Can i carbonate in a growler

So after you bottle your beer you could end up with flat beer or beer with very little carbonation. Another reason is that growlers often have thinner glass than beer bottles. This can lead to bottle bombs. If you have a lid that will hold the pressure you could end up with your growler exploding.

Since growlers have thinner glass, they are not build to withstand the pressure that is created during the carbonation phase. Now it should be noted that we are talking about traditional screw-top growlers. That should get you up around 4 volumes of CO2, more than you'll need unless you are bottling something like a hefeweizen which I would definitely not do in a growler. Put it in a bucket with a lid and wait a couple of weeks.

See if it explodes. Even though that is more pressure than you are likely to need, you want some margin of safety in case one growler is weaker than another, or in case you bang them together. Again, I don't think this is a good idea. For one, they're not made to be used that way. For another, 64 oz is a pretty big commitment! You're better off with 22 oz bottles or even champagne type bottles.

If you try it, let us know what happens. I've carbonated and conditioned in flip top gasket sealed growlers before without any problems. Granted I have not done this very often so maybe I just got lucky. Quote from: tygo on August 15, , am. Search Advanced search….

New posts. Search forums. Log in. JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. Carbonating in a growler. Help Support Homebrew Talk:. Recently had more than 5 gallons of brew to carbonate. Put 5 gallons in a keg.

I didn't want to dump it. Wait 1 week and the beer in the growler is carbonated. Very nice drinking. Much easier than filling bottles approx 5 12 oz bottles. Kirkwooder Emperor of all things nobody cares about. I have done this several times. I find that the caps tend to be problematic. The seals seam to be a bit unreliable. Some carb nicely some don't.

Certainly better than dumping the beer though. I've done it before but wouldn't recommend it for safety reasons. Growlers aren't necessarily pressure tolerant enough to withstand bottle conditioning. Combining those two factors, you should be able to condition in a growler just fine without the fear of explosion. There are a handful of breweries that bottle beer in growlers for production so the integrity of the growler is fine for most carbonation applications.

Lastly, growlers and 12oz commercial beer bottles are typically thinner walled than the bottles we get for bottling homebrew. They are more prone to failure after a few applications.

So to reduce the growler bomb concern even more, I'd only use the growler a few times before retiring it to a life of yeast starters. It's hard to say since growlers can be made very strongly and more thinly for just carrying final product from a keg to several thirsty mouths. Most growlers with straight sides are not designed to hold the pressure of natural carbonation - especially if they have suffered some wear and shocks over time. I've had one explode on me with just beer in it, and others have had similar issues.

If you are prepared to contain a filled growler with a pan or bucket, or OK with clean up if the growler fails, you can find glass that is sturdy enough for bottle conditioning.

I would recommend against carbonating in growler. The thin walls are not designed for high pressure. If your beer didn't finish completely, you have an infection, or you accidentally use too much priming sugar that thing is going to explode.

And it may wait to explode until you pick it up, shooting glass in your arm, face, and dropping glass on your foot. I highly recommend kegging and then using the growler to transport your beer. No bottle washing neccessary and a lot safer! Plus, no sediment in your growler. If you dont have a kegerator, use priming sugar and use CO2 to just push the beer into your growlers or bottles.

Have you thought about using Magnum 1. They're built for the pressure and they have a punt in the bottom which may help with the sediments as well. I use growlers with Grolsch-style caps all the time and condition in them. I tend to shoot for a lighter carbonation usually, so I've never had any blow on me.

Besides, those kinds of caps will leak before they blow. Your carb level will be different than with 22s on the same batch, but it has never bothered me-- I've always found the growlers to take longer but to eventually have a tad more carbonation in the end.

Assuming that you are confident that the growler can handle the pressure as a growler i would suspect it is designed to hold pressure , there is noreason you couldn't naturally carbonare in the growler. I've done it a few times, but never a whole batch- maybe one if I have a bit more than a keg for example.

Of course there is the pressure issue others have mentioned, although I've never had that problem. The only problem I've had is the cap not forming a perfect seal, not allowing it to build up enough carbonation to pressurize it. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more.