Green, brown or white, long-neck, stubby, returnable, not returnable, twist-off or not, champagne, glass or plastic, capable or swing-top. There you have it. Are these variables worth considering, and will they affect the character of your beer?
Your choices will be brown, green or white (clear). Brown bottles are the only type of bottle that offers any reasonable amount of protection from damaging strong light. When beer is allowed to sit in direct sunlight, a photochemical reaction takes place among the bitter-flavored hop molecules. It happens in less than a minute, and it smells and tastes like a skunk (polecat) smells. It isn’t toxic, but it does detract from the flavor, for most people. Commercial brewers cannot control how their beer is handled, and if it sits on a store shelf among the artificial lights for extended periods of time, the beer will become affected. Green bottles and clear bottles do not afford any protection whatsoever against damaging light.
As a homebrewer, you have the choice of relaxing, not worrying and having skunk-free homebrew—from any colored glass bottle. There is no reason to even think about getting paranoid during the bottling process. Artificial light takes days and sometimes weeks to have an effect, if any at all. From your carboy into your bottles and into closed boxes in the quiet of your basement, storeroom, garage or domestic cave, you’ve got complete control from bottle to glass. Don’t hesitate to use whatever is convenient in terms of colored glass. Only if you plan on entering your beer into competitions should you consider bottling exclusively in brown bottles.
With proper batch priming, virtually any kind of bottle that has already had beer in it is fair pickings for recycling with homebrew. It is possible to use twist-off glass beer bottles, but one should seek twist-off-type caps to cap them. These special caps may not look much different, but they are thinner, and the more malleable metal is able to conform to the top of the bottle more easily. Regular caps work all right, though the occasional poor seal may result. The action of your bottlecapper will seal either cap to the extent that you probably won’t be able to twist off the cap of your homebrewed beer.
Certain types of champagne bottles are well suited for homebrewed beer. All champagne bottles are usable, but some of the more expensive types require a larger bottlecap than is readily available in America. You can always wire down a plastic champagne cork at considerably more expense than a bottlecap, but if you can afford that kind of champagne, then the expense shouldn’t matter.
A very convenient alternative for homebrewers is plastic PET bottles (the kind soft drinks are commonly packaged in). Commonly available in Canada, these bottles are “capped” with a reusable (a few times) plastic screw-on top, bypassing the need for a bottlecapper. The plastic is food-grade, light, easily sanitized, unbreakable and particularly well suited for traveling. Over time, oxygen will slowly permeate through the plastic into the beer, but one to three months at cool temperatures with homebrewed care seems to have very little effect on the stability of beer. Aged barley wines and doppelbocks would do better in glass.
There are many laws of this universe. One of them is Boyle’s Law, which has to do with the observation that gases will seek equilibrium in the environment they are capable of inhabiting. What this all means to a PET bottler (and to bottlecappers as well) is that though there is pressure in a bottle of beer and it seems that because of that outward pressure, no air would ingress into the beer, it doesn’t happen that way. Why? Because the outward pressure is created by only carbon dioxide gas. There is no oxygen gas inside the beer pushing outward; consequently, it’s as though the oxygen sees a void and thus it makes its way in, slowly. There is a very small amount of air ingress through the seal of a bottlecap as well.
But don’t worry.
Commonly referred to as “Grolsch-type” bottles, these wired porcelain swing-top beer bottles are a great convenience for homebrewers. The caps are outlawed in some states, including California, due to the detrimental effect porcelain has on the glass recycling kilns. The porcelain tops are being replaced with molded plastic, and happily, swing tops are still available.
Swing top bottles are particularly convenient while driving elephants through the deepest of jungles. During my research and over rougher parts of the trail I found that bottles could be sealed without spilling a drop. Warning: Don’t feed the elephants.
These bottles must be sanitized just as any beer bottle, with special care to assure that the gasket-seal is in good condition and sanitized as well. Removal and sanitation of the gasket is added insurance against contamination, though usually not necessary if the bottles are immersed in sanitizing solution for any length of time.
There are several types of bottlecaps available on the market. They all may be used for homebrewing with complete confidence. All are lined with a plastic material to help assure a proper seal. The lighter-gauged twist-off caps already discussed help assure better seals on twist-off bottles. There is one special type of cap worth considering called a Pure-Sealtm Cap. Its advanced inner liner creates a better seal against air ingress and also absorbs oxygen in the bottle. It is activated by moisture and best stored in a cool, dry environment. It seems especially perfect for those potentially old barley wines, strong ales and doppelbocks. Their cost is more than regular caps, but at least you have the choice.
The bottlecap was invented a mere 100 years ago. Closures such as the swing top and cork were most often used. Some commercially available traditional French and Belgian ales are still corked to this day. Wine corks and hand-operated “corkers” are available through most homebrew and winemaking supply stores. Corks can be sanitized to some degree in grain alcohol or high-proof vodka, though because of their porous nature, alien characters may develop in your beer. A musty, earthen, cellarlike character will often develop in corked beer. This may be desirable or undesirable depending on your personal preference. (I find it to add a wonderful and desirable complexity to strong ales.) A well-brewed, clean beer should not be otherwise drastically affected.
Because of pressure, corks should be wired down with bottle wires available at many home wine- and beermaking supply stores. Champagne bottles are best suited for corking. It is also helpful to drip hot melted wax on the crown of the cork, once inserted. This will help prevent the cork from drying out and losing its seal. For those beers you intend to age, you can still affix a bottlecap over the cork.
There are all manner of bottlecappers. Usually the more expensive they are, the more you are likely to enjoy the process of bottlecapping. Though more affordable than bench-style cappers, two-handed lever cappers are sometimes awkward to use and are prone to snapping the tops off of bottles, especially thin-walled bottles.
Hammercappers should be used as a last resort. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, good—you don’t need to know.
When choosing a good bench capper, you are investing in a lot of hassle-free bottling sessions and more time to enjoy your homebrew. Choose one that adjusts easily to all sizes of beer bottles and your standard champagne bottle. Though not as easy to find and in short supply, the antique models often found at flea markets are some of the best-designed cappers available. Keep your eye out for that perfect capper.