kopparberg bottles any good????

[operon]

Like the title says, does anyone use them for bottling their beer. I can get a load of them and want to know if they can handle the job. I have a bench capper so capping should be ok.

[JonoT]

Hi,

I've used some kopparberg bottles. What I like about them is they are slightly shorter and fit into a milk crates and stack. I think my milk crates are for unpasterised milk and slightly taller

JonoT

[oz11]

I chucked all mine when I had one explode, I found they were very lightweight compared to magners bottles, for example. YMMV etc.

[Blackaddler]

Hi,

I've used some kopparberg bottles. What I like about them is they are slightly shorter and fit into a milk crates and stack. I think my milk crates are for unpasterised milk and slightly taller

JonoT

I use them as well.

I store most of mine in large ex-veggie polystyrene boxes, which take about 14 bottles.

[Blackaddler]

I chucked all mine when I had one explode, I found they were very lightweight compared to magners bottles, for example. YMMV etc.

I had a Magners bottle crack, when I was sanitizing it with boiling water recently. I don't think that they're as strong as they used to be.

Fortunately, I've never had a bottle of any sort explode.

[Belter]

Never had a problem with them. Only used them when just starting out though.

[oz11]

Fortunately it was contained in a plastic storage box, minute sticky slivers of glass everywhere. A pain to clear up and I chucked a couple of polypins out 'cos they were covered in the stuff. I've never tried boiling water in bottles, are they designed to take it..thermal shock an' all that?

[Belter]

Surely they HAVE to be as strong as they used to be. They take carbonated cider the same as they always have. Magners will be using them for the same purposes as we will except I imagine with more Vols of CO2.

[oz11]

A lot of modern bottles ARE different then they used to be..adnams, for example. Lightweight glass for "green" reasons. Very lightweight, not designed to be re used. I wouldn't risk them either, now.

[Belter]

if that's the case then fair enough. when does the glass decide it's time to not be as strong anymore?

[oz11]

Who knows? A slight flaw, hairline crack? The advantage a commercial brewery has with "brewery conditioned" beer is that they can accurately measure how much co2 to add, therefore how much pressure the bottle will need to withstand. A home brewer can estimate to a good extent, but there can always been some residual sugars in the bottle getting slowly fermented producing extra carbonation.

[lord groan]

Microscopic hairline scratches caused by general usage, will fatally flaw the glass, then if it's thin enough a bit too much pressure, or a seemingly innocuous bump at the wrong point on the surface will cause it to break. Just watch how glaziers cut sheet glass with a tiny scratch!

[Belter]

Interesting. Not something I've ever really thought about. There's always a risk of bottle bombs isn't there but I've never had one yet. Always worked out my volumes of CO2 from beersmith. I haven't been able to brew for ages due to my build and getting a kegging system. I have since ditched every single branded bottle and only have a stock of Brown standard bottles now.