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bottling Ginger Beer
Posted: Tuesday Sep 11, 2007 8:29 pm
by stinger400
I have a silly question about bottling ginger beer. Do most people use the brown PET bottles or something else?. Does it matter is they are brown or clear?. Also can you reuse the PET again after use?.
Thanks
Posted: Tuesday Sep 11, 2007 8:40 pm
by Kevnlis
Brownj is best because light can be a factor. As long as they are stored in a dark place clear bottles work fine. All bottles can and should be reused!
Posted: Tuesday Sep 11, 2007 8:41 pm
by scanman
Can't say what Most people do, but I use the PET bottles, because Ginger beer has the habit of getting extremely carbonated, so may explode in glass.
And yes you can reuse PET bottles, same as you can reuse any bottle one your clean and sterilise it again.
Posted: Tuesday Sep 11, 2007 8:51 pm
by wambesi
scanman wrote:Can't say what Most people do, but I use the PET bottles, because Ginger beer has the habit of getting extremely carbonated, so may explode in glass.
And yes you can reuse PET bottles, same as you can reuse any bottle one your clean and sterilise it again.
Second this one, I only use PET bottles now after I had two bottles of a "experimental" GB exploded on me.
Have reused my coopers PET bottle many times, not sure if the light thing would affect the GB but as long as stored in darker areas should be fine, and the coopers bottles are pretty cheap (buy them when on special for $11).
Posted: Tuesday Sep 11, 2007 8:53 pm
by Kevnlis
Rule of thumb with GB. Age the ginger for at least a month, ferment the ginger for at least a month, age in bottle for at least 2 months, the product will be a different world to the GB you make any other way!
Posted: Tuesday Sep 11, 2007 8:53 pm
by scanman
Best place I found to store the coopers PET bottles is back in their original boxes. They take up little room and you can stash the boxes almost anywhere. About 2 boxes does the standard 23 litre brew of ginger or apple cider.
Posted: Tuesday Sep 11, 2007 9:35 pm
by stinger400
Thanks guys for your responses. The only thing I need to work out now is which rrecipe I want to go with.
Thanks again.
Posted: Tuesday Sep 11, 2007 9:51 pm
by buscador
bottled my first ginger beer with old CUB longies from coworker, thick glass gives it that extra weight and GB feel!
b
Posted: Wednesday Sep 12, 2007 5:48 am
by scanman
stinger400 wrote:Thanks guys for your responses. The only thing I need to work out now is which rrecipe I want to go with.
Thanks again.
Do a search on here. Dragon and the Doc have put some excellent recipes on here for ginger beer. I am waiting the month for mine to mature in the bottle, so I can't say how good they are, but they look tasty thats for sure.
Posted: Wednesday Sep 12, 2007 9:24 am
by Noodles
scanman wrote:Best place I found to store the coopers PET bottles is back in their original boxes.
Also, for all the Dads out there, empty nappy boxes are good to keep PET bottles in (or Bundaberg Ginger Beer bottles). We buy Safeway Select nappies and they fit 11 Coopers PET bottles in each box.
Posted: Wednesday Sep 12, 2007 11:51 am
by drsmurto
I have to agree with Kevnlis on this one - age the ginger first, i tend to allow it to ferment out for a month.
I bottle in glass and havent had an explosion yet, beer or GB. If you check gravity and bottle when its stable then with something like GB which has only simple sugars you wont get a build up of pressure. I have a few dozen bottles of GB left over from last summer.
I liek a fizzy GB so i prime high (220g of dex in 23L) and still dont get bottle bombs.
Ditch the cans. Wildschwein posted a nice and easy to follow recipe on making GB the old fashioned way from a ginger plant. Or my method which is simply boiling up ginger, sugar and spices.
Cheers
DrSmurto
Posted: Wednesday Sep 12, 2007 3:48 pm
by Chris
You don't need to bottle ginger beer in brown bottles. The UV reaction that you are trying to avoid is a reaction between hop elements and light. So unless you have a hopped ginger beer (I highly recommend trying one too), then clear bottles are fine.