Are Plastic Beer Bottles Better Then Glass?

When you start making beer at home you will learn that each piece of equipment in the brewing process is important, from the sanitation of the system as a whole, the quality of the beer package, and also the type of beer bottles you use. Plastic beer bottles are the most common method of dispensing the beer after brewing it, although there are also home beer kegs that can also be used in a home brewing process.

Bottling opinions

There are many different opinions as to which beer bottles are the best to use for your home beer brewing, but there is a consensus about this issue among home brewers. Most brewers find that plastic beer bottles are the best to use. The main reasons are:

- Glass beer bottles can break, and when there is still a bit of fermenting going on in the bottle, there are occasions when glass bottles can explode.

- Plastic beer bottles can be used over and over again with new caps and they are easy to clean and store.

- Plastic beer bottles are just like glass see through and when you drink your beer from a glass you do not get a plastic taste to the beer so that the flavor of the beer stays more pure to the recipe used.

Things to consider

The plastic beer bottles should be a dark color, the most commonly found on the market are normally a dark brown. Before you start bottling, the plastic beer bottles must be thoroughly washed and sanitized before you can use them and pour beer into them. You need a bottle push to use along with a bleach solution so that every inch of the bottle can be sanitized and scrubbed. It is very important to remove any bacteria that could contaminate the beer when bottled. You also need to make sure that there are enough bottles ready to use. In a good microbrewery kit there will be enough bottles included for one batch. But you better check before you start.

Plastic beer bottles also need to be capped.

There are plastic beer bottles that have screw caps, but most need a capping device. The best capping machines require the use of one hand and that is what you want because it allows you to hold onto the bottle while capping it, this makes it less awkward and much more secure. You can buy these bottle capping machines and bottle caps brew stores or ordered online for fairly inexpensive amounts of money. We advice the Cooper plastic beer bottles.

Other bottling options

You can also use beer kegs for home brewed beer, they are fairly inexpensive and there are some beer kits that contain a beer keg instead of plastic beer bottles including all of the ingredients and the tap. Two manufacturers of this type of microbreweries are MrBeer and the Beermachine. You can pour straight from the plastic beer keg that you have used to make the beer in. This does mean that you can not brew a new batch before you have emptied it. That is one reason we prefer plastic beer bottles.

About the Author: The author of this article, Peter Waterman, writes on his website HomeBeerMakers .com about his greatest hobby, making his own beer. Read his articles about the Mr Beer Brewmaster and other home brewing equipment.