Bottling To Growlers

[beerdrinker]

Hey,

I was wondering if anyone has tried naturally carbonating in growlers or bottling off the keg for long term storage?

I know in general the life of growlers are short, but this is often due to oxidation after first opening and poor sanitation if the growler has only been rinsed. I was thinking near the end of a keg or with small batches it might be nice to pull a few growlers full for storage. Serving off the keg is great for getting just a pint, but having some growlers stored would help save an old batch instead of having to tie up a keg. It would also keep a good stock to be able to have a few growlers on hand to bring when heading to a friends place for a few beers vs bottling a 6 pack.

Just looking to pull from the BN knowledge bank for some input.

Cheers!

[EL TIZZO]

I don't see why not. I do something similar with some 32 oz flip tops I have. You may want to purchase some new lids but as long as they held pressure I think it would work great.

Cheers

[mobrewer]

I have carbonated beer in screw-top growlers with no problems. The shelf life will be longer if you carb in the growler as the yeast will take up the oxygen. I wouldn't use a growler for long term storage for a beer out of the keg though. Even if you flush the growler with CO2 you're probably still getting a small amount of oxygen in there. Just remember to flush with CO2 and to cap on foam.

[peas_and_corn]

When I want to bottle in a growler for longer than a day I bottle like it's any other- bulk prime and fill from fermenter. If I were to fill the growler from the keg, it's only if I'm going to a party and want to bring some beer.

[beerdrinker]

Thanks for all the tips here!

For ease of bottling I might throw the batch into a keg and then us my growler filler to fill a few bottles/growlers and then throw in some corn sugar to carb it up.

That way I've got both my keg and growlers set.

I was also thinking about naturally carbing in the kegs, this might allow me to add the priming sugar to the keg, then fill a few growlers+bottles and then let the bottles and kegs sit to the side to carb up together. This would do double duty of filling the growlers and purging the keg of oxygen.

Cheers!

[Mylo]

I would NOT recommend naturally carbonating in glass growlers. Or any growlers, for that matter. If you fuck it up, you're going to have a BIG bottle bomb. If you don't fuck it up, you are going to have a yeasty mess on the bottom of the growler, that you (as matter of course) tip back and forth at least four times. That last pint is going to be heinous.

You can store properly carbed beer from your kegs in growlers for longer than you think. Besides the obvious sanitation - you'll want to:

1) purge with CO2 before filling
2) fill as high as possible
3) get the nice growler caps that have the plastic gasket in them. The shitty metal ones don't seal very well
4) keep it cold and stable. The more ups and downs your fridge does, the more potential to loose CO2.

A counter pressure filler will do the best job at minimizing O2 pickup while filling. I've stored beer in growlers like this for up to 3-4 months with no problem.


Mylo

[mobrewer]

I would NOT recommend naturally carbonating in glass growlers. Or any growlers, for that matter. If you fuck it up, you're going to have a BIG bottle bomb. If you don't fuck it up, you are going to have a yeasty mess on the bottom of the growler, that you (as matter of course) tip back and forth at least four times. That last pint is going to be heinous.

Mylo

Mylo- you made good points, like I mentioned cap on foam. Purging is necessary. I do it this way too. But the OP specifically asked about bottle conditioning in growlers. Although I no longer do that (I keg now) I used to bottle carb in growlers all the time. A friend of mine does it too and we both make award winning beer with no bottle bombs.