of your homebrew, both in terms of taste and longevity. Therefore, consider high-quality glass bottles to store your beer. Glass bottles are BPA-free so you don’t have to worry about harmful chemicals seeping into your homebrew and being consumed by those who will drink it.

Plastic vs. Glass Home Brewing Bottles

At some point or another, any homebrewer wonders whether or not to use glass or plastic bottles for their beer. This decision is very subjective as each material has its own pros and cons. The major factors to consider include the perceived taste, strength, ease of use, and availability. For most of the beer’s history, brewers have been serving beer in glass bottles or poured into glasses for that matter. But there are a couple of reasons why someone might use plastic for bottling their homebrew. If your beer is going to be consumed relatively quickly, it’s probably okay to bottle it in plastic for a short amount of time. Plastic bottles are light in weight, unbreakable, and easier to handle than glass when cold. This makes them especially convenient for on-the-go consumption. However, long-term usage of plastic beer bottles can cause issues with potential off-flavours stemming from oxidation.

With glass bottles, you will probably have a better homebrewing experience. They will give your beer a longer shelf life and will improve the taste when you drink it. Glass will not allow any oxygen to reach your homebrew and hence there are no off-flavours imparted to the beer. When it comes to glass bottles, there are plenty of options to choose from, including wing-top bottles, screw-top bottles, pint-size bottles, and more. Green glass bottles are compatible with beer but it’s the brown glass bottles that are perfectly suited for homebrew since their dark colour provides protection against light reaching your beer. Also, make sure you choose the correct thickness to ensure it can take the pressure of higher ABV beers.