There are a lot of different bottles you can use to bottle your homebrew. We talk about some that are great to use and ones you should not use in this episode of BrewTalk with Mr. Beer.

I see this question get asked quite often by new brewers in our Facebook group or just in general.

There are obviously a ton of bottles out there that you can use but we wanted to break down some of our favorite ones to use and ones you should not sure when you go to bottle your homebrew.

Up first is our Mr. Beer 740mL and ½ liter PET bottles. These bottles are great for bottling your homebrew for a few reasons. One they are plastic so you can't drop them or have them shatter when bottling which can happen. Another reason I like these is you can also perform the squeeze test to see when they are fully carbonated. Once they are fully carbonated they will be rock hard.

Also, this is a good way to see if you have one or two bottles that are leakers that never carbonate. That is why it is always good to number your bottles so you can track down issues easier.

Next would have to be pry-off glass or swing-top bottles. These work great and are awesome for storing beer for long periods of time. They are easy to clean and they do a great job of preventing oxygen from getting in your beer. If you are going to be aging any beer for 5+ months I would suggest using these glass bottles.

Now, when using beer bottles make sure to only use swing top or pry-off bottles. The twist-off glass beer bottles or metal bottles for that matter will not hold the CO2 for your beer and you will get a flat beer so make sure to not use those.

You also want to be careful about using growlers, I know some people do, but they are not designed to hold that kind of pressure build-up that takes place during carbonate so we suggest to not use them.

Some other bottles that you can use are basically anything that has held a carbonated beverage, like soda bottles for example. Just make sure that you clean them out very well, and if they are clear, make sure you keep them out of sunlight.

For all the bottles that we listed any size will work, just make sure you adjust your priming sugar accordingly and you will be good to go!

Cheers,

Robert