PET bottles

[Tricky Micky]

20 hours ago, Coopers DIY Beer Team said:

On 6/23/2021 at 1:46 PM, CLASSIC said:

Well for what it's worth I remove the bottom ring when re-bottling which allows you to screw the cap down nice & tight, if it is a brand new cap going on a bottle with the ring already removed that's different. I have never had a problem as the used cap ring on the bottom serves no purpose. 

I agree Classic. The tamper-evident collar serves no purpose, unless the caps are being used on a commercial product intended for sale. Given that the collar has to be removed when the cap is eventually replaced and the process of cutting it off is fraught for someone as clumsy as me, I remove the collars before I use the caps for the first time.  

Hey Coopers Team, 

can you advise the what would be the best way to remove the collars from the caps? TIA.

Mick

[Classic Brewing Co]

19 minutes ago, Mickep said:

I have been contacted by Coopers DIY Beer Team Admin asking for the return of the two 740ml PET bottles which may have issues regarding the cap and the its ability to tighten fully on the screw top of the bottle. Clearly they monitor our threads closely so thanks Coopers Admin Team. They've kindly offered to replace the faulty bottles and it does sound like they're interested in having a look at the issue.

Thought I'd let you guys and gal's know.

Cheers Mick

That sounds like a fair deal Mick. 

[Pickles Jones]

1 hour ago, Mickep said:

Hey Coopers Team, 

can you advise the what would be the best way to remove the collars from the caps? TIA.

Mick

I settled on a little pair of side cutters to remove them from the neck of the bottle when they have separated from the cap.

 

[Classic Brewing Co]

14 minutes ago, Pickles Jones said:

I settled on a little pair of side cutters to remove them from the neck of the bottle when they have separated from the cap.

 

@Mickep I just use a pair of Kitchen Scissors, these have serrated edges which just cut through, easy.

[Tricky Micky]

24 minutes ago, Pickles Jones said:

2 hours ago, Mickep said:

Hey Coopers Team, 

can you advise the what would be the best way to remove the collars from the caps? TIA.

Mick

I settled on a little pair of side cutters to remove them from the neck of the bottle when they have separated from the cap.

 

I'm tipping I could remove the collar before screwing the new cap on as the Coopers Team advised using this sort of method or Classics .

[Coopers DIY Beer Team]

2 hours ago, Mickep said:

Hey Coopers Team, 

can you advise the what would be the best way to remove the collars from the caps? TIA.

Mick

Grab the collar with a pair of blunt nose pliers, give it a twist and the collar comes off very easily. 

[Tricky Micky]

19 hours ago, Coopers DIY Beer Team said:

Grab the collar with a pair of blunt nose pliers, give it a twist and the collar comes off very easily. 

Cheers- and this works the same for a new cap which hasn't been placed on the bottle yet? As advised in an earlier post.

[Coopers DIY Beer Team]

Correct.

 

[Tricky Micky]

Well my PET bottle plot thickens.  Just bottled my latest brew and have discovered many more of the bottle/cap problems. I'd recently purchased a few boxes of bottles and caps from Big W and had never had the problem before now so I'm thinking the issue could be with this latest product.

All my batches prior to these last two have not had issues. Before this the under collar of the cap when on the bottle was always able to spin and had at least a few ml's of wriggle room between the top part of the cap when the cap was fully tightened. 

Unfortunately I have mixed the bottles and the caps in with the previous purchases so I have no way of knowing which are the culprits.

I guess the take away from all of this is  to cut the under collar of the cap away before bottling with a new cap. Which I will do from now on.

I still can't figure out whether the cap collar moulding is at fault or if the mould around the bottle neck may play a part.

[Barramullafella]

7 minutes ago, Mickep said:

Well my PET bottle plot thickens.  Just bottled my latest brew and have discovered many more of the bottle/cap problems. I'd recently purchased a few boxes of bottles and caps from Big W and had never had the problem before now so I'm thinking the issue could be with this latest product.

All my batches prior to these last two have not had issues. Before this the under collar of the cap when on the bottle was always able to spin and had at least a few ml's of wriggle room between the top part of the cap when the cap was fully tightened. 

Unfortunately I have mixed the bottles and the caps in with the previous purchases so I have no way of knowing which are the culprits.

I guess the take away from all of this is  to cut the under collar of the cap away before bottling with a new cap. Which I will do from now on.

I still can't figure out whether the cap collar moulding is at fault or if the mould around the bottle neck may play a part.

Firstly, I use dog nail clippers to remove hassle cap rings. Pet shop will have some I'd guess. 

Good luck with the bottle issue.

[Classic Brewing Co]

1 minute ago, Barramullafella said:

Firstly, I use dog nail clippers to remove hassle cap rings. Pet shop will have some I'd guess. 

Good luck with the bottle issue.

I hope you sanitise them first @Barramullafella otherwise your dog might pick up the scent & start woofing your beer 

[Cee]

Homebrewers are also amazing homeCSI-ers, it seems

What a fascinating thread!

Kudos to Coopers for the response

[Spursman]

I just ease the ring up over the first retaining lip with a flat head screw driver and lift it off. That said I now remove the ring from new tops before using.

Either way is much safer than my previous MO of using a kitchen knife to slice through the ring. Four stitches in my left hand was bad enough but the disdainful look on the face of the House CEO was pretty chilling. 

[Journeyman]

On 6/30/2021 at 12:30 PM, Pickles Jones said:

I settled on a little pair of side cutters to remove them from the neck of the bottle when they have separated from the cap.

 

These are what I used when I had the PETs. 

[Barramullafella]

Thought I'd heard a popping sound during my sleep last night and got up to investigate if a bottle or sumfin had rolled off counter in kitchen. Nuffin there and then as brain got to about 70% awake mode, I thort I'd better check the stock. There it was, a PET with the ass blown out of it. Weird as I only prime with round tspn sugar [6gm]. 

 

[ozdevil]

6 minutes ago, Barramullafella said:

Thought I'd heard a popping sound during my sleep last night and got up to investigate if a bottle or sumfin had rolled off counter in kitchen. Nuffin there and then as brain got to about 70% awake mode, I thort I'd better check the stock. There it was, a PET with the ass blown out of it. Weird as I only prime with round tspn sugar [6gm]. 

 

it goes to show the pet  bottles  are destructble  and can become bottle bombs

and sorry for your loss though mate

it may not have been the priming sugar you used to carb with  it may have not fermented out and was still fermenting with in the bottle and the add extra sugar didnt help it
 

[Classic Brewing Co]

13 minutes ago, Barramullafella said:

Thought I'd heard a popping sound during my sleep last night and got up to investigate if a bottle or sumfin had rolled off counter in kitchen. Nuffin there and then as brain got to about 70% awake mode, I thort I'd better check the stock. There it was, a PET with the ass blown out of it. Weird as I only prime with round tspn sugar [6gm]. 

Whoops !! I have never had that happen but seen it at other blokes places but temperature does play a role, I believe your are in the tropics ? My mate had some blow in the spare bedroom & SWMBO ordered him to move his stupid, alcoholic hobby in to the shed.

I told him that is going to be worse especially with glass but I lost contact over the years so don't know the outcome.

Below are Quotes from Mr Google.

The plastic pop bottle is made of PET, an old and strong plastic. A PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottle can withstand 150 PSI depending on the temperature. They *can* blow at 50 PSI or less. Be aware of this! Never go near a pressurized bottle.

 

 

[Spursman]

2 hours ago, Barramullafella said:

Thought I'd heard a popping sound during my sleep last night and got up to investigate if a bottle or sumfin had rolled off counter in kitchen. Nuffin there and then as brain got to about 70% awake mode, I thort I'd better check the stock. There it was, a PET with the ass blown out of it. Weird as I only prime with round tspn sugar [6gm]. 

 

Whoa! Never seen that before.  Hope the rest are okay mate.

[Barramullafella]

It was the one - so far - but I shall drinking them quickly now lol. I am puting it down to an old bottle may be around 10+ years and had a defect which matured over time. I bottled this brew at 1.005 so I am doubting the ferment had not finished. Young brew too of 1.7 OS draught + 1/2kg BE3 + 750 gm of wheat/malt extract bottled on 23/9/21.

[Classic Brewing Co]

12 minutes ago, Barramullafella said:

It was the one - so far - but I shall drinking them quickly now lol. I am puting it down to an old bottle may be around 10+ years and had a defect which matured over time. I bottled this brew at 1.005 so I am doubting the ferment had not finished. Young brew too of 1.7 OS draught + 1/2kg BE3 + 750 gm of wheat/malt extract bottled on 23/9/21.

I am thinking if you get anymore bombs maybe fridge them ? 

[Panther Branch Brewing]

On 6/23/2021 at 3:38 AM, ozdevil said:

you all know 

if you guys kegged  

ya wouldn't have to worry about  bottle caps  or soft pet bottles 

or cross threading the threads on pet plastic

Maybe, but, I don't have to worry about...

Faulty o-rings, faulty regulators, faulty taps, faulty gauges, faulty valves, running out of CO2 when I can't get more for a couple days,  bad keg seals, leaking hoses, dead kegerator (bottles fit in the household fridge a lot easier than kegs do).

I've never once had a beer fail to dispense from a bottle. Never.

[Barramullafella]

3 hours ago, Panther Branch Brewing said:

Maybe, but, I don't have to worry about...

Faulty o-rings, faulty regulators, faulty taps, faulty gauges, faulty valves, running out of CO2 when I can't get more for a couple days,  bad keg seals, leaking hoses, dead kegerator (bottles fit in the household fridge a lot easier than kegs do).

I've never once had a beer fail to dispense from a bottle. Never.

Hmmm and I was thinking maybe keg beer is the way to go lol.

[Classic Brewing Co]

1 hour ago, Barramullafella said:

Hmmm and I was thinking maybe keg beer is the way to go lol.

Ha Ha well it probably is the way to go, but first one has to gain the knowledge ( how hard could it be ? )

You have to have the space, a lot more equipment to start kegging, not to mention a suitable fridge/freezer to house the kegs.

Then there is the cost, so it is a fairly big move for the average extract brewer.

I priced a kegerator earlier in the year & damn near went with it then I looked at the other options such as converting an old fridge with taps etc but it worked out about the same price. Since then I have been gifted another working fridge, a lot newer than the older one I could have converted, so here we are months later & I am still bottling.

There are lots of advantages to kegging & all of you experienced kegger's show us lot's of nice photos, beers etc but I am still undecided so for the moment I am working with bottles. I am happy with my beers so for the moment I will just carry on.

 

[Malter White]

6 hours ago, Panther Branch Brewing said:

Maybe, but, I don't have to worry about...

Faulty o-rings, faulty regulators, faulty taps, faulty gauges, faulty valves, running out of CO2 when I can't get more for a couple days,  bad keg seals, leaking hoses, dead kegerator (bottles fit in the household fridge a lot easier than kegs do).

I've never once had a beer fail to dispense from a bottle. Never.

I have to admit I have a small amount of kegging envy because it'd be pretty cool to have kegged beer at home but for the reasons you've mentioned above, Panther, and a few others I've happily plodded along with bottles. Maybe one day but bottles are still OK with me.

[Aussiekraut]

1 hour ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

Ha Ha well it probably is the way to go, but first one has to gain the knowledge ( how hard could it be ? )

You have to have the space, a lot more equipment to start kegging, not to mention a suitable fridge/freezer to house the kegs.

Then there is the cost, so it is a fairly big move for the average extract brewer.

I priced a kegerator earlier in the year & damn near went with it then I looked at the other options such as converting an old fridge with taps etc but it worked out about the same price. Since then I have been gifted another working fridge, a lot newer than the older one I could have converted, so here we are months later & I am still bottling.

There are lots of advantages to kegging & all of you experienced kegger's show us lot's of nice photos, beers etc but I am still undecided so for the moment I am working with bottles. I am happy with my beers so for the moment I will just carry on.

 

There is nothing wrong with bottling and the beer is just as good but kegging is helluva lot less work. I fill a keg with an SP solution and let it sit overnight. Then blow some of the liquid out of it with the aid of a little gas to a level where my back allows me to lift the keg up and empty it manually. Give her a bit of a rinse, then in goes 3l of StellarSan, a good shake and again, blow the solution out into a container for re-use, that way you also sanitise the dip tube, pour the beer into the keg, in the fridge and connect it to either gas up slowly over the course of a week or hit it hard overnight and the next day I can drink the beer, although it does take about a week for it to mature a tad. Work all up is less than an hour.

Bottling on the other hand involved getting the bottles ready, soak them in SP for a couple of hours, rinse them, drip dry them, then sanitise each and every one of them, fill and cap them individually, label them, pack them away and then wait about a week for them to be carbed up enough to get a sneak preview. When I used to bottle, I'd start at 9am and have the bottles filled by about 1-1:30pm.

My main reason for going keg was simply the ease of use and whilst it does have some downsides of course, first and foremost the cost, but there are cheaper ways to achieve the same. A big 2nd hand chest freezer that holds 5 or 6 kegs, a couple of pluto guns and a decent sized gas bottle will do the trick. A small gas bottle as a spare might be an idea in case you run out of gas. A few second hand kegs and you might get away with a workable solution for 600 bucks, including a few kegs. If you go the whole hog, it'll cost you a fair bit more. My initial Kegerator setup with 3 kegs cost me about $1200 plus shipping, then 3 more kegs, a bigger gas bottle as I should have bought to start with, a 4 port gas manifold, inline regulators, lots of bits and pieces added quite another few hundred bucks and I have 2 more kegs on order. All up, I spent in excess of $2000. That's a fair bit of money to spend on a drinks dispensing system. But coming home, walking up to the Kegerator, pour a beer and be happy is just so good  

I'm planning on an el cheapo solution for the father in law for xmas. An old fridge, a party regulator for soda stream bottles and a pluto gun to pour. That'll cost about $250 including a new keg. And the whole thing is portable...well, minus the fridge of course. Bottles are even more portable though