How To Bottle Beer

You've made the beer, and of course it is excellent. Now it's time to learn how to bottle beer, including selecting the bottles for your home brew beer, and bottle it. That sounds simple. Buy bottles, pour in beer, put on the cap, and store it. But there is more to it than that. Bottling is where you put your personality into the beer that you intend to serve to guests. The bottle says something about you and the beer. You both want to make a great impression.

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There are an abundance of choices of beer bottles for homebrew to protect and display your beer: growlers, P.E.T. bottles, crown tops, Belgian bottles. It can be confusing, so let's take a moment to become familiar with each variation.

Crown Top Bottles: These bottles are most familiar to those who buy commercial beer in bottles that require an opener to pry off the cap. There are not the twist-off tops that are prevalent today, although they look quite similar to the crown tops. These bottles, which come in blue, amber, and clear colors, can be procured in several sizes: 16 ounce, 22 ounce, and 32 ounce. If you choose to use these popular bottles, you'll need a bottle capper to secure the tops.
P.E.T. Bottles: These bottle are plastic (Polyethylene Terephthalate to be specific) inexpensive, and are purported not to affect the flavor of the contained beverage. They are topped with plastic screw caps. They are normally supplied in half-liter size. These bottles are normally treated as throwaways.
Growlers: These are special European-looking bottles that feature metal or plastic stein like handles. These containers add an exclusive high-end look to your home brew, but are considerably more expensive than the traditional bottles. These bottles are sealed with flip-top caps which add to the bottle's allure. The two-liter size is the most commonly used.
Flipper Bottles: These are similar to the Growlers described above in that they use a flip top cap. The container itself is a simple bottle, similar in shape to the traditional crown top bottle. They are available in blue, clear, and amber. (Experts recommend amber for better protection.) The two-liter size is most popular.
Specialty Bottles Belgian Style: Used by some home brewers to add an elegant European touch. These bottles look similar to crown top bottles, but cannot be sealed with crown tops. Belgian Beer Corks that fasten with hooded wires are required.
Depending upon which bottles you have decided to use to contain your delicious home brew, you'll need certain additional caps, labels, and devices to complete the bottling process.

Sealing crown-top bottles requires a good bottle capper, a device which holds the cap into position and crimps it around the bottle flange. Several cap designs are readily available. Plain caps for your own hand marking, preprinted caps to give your beer a professional commercial look, and a variety of bright colors. One series, called oxygen absorbing caps, removes oxygen from the bottle's headspace, protecting the beer from becoming stale through oxidization.

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If you are using flip-top bottles or Growlers, you will occasionally need to replace the rubber gasket that seals the flip-top to the bottle. Less often, the flip-top mechanism itself may require replacement.

Finally, to complete the professional polished look of your product, you'll want to add a label to your bottles for home brew, advertising the merits of your beer, the location of the home brewery, and the name of the master brewer. These labels are available in many different styles that can be printed on your laser or inkjet printer.

One final note on beer bottles for homebrew, unless you plan to throw away all of your used bottles, a crazy and expensive thought, you'll need a good bottle brush, a faucet mounted bottle blaster, and a drying tree to ensure that your bottles for home brew are clean as a whistle.