Bottles

All of these bottles are re-usable. The ones we use at HomeBrewWest are the Coopers Ox-Bar bottles; they are just so convenient.

Note: Coopers Ox-Bar bottle caps are reusable. The first time you open an Ox-Bar bottle, a seal cracks open just like many commercial PET bottles. This can give the impression that the caps are not reusable, but they are! This feature was designed for microbreweries.

When using Coopers Carbonation drops with 500 ml bottles, Coopers advise using just one drop per bottle. According to Coopers, this results in CO2 levels equivalent to commercial beers. When bottling with OxBar bottles, we sometimes put one drop in 20 bottles, and 2 drops in the other 20 bottles. Do not try this with glass bottles though, and the pressure may be higher than normal.

A key consideration is to ensure that the bottles are kept in a warm place (20 to 25 oC) for about 10 days in order to allow secondary fermentation to take place. If bottles are stored at lower temperature, it takes much longer for the beer to become carbonated.