Wine in beer bottles?

[Greatcthulhu]

OK, so I make beer and TC, so I have lots of 500ml glass bottles and caps, but only a few wine bottles. I've just started making wine and was wondering if there was any practical reason why I shouldn't use beer bottles with crown caps to store it, or should I just go out and get more wine bottles? Cheers

[Geezah]

I usually use beer bottles for wine so I dont drink too much.
Once a bottle is open I have to see the end of it.... using beer bottles of variouse sizes helps keep that in tow.

Just remember to sanitise the caps ( some brewers overlook this)

[Greatcthulhu]

Ok cheers for that. I couldn't think of any reason why not, but wasn't sure. Saves me having to go wine bottle scrounging

[fatboylard]

If you use beer bottles to store wine the whole world will turn upside down, fish will crawl out of the oceans and run for seats in the local council, randy milkmen will no longer look for bored 1970's housewives and giraffes will suddenly become aware of how ridiculous they look with long necks and blotchy fur!

Pretty much what Geezah said really;
I do it all the time for storing wine, plus it means you don't have to actually buy overpriced or cheap and nasty stuff just to use the bottles, even now I'm doing 'quality control' on my elderflower champagne which is kept in reused brown glass cider bottles. It makes a nice serving size too, I'll get two large glasses out of a 500ml bottle which does me just right for a midweek tipple.

Another thing as well, I don't know if you've noticed but I find stripping most commercial wine bottles of their labels an absolute pig of a job - the adhesive they use is not designed to go without a fight!


Cheers,
Sam

[Greatcthulhu]

Ha,ha,ha. Personally, I think we may be better off if fish ran the local council, but that's another issue. Cheers for the replies. Looks like it's going in 500ml beer bottles then. It's not so bad at the moment as I've just got a couple of 6 bottle kits going to see what they're like (Californian Connoisseur- Zinfandel and Beaverdale- Rioja) and I have a few wine bottles and some waxed corks knocking about, but if I like the results, I'll move on to the 30 bottle kits and I don't want to have to add loads of wine bottles to my already large collection of beer bottles.

[fatbloke]

half the "mead world" use, or have used beer bottles for their meads. that way, you don't need to worry about sinking a whole 750ml in one go, if you're the only person who likes it. Or you just want to get it in bottles so you can drink a small one every now and again to monitor it's ageing.....

So why the hell not. If you gave some to someone who moaned about it being in a beer bottle, then f**k 'em. Take 'em off the crimbo card list and don't bother darkening their doorstep again!

[Dr. Dextrin]

For wines you'll drink quickly, it doesn't really matter what you store them in. Beer bottles are fine.

But for wines that'll improve for being kept a few years, especially reds, wine bottles with proper corks are a good idea. A minute amount of oxygen enters through the cork and helps with the maturation. Long term, wines mature differently depending on what they're stored in and corked wine bottles seem to have got all the variables just about right IME.