Using beer bottles for Individual serving bottles of wine

I've been considering purchasing a bottle capper and using empty (clear) beer bottles to store some of my wine. I still intend to use the traditional bottle and cork for the majority of the batch, but I like the idea of a "serving size" bottle.

I would of course bulk age my wine before hand.

Has anybody tried this that they are willing to share their experiences with it?

Brad

Reply to
Brad
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I've not tried it - but was considering doing the same this year. A professional winemaker friend told earlier this year that properly placed, the 'crown' style beer caps are arguably one of the best closures available.

IMHO, I don;t want to bottle anything that will require lengthy bottle aging, but some white wines in the smaller beer bottles sounds like a great convenience.

Reply to
Ric

Lots of people do it. Although I bought a couple of case of 375ml wine bottles instead, partially because I didn't have a beer capper at the time.

The big question is, can you cap screw top bottles? Some people say YES, others say NO.

Personally I have had no problems capping CANADIAN screw cap bottles (both brown and clear Sleemans). These are thicker glass, because the breweries re-use them. Yeah they break once in a blue moon, but so does all glass.

Admitedly, I use mostly crown cap bottles but that is an appearance preference, not because of the tops. For example, I have replaced all of my screw top Sleemans bottles with crown cap Bavaria/Brahma bottles because I prefer the shape of these bottles (esp the Brahma ones).

Steve

Reply to
Steve

Yeh, it works fine, probably better than corks. You'll never look back.

The bottle caps are cheaper, and you avoid over consumption by not having an opened 750ml bottle to deal with if it's just you having a glass of wine or two.

I use green heineken bottles that are not twist-off.

Reply to
hot-ham-and-cheese

Brad - I do this all the time. When I put wine in a barrel I also put up 6 or 12 twelve ounce beer bottles of the same wine to use when I top up the barrel. I fill the bottles full to the top lip...no air space. Crown capped beer bottles are an excellent container. I have beer that's a year + old (bottle conditioned) that's in great shape...had two tonight while tending the BBQ.

Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas USA

Reply to
William Frazier

What are Crown capped bottles? Stu

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Reply to
StuPedaso

I bottle all of my meads in small (~7 oz) bottles just for the very purpose of single servings.

So far so good.

Duke

Reply to
Duke

bottle caps. aka "crown" bottle caps.

Reply to
hot-ham-and-cheese

Superb idea. And when adult sons or friends ask to share, its easier to pass along a smaller quantity, and you don't worry about getting the bottles back (full of mold).

Reply to
hot-ham-and-cheese

Yes, would love to train adult daughters to return the bottles de-labeled and cleaned, but then, "Dad! Your asking too much" :*)

DAve p.s. Love the smaller bottle sizes, good ideas in this thread. thanks.

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote:

Reply to
DAve Allison

Dave:

The following idea comes from one of my customers, although another does something similar.

He loves to make wine, but hates cleaning bottles. So he bought each of his three kids a case of new bottles and gave them to the kids full. Now whenever they bring CLEAN bottles home they LEAVE with FULL bottles. If the bottles are dirty, they get them back full at a future visit AFTER he has finally gotten around to cleaning them. I haven't met the sons, but the daughter said something like...'you bet I clean them well'.

BTW, another customer has complained about his parents not returning bottles, at all.

Steve

Reply to
Steve

The nerve of some parents!

Reply to
hot-ham-and-cheese

Steve! Sounds like a good plan! I like it. An arrangement. A Deal! I like it. thanks for the thought. DAve

Steve wrote:

Reply to
DAve Allison

Crown caps are great and cheap. I just finished the last of my 97 sparklers and it was under crown cap until a few months ago. There are absolutely no issues with crown caps that I am aware of other than people think they look funny when used with wine. I really liked Bill's idea for topping wine and the single serving idea too. Good thread.

Joe

Reply to
Joe Sallustio

They also look pretty cool finished off with capsuls. A big plus is that they can be stored cap up (to _my_ experience). If I remember correctly, some suppliers offer personalized caps. I often use that card board six-pack carrier they origionaly come in for storage, too. If I'm giving away a quantity, I'll spray paint the carrier, and put my lable on it. `sounds cheesy but you should see the pleased look of the recipient. : )

Reply to
winelinc

Thanks for all of the input. I will certainly start saving beer bottles now. A friend is offering me a bottle capper in exchange for some computer work so all I have to get is the caps.

I have the traditional problem of not getting bottles back, and the ones given to me that some friends were kind enough to save, weren't clean so...

Brad

Reply to
Brad

Just remember not to save bottle with 'twist off' lips; they are not meant to be resealed with an ordinary hand capper.

Joe

Brad wrote:

Reply to
Joe Sallustio

Another option is to get the 187 ml bottles that belgian style beers come in. They look like mini champagne bottles. they will accept corks and the larger european crown caps.

Joe Sallustio wrote:

Reply to
Droopy

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