I was wondering if you can bottle wine in 2 litter pop bottles with the screw tops? Just trying to be frugal. Are twist top wine bottles available....don't want to deal with corks. How bout using two quart Kemps milk bottles for wine?
I've used the plastic bottles for very short term (2 weeks) but I'd not consider them for long term. Even soda does not hold up long term in them.
I do, however, use both 10 oz. and 28 oz. glass soda bottle with twist caps. I do this for a few reasons. The small bottles are what I call "single serving" size for when I'm the only one drinking wine. The others are just hand and can be re-sealed easily and are simple to close.
I'm somewhat a traditionalist with a gift bottle or if we have guests for dinner, but for home use, the twist offs are just fine. I never toss a bottle with a twist off any more. Ed snipped-for-privacy@snet.net
Yes.. Twist top wine bottles are available.. I seldom buy bottles anymore, but I any I do purchase these days are twist top.
Later, A.J.
Yes, you -can- bottle wine in 2-litre plastic bottles (as well as the smaller sizes), and many people do. Some people claim that the wine will take on the flavour of the plasticizers used in manufacturing the bottle, and others claim that plastic allows air into the bottle over time. Others disagree.
Yes, twist-top wine bottles are available (usually referred to as "screw tops"), as well as metal and (reusable) plastic tops. The bottles are priced about the same as cork-finish bottles, and the caps are priced comparably to corks. If your local shoppe doesn't have them, try "
Don't know anything about Kemps, but if they are the same as the milk bottles that were used in the 50's (before waxed and then plastic cartons), the neck is a bit wide, and there will be too much air in the bottle, and too much surface area exposed. If you intend to drink the wine within 6-12 months, they would probably be ok, but I wouldn't use them for much longer. I don't know what you would use to seal them, though. The little cardboard insert wouldn't do the job.
The disadvantage to (plastic or glass) screw-tops is that the seal is too good! If the room temperature increases for some reason (perhaps your air-conditioner failed, perhaps there was a power-failure, etc.), the liquid will expand as well, with a great deal of hydraulic pressure. If the wine is not stabilized completely, and begins to ferment again, there will be even more pressure. If you use corks, the cork will pop out, and (if the bottle is not standing up) you will have a mess. If you use screw-tops, the cap will stay in place, and the bottle will break, leaving a mess AND broken glass. It may explode all over the room with enough force to do serious damage to anything or anyone in its path. So, plastic screw-tops bottles are better than glass ones, because the plastic will just split open at the seam.
Synthetic corks solve both these problems, because 1) they will push out under pressure, just like natural corks, and 2) the bottles can be stored upright, so (if they do pop out) there will be no mess.
I have also always understood that plastic will allow "off" flavours to permeate through and I have always kept my wine fermenting/aging areas quite clear of any other food products in store. However my wine rack, holding about 120 bottles, is in my larder/pantry and is subject to a huge range of other potential taints. I would hesitate before using plastic bottles for any wine long term. Another advantage to storing bottles on their side is the much smaller ground area ( footprint) they occupy. Storing upright takes considerably more space -- and it is much more difficult to select the wine you want at any time. I have a question too. Can screw cap wines be stored on their side long term? What is likely tobe the effect of wine in contact with the veneer of protection on the inside of the cap?
I would not recommend it. I often keep topping up wine in 2-liter bottles for a month or so. Once I left it in for 4 months and I could definitely notice a deterioration of the flavor. I don't know if it was due to plasticizers or if it was due to oxidation. Keep in mind these containers were not designed to hold something with alcohol in it. Some of the compounds in the plastic that would not normally dissolve in pop or water, may be dissolved over time in the alcohol of the wine.
By the way, our local dairy will sell those clean new quart plastic bottles for pennies a piece. My good friend buys them to freeze his pressed apple juice in.
Jack Keller mentioned something to contrary... I can't recall the deatils but it involved pop that was over 20 years old! (I think)
Actually, if you store them in standard cardboard wine-bottle cases, stacked atop one another, they take up less room than any other storage method.
But they ARE more difficult to access. So, I periodically move a few bottles of each variety from their cases into my small (horizontal) wine rack, replacing the empty spaces in the cases with empty wine bottles, so they can still be stacked without collapsing. When a case is full of empties, it is used for bottling.
I also cover the cardboard cases with shelf-paper and/or my own labels, so I don't have to look at all the hideous rubbish which is printed on the box.
It depends on the sort of screw-cap you use.
Standard plastic soda bottles have plastic screw-caps with integral plastic "gaskets". Re-usable plastic screw-caps also have an integral plastic gasket. I see no problem in storing the bottles on their sides with either of these.
Metal screw-caps, and some of the plastic screw-caps have a waxed cardboard gasket. I would not store these on their sides. Wine is (or should be) slightly acidic. The cardboard gasket (which is what provides the air-and-liquid-tight seal) is likely to deteriorate with age, and the metal screw-cap will corrode and/or react with and/or adversely flavour the wine.
Could happen, but I've seen soda go flat in plastic in a year or so. I've had soda with an off taste that was old.
Of course, many types of plastic bottle exist and I'm sure some are better than others. I'm just not willing to take a chance. YMMV Ed
Yeah, I used the brown plastic beer bottles for cider and they seem to be pretty good... I will set a few aside for long term observation and hopefully can report back to the group.
I read some of the replies to your post, but not all (I'm running out of time) but for wine, you should avoid plastic (PET) bottles. They are NOT impervious to odours and oxygen, and these things will slip through the pores of the bottles (which are too small for water molecules to escape) and ruin your wine. Glass containers are your best bet. If you can find a reliable seal for milk bottles, go for them. As for screw-cap wine bottles, there are several brands of wines sold in screw-cap bottles. Until recently, they were almost always cheap jug wines, but wineries are beginning to realize that the inconsistency of cork quality is costing them customers, and are offering high quality product in screw-cap bottles. Go to your local bottle recycling depot and ask them to sell you some screw-cap bottles. If you can get the caps with them, so much the better (remember to sterilize the caps thouroughly before use) but you may find caps from Pepsi, etc. bottles will fit. Alternatively, wine/beer kit stores sell regular 750 ml bottles with screw cap necks, and (what a coincidence!) the caps to fit. I believe they are the same caps used for PET beer bottles. Hope I am not reiterating someone else's post.
Barrie
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