| Using good, clean, safe bottles is an important part | | | | bottles. |
| of the home brewing process. Your beer may start | | | | - Should all be the same size. This is not a |
| out as a prize winning brew, but if the bottles are | | | | requirement but makes bottling easier when all the |
| not good, you can end up with an exploding sticky | | | | bottles and caps are the same size. |
| mess. When buying packing material, make sure you | | | | Even with these options, you still have a few |
| buy quality supplies for your brew. | | | | different choices in usable bottles; however availability |
| Bottles come in all shapes and sizes; here are some | | | | may become an issue. Check with your local |
| important suggestions when picking out bottles for | | | | microbrewers, you may be able to buy bottles from |
| your brew. | | | | them directly. The American brewing industry |
| - Your bottles should be the thick returnable type. | | | | continues to package beer in a variety of sizes, 7, 12, |
| The returnable type can withstand repeated uses. | | | | 16, 22 once and quart size returnable bottles. |
| Cheap throwaways will break easy. | | | | One option to speed up the packaging process is to |
| - Should be made of colored glass. Light will damage | | | | use larger bottles. The more beer the bottle can hold, |
| beer; tinted glass will protect the beer from light | | | | the fewer the bottles you need. For example an |
| damage. | | | | entire 5 gallon batch of beer, it would take 90 7 |
| - The opening should be the twist off kind. Bottled | | | | ounce bottles. If you use 22 ounce bottles it would |
| caps can't seal across the threads on twist off | | | | only take 30 of them. |
