Ikea Bottles

[Ospreying]

Hi all

Just a quick question, sorry if its a repeat. Has anyone used the SLOM Ikea bottles for lager as im slightly worried the seal will go during second fermentation. I have 7 and will try a couple with my first batch ( yes complete newbie here ) if no one can give me an answer. I am fermenting a Coopers Canadian blonde kit for the record. I have only the placcy pet bottles otherwise and for some reason they just dont seem to fit the bill.

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/50108908

[MightyMouth]

they look like pretty standard swing tops so I dont see why the seals should be a problem, I would be more worried about them being clear.

[Ospreying]

they look like pretty standard swing tops so I dont see why the seals should be a problem, I would be more worried about them being clear.

Thanks for commenting MightyMouth,but why is that a problem? I see many commercial lagers in clear bottles. A friend has made that comment before, but no reason given. I assume the problem is unfiltered light, Is it for the second fermentation progress? Could I sleeve the bottles in some way? Also the 24 pet bottles I bought with my starter kit are much thinner and cleaner. Think ill have to start raiding bottle banks .

thanks

Osp

[arturobandini]

Hi Ospreying,

I've used similar style of bottles to these Slom Ikea ones before when decanting a cranberry gin for display in a restaurant. These tasted absolutely fine after months of exposure to sunlight. They were actually better but that was probably due to the prolonged steeping of the cranberries that were left in the bottles....

Anyway, as I'm sure critics of C.J.J Berry's attempts at writing beer recipes will tell you "Beer and Wine are totally different animals". If you expose your beers to sunlight whilst in clear bottles it can cause off flavours in your beer. The sunlight will react with the beer (the hops??) and create an effect known as "skunking" which will make your beer taste nasty. If you had no choice, and at the prices of those bottles you probably do, they would do if you kept them out of the light I would suppose.

[MightyMouth]

they look like pretty standard swing tops so I dont see why the seals should be a problem, I would be more worried about them being clear.

Thanks for commenting MightyMouth,but why is that a problem? I see many commercial lagers in clear bottles. A friend has made that comment before, but no reason given. I assume the problem is unfiltered light, Is it for the second fermentation progress? Could I sleeve the bottles in some way? Also the 24 pet bottles I bought with my starter kit are much thinner and cleaner. Think ill have to start raiding bottle banks .

thanks

Osp

As arturobandini said, light reacts with the hop extracts in beer and causes Light Strike or, as some call it, skunking. This is readily apparent in many commercial beers which use clear bottles. Most breweries who use clear bottles package the beer in boxes which prevent the light getting in but any prolonged exposure to light will ruin a beer. As your beer is not in a box at this point You could suffer from light strike if you don't cover them in some way or keep them in a dark place.

[chairmanmaw]

Hi all

Just a quick question, sorry if its a repeat. Has anyone used the SLOM Ikea bottles for lager as im slightly worried the seal will go during second fermentation. I have 7 and will try a couple with my first batch ( yes complete newbie here ) if no one can give me an answer. I am fermenting a Coopers Canadian blonde kit for the record. I have only the placcy pet bottles otherwise and for some reason they just dont seem to fit the bill.

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/50108908

Hello Opsreying,

I do indeed use the Ikea SLOM bottles as listed above. I bought 25 of them recently to bottle up my first brew. I have had no problems with them at all. I was a bit suspiscious of the sealing quality of them to begin with (bought 10 to start) but after bottling them up and storing them in the fridge, both vertically and horizontally, I have had no issues.

Im not aware of any other 1L bottles on the market. I looked in the Range, Homebase, Dunelm and a few independant shops and could only find 500M alternatives.

One word of warning; Make sure the rubber seal is on the bottles if you buy them. 1 of my bottles doesnt have a rubber seal. I will be rectifying this next time I go to ikea.

Hope this helps!

Maw

[chairmanmaw]

As arturobandini said, light reacts with the hop extracts in beer and causes Light Strike or, as some call it, skunking. This is readily apparent in many commercial beers which use clear bottles. Most breweries who use clear bottles package the beer in boxes which prevent the light getting in but any prolonged exposure to light will ruin a beer. As your beer is not in a box at this point You could suffer from light strike if you don't cover them in some way or keep them in a dark place.

Thanks for this information. I had no idea! I keep mine in the fridge, so shouldnt be a problem there

[adm]

As arturobandini said, light reacts with the hop extracts in beer and causes Light Strike or, as some call it, skunking. This is readily apparent in many commercial beers which use clear bottles. Most breweries who use clear bottles package the beer in boxes which prevent the light getting in but any prolonged exposure to light will ruin a beer. As your beer is not in a box at this point You could suffer from light strike if you don't cover them in some way or keep them in a dark place.

Thanks for this information. I had no idea! I keep mine in the fridge, so shouldnt be a problem there

How do you know the light goes out when you close the fridge door though ???

[chairmanmaw]

How do you know the light goes out when you close the fridge door though ???

I feel a paradox coming on here. Good thing I havent got a compulsive disorder. Best drink it all, in case

[Ospreying]

Thanks for your comments, as the area ive designated for my bottles is out of sun I will try the bottles I have and go from there ill let you know how I get on.

[richard_senior]

I use them too. They're perfect.
They're cheap, and they're a good size. I hate fannying about with 500ml bottles.

[Ospreying]

I bottled on Friday night and they are looking good

[b.all]

I use those ikea bottles in small quantities but i don't think they'd work that well for a heavily carbonated lager. after a few monthes conditioning i got out the last one of them which had been filled with wheat beer to discover virtually no fizz as the seal on them is certainly not perfect. if you do put beer in them then make sure you keep them in the dark or your beer will get light strike and taste fairly off. many breweries(particularly the big ones) now use isomerized hop extract rather than genuine hops. the isomerization flips a couple of groups in the alpha acids which cause skunking so that visible light is no longer of the right energy to cause the reaction to occur that would cause the light strike.

[chris_reboot]

I've used them for ale, and no prob's.
as someone else said, when buying, make sure some buggers not nicked the rubber seals!

[Garth]

Hi
I'm really good so listen

nothing like bigging yourself up eh?