Mason Jars
Is there any update on this? I plan on bottling an american ale in some of these (32oz small mouth)
We haven't heard from the good DRG since last Feb.
Might try sending an email.
In general, canning jars are designed to hold a vacuum, not pressure.
Might think about going to 22oz bottles, better chance of success.
Just my .02.
Good Luck, and if it does work, let us know.
I've got several boxes of small mouth 32oz canning jars.
I'm no beer brewing pro but I've been doing it for a few years now and have had some great success and a few great failures. I also like to share my creations with my friends but they however don't always remember to not throw out the bottles. So instead of paying for case after case of new bottles which can be $30 I have bottled a few batches in mason jars which i can pick up at the hardware store for $10! It took a few failures to work out some of the bug and this is what I've got so far:
1. the thin metal lids tend to buckle under the pressure and can cause a leaky seal so I have been using two lids stacked for some extra strength.
3. with the increasing pressure it is a good idea to re-tighten the lids everyday.
4. I have also found that using an oil filter wrench (preferably not the one used on the car) is a good way to open the lids after all that tightening and pressure has built up.
Hope this is of some help
I bottle using 1 litre PET plastic bottles. They cost about $1.50 each in cases of 8 and are reusable with proper cleaning and sanitization. You can buy them and extra bottle caps online at the Mr. Beer website and they can hold carbonation levels for over a year.
Screwy Brewer
This may be a stupid question but would it help if i soaked the caps in hot water first to help get a better seal?
trekker15 wrote:
This may be a stupid question but would it help if i soaked the caps in hot water first to help get a better seal?
Never done it before but someone else mentioned that the lids are meant to hold in a vaccume and carbonation is just the opposite. Another poster did say it worked but he had to tighten the lids down daily. Doesn't seem like it'd be worth all the work and possibly get flat beer.
DC
Greetings!
This is the only topic I have ever searched for in the brewing world to date. CAN YOU USE MASON JARS?! Seems most posts were doom and gloom, not designed to hold pressure, same old same old...
Well! I found ONE SINGLE POST with a fellow on another site saying he had used mason jars since day one, and he had no problem!
My last batch, I said to heck with it, and bottled it all on Oct 12th in mason jars. I used a mixture of 1L and 500ml jars, 2 piece standard snap lids. Racked the beer, snugged the lids once, and checked them again the next day to make sure they were all seated... and just checked in on them every now and again.
They worked. Perfectly.
Now I have beer, already in a cup, and I can actually fit my fingers in it to clean it quickly after I drink it.
Sediment has not been a problem for me, it sticks around the bottom if you don't go crazy and shake it around. I'm getting new snap lids for next batch... Just like making JAM! Hah.
I did indeed wash all equipment with warm water, that may
This is kind of an old thread, but I thought I would throw in my 2 cents worth. I am kind of new at home brewing, and my last batch, which was only my third batch, and my first all grain batch, was a Northern English Mild. When I took my FG reading and took a taste, it was very astringent. So I thought, "Crap, I must have screwed this one up and got astringency from the grain hulls". I didn't want to go through all the work of bottling it if it was not going to be drinkable and I would have ended up dumping it so I thought I would put it in Mason jars. Easier to dump if I had to. So I cleaned up a bunch of canning jars and "bottled" it in them.
When I was done, I tasted it again, and it was all malty, chocolatey goodness. Not sure what happened between the time I took the FG reading and I jarred it, but to make a long story short, it worked great. With the exception of two wide mouth jars. The pressure from the carbonation kinks the lids and the beer ended up a little flat. Still tasted good, just a little flat.
Not too concerned with the jars being clear, It sits in the back of the basement where it is dark, or in the fridge.
Use new lids and tighten them down good and tight and it works great. The only problem I have now is I am down to just the 2 quart jars left.
"But Honey, I only had one beer"
This doesn't seem worth it. Have you guys ever noticed that EVERY 'beer' they bottle in clear bottles are lime flavored or suggest putting a lime in them? Thats to disguise the spoiled taste. Light will ruin a beer in about an hour, maybe a little more. While yes, some of us have the luxory of being able to keep the mason jars untouched in a dark cellar for as long as you need many of us, like myself are cramped for space. When I brew its an ordeal. Basically what I'm saying is if your beer is going to be exposed to light, ever, than just don't do it. Not to mention most people who have tried right in this thread said they lost multiple jars each time, what that says to me is the other ones had the potential to go bad too and just got lucky. Yes bottling is the biggest pain in the ass, but there is a reason its been done this way for oh I don't know, over a century.
I don't think anyone is saying that putting beer in mason jars is an alternative to bottling, but in a pinch, it will work. Amber glass is obviously better than clear, but even if you don't have a dark spot in the back of a basement, a cardboard box is a cheap solution.
I just picked up 24 old 2 quart picnic bottles off of Craigslist. They are clear glass, but I am going to use them anyway. So I can bottle 12 gallons of beer in 24 bottles. If I am brewing for a party where I know we will be going through a lot of beer, it is a lot easier to do 24 bottles than 120. Or 12 instead of 60. If it is going to be consumed fairly soon, I don't think clear glass will hurt anything as long as you use a little common sense.
I have had quite a few Coronas over the years, and have never had a skunky one. With or without a wedge of lime, lemon or orange. Sometimes a little citrus in the beer just tastes good.
you just think you never had a skunky Carona. Caronas are all skunked, so you never have one that tastes different. They even skunk the beer they put in cans, using uv lights before canning. They want it to taste that way. This is what Ive heard anyway. Still tastes darn good when the weather's hot.
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