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Champaign Bottles Good Alternative?
I'm in the processing of fermenting my first batch of home brew. I live in norther CA and there's a lot of wine/champaign up here. I got two cases of used (but clean) champaign bottles. Does anyone have any comments or cautons about using champaign bottles for home brew? Will the shape of the bottom of the bottle reduce the amount of sediment introduced to the glass when pouring?
I haven't had just one 12oz bottle of beer in a sitting since I was 14 so using champaign bottles seemed like a good idea and less tedious than 50 X 12oz bottles. I was a bit concernd about the green glass but since I have the cases, I think that I can adequately protect them from light.
Any thoughts?
Champagne bottles work great - just one caveat. There are two different sizes of champagne bottle lip sizes. Some bottles will take the regular bottle caps, some bottles need a slightly larger size bottle cap. My LHBS sells both sizes of crown caps, yours probably does too.
for the larger size caps you might need a bigger capping mechanism. some cappers have a replaceable housing that will accommodate the larger size caps.
or cork em! as mentioned earlier capping or corking may cost a bit more for the start up equipt, but the bottles are fine. Many belgians get bottled in champagnes due to the higher carbonation and thicker glass. You have the right idea about light sensitivity too.
All good advice so far about capping. I had some thoughts on the sediment in the glass part.
Its difficult to pour beer out of any large bottle and not get sediment, unless you pour the whole thing at once. By pouring one glassful, then putting the bottle down again, you slosh the surface of the beer back to the base of the bottle where you disturb the sediment some. The second pour inevitably has some sediment in it, or at least gets harder to pour cleanly.
The best way to avoid this is to pour the whole thing into a pitch or buy 1L beer steins/mugs. 12oz bottles are the best for this sediment issue. One clean pour from one bottle is the best for presentation.
Just thoughts.
Thanks folks. This is a great help. I esp like the idea of investing in a 1L stein! I'll do a dry run with the capper and see if I run into any issues.
Thanks again.
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