Can I use ANY beer bottles for homebrewing?
A. A bottle capper is an inexpensive investment that allows you to use glass bottles, rather than plastic. While homebrew shops are eager to sell you bottles, you can reuse bottles from commercial beers. Unfortunately, twist-off caps make for one-time use bottles. You will have to use bottles that came with caps intended to be removed with bottle openers. The exception to this is the wide-mouth green bottles used for Mickey’s malt liquor, which are a totally different design that can be used for homebrew. The only bottle that’s a problem is Bass Ale bottles. The diameter of the tops of these bottles must be slightly smaller than standard bottles, because the caps do not perform well. After allowing time for carbing and conditioning in Bass Ale bottles, I opened my “homebrew” to find it was still flat. The cap had not sealed the bottle and carbonation never took place. The best option for reusing bottles comes from swing-top bottles. Perhaps most famous for delivering imported Grolsch b
