Bottling

[Guest]

I was wondering, what do people use to bottle thier creations in? I noticed that most flavorings are to flavor about 750ml. My local brew shop carries 750ml burgandy bottles would these be okay? And you certainly wouldn't cap them like you would when making beer, so would using "tasting corks" be fine?

Jaxx

[Grayson_Stewart]

I use those bottles and the tasting corks. The tasting corks are sometimes call T-corks as well.

[Yttrium]

I use old wine bottles to store my liquer in, and a wine bottle cork cut in half makes for a cap. Of course the cork half can sometimes be a bit hard to open, so its like a mimi-sobriety test every time you want to open a bottle.

[knuklehead]

Is there something wrong with using all the old bottles you collected when you used to buy booze? Or if you have tossed those then get other less fortunate folks to collect them for you.

[MyDBear]

Well while some of the people are useing ( plastic boilers, plastic colums,and plastic every thing else) ya mazewell use fricking plastic milk jugs.

JUST KIDDING

[wineo]

I use wine bottles,whiskey bottles,vodka,gin,etc.I use wine corks on all of them.I box up my bottled booze,and put most of it up for more aging.I make way more than me and my buddies can drink,and so i do it this way.
I use those tasting corks after I open a bottle up,and on the bottles that I keep out for sampling.The wine corks are cheaper to use,and I have hundreds of them.I make alot of wine in the summer,and fall,and get most of the fruit for free.I get my bottles for free,from some bars,and snobby restarants.All you have to do is find someone that works at one of these places,and give them some wine,or beer,or booze every once in a while,and they will save them for you,as long as you pick them up on a regular basis.
wineo

[msrorysdad]

I use any bottle, maple syrup bottles olive oil, ect, corks and wax to seal. If it holds 500 ml, I use it. I flavor min on oak, or with fruits, ect... then I cut to taste, and bottle what I don't drink or give away, Reuse any bottle you can, they gotta go somewhere, look at them, they look so cute.

[pintoshine]

Some of the higher end bourbon, scotch, rum and tequila bottle now come with tasting corks. I pay a bar back at a private club that keeps these for me.
My favorite is the green Glenlivet Scotch, the Buffalo Trace and the Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select bottles.
Here are some pictures of my favorites.
http://www.theglenlivet.com/images/lda_bottles.jpg
http://corknbottle.com/_images/admin/pr ... uct109.jpg
http://www.shoppersvineyard.com/img/pro ... /17220.gif
http://www.buffalotrace.com/images/smbottleshad.jpg
http://www.loscabosguide.com/tequila/bo ... 984_r2.jpg
I have several of the Glenlivet, BT and WR bottles. I have not figured out how to remove the silk screening yet but it is just a matter of time.
Mineral Spirits works well on the Gummed labels and warm water on the pasted labels.

My advice is to make friends with a bar back and keep him happy. $20 will enhance his pay a lot and get you more bottles than you can use/store.

[wineo]

Pint,I used to be a silkscreener.I think that ink is uv cure.I havent tried any 190 on it,but if its uv epoxy its not comeing off with solvents.Acids may take it off,but will etch the glass.
wineo

[possum]

Have not tried it (I leave the labels on and tape on new ones) yet, but acetone takes apart lots of epoxies and other organics and glues (from personal experiences).

Rinse off the acetone (leaves a film after it dries/evaporates) with isopropal/propanol or methanol or ethanol.
Good Luck.

[Samogon]

I have been using used liquor and wine bottles that I have around also. The Buffalo Trace bottle is also one of my favorites - love the shape, reminiscent of a still - and comes with a nice cork.

However, while we're talking about cleaning bottles - I have had for some time a number of very nice gallon jugs that I would like to use if I could be sure that the inside was properly clean. One set I got from a university lab with autoclavable bakelite caps; I was told that these had held acids. The other set is dark brown glass and had held light sensitive photo developing chemicals. I've never used either, because I've never tracked down a trustworthy cleaning method that could be done at home. Any suggestions of something easy enough to be worth it? Strong caustics or acids? Obviously I want to be sure they are food-safe before use.

[stoker]

it could be usefull if you knew what was in it exactly.
HCl is nothing compared to HCN (though HCl is a much stronger acid)
I wouldn't feel comfortable drinking from a jug with unknown contence. even when it's not dangerous

[aj]

My local brewstore sells decent bottles on the cheap. If I'm making something really nice as a gift, I'll put a tasting cork on it and wax-seal it up.

[rangaz]

I work part time at a restaurant to pay my way through uni, so have an almost infinite supply of empty wine bottles. I then use tapered corks that I buy from the brew store to cap them

[birdwatcher]

For normal vodka storage I like ordinary 750 ml screw top wine bottles=clear for my raspberry liqueur.

In my liquor cabinet I like the large clear Beefeater 1.75 liter screwtop bottles and fancy screw top clear liquor bottles.

I can't be bothered with cork or cork substitutes.

Cheers,

G

[hans]

Birdwatcher, didnt i see a post for the recipe of your raspberry liqueor?I have been trying to find it. I have got about 10 gallons of blackberries froze from last year. hans

[birdwatcher]

Hi Hans,

You and I are searching for the same recipe. Go to search, punch in raspberry, author birdwatcher and this will bring up the discussion. Move your question to this forum. I would certainly like more input.

What I'm looking for are the subtle flavours i.e. herb/spices to add to the recipe. Specifically the liqueur Framboise, which I enjoyed while visiting France a few years back.

Few seem to be into this, so keep in touch. In a good year, we can have a good crop of blackberries in our area in central Ontario.

Cheers,

G

[Still_Crazy]

When I first started I bought a couple of half gallon jugs and a 1 gallon jug. Since I have decided no reason to buy
glass, period. I'm just a few minutes from a drop-off recycling center that takes everything from paper to scrap metal. I've been a few times and looked through their bins of clear, green, and brown glass. There's so much glass that you can be really picky when selecting your bottles and you should be because people DROP this into the huge bins and well often there will be a crack or chip. I inspect each bottle against the sky or sun for imperfections. The folks that operate the center are very friendly and even loan me their little extension gripper thing that lets me get farther into the bin. One of them even offered to climb in and get what I wanted. What a liability that would be huh ?

I have 5 or 6 nice Rossi wine gallon jugs now and a few 1.5L wine bottles. I buy corks (use just a few)
or the cheap metal lids that fit the gallon jugs.

To remove the label on used glass I use a good single side razor blade. I hate the gunky messy solvent crap you get when using acetone or whatever to remove the labels. I just scrape them dry and then use a little alcohol to clean off any remaining spots of goo.

On cleaning used glass such as this I use some hand sanitizer (5 pumps from the bottle) along with hot water and sand. I don't really care to own every bottle brush ever made so the sand seems to work ok, you just have to shake the holy piss out of it again and again. So, if a filter bed best filters it's own composition... then sand as an abrasive inside finished glass makes sense right?



Pints and half-pints come from the net wherever I can find them. I used to wash them by hand but this past weekend I loaded somebody's dish washer and ran them that way. I inspected each before bottling my oak... only found a couple that had something stuck inside and that was only because they had a couple of food plates and silverware in the same cycle.