Bottling beer in mason jars?

[Schmittsgaybeer]

Has anyone ever tried this? will it work?

 

[unionrdr]

Canning jars are designed to hold a partial vacuum in the small head space. not designed to do the opposite & hold co2 pressure.

 

[GrogNerd]

not to replace bottles, as unionrdr says, but you could probably get away with canning wort to use for krausening

 

[SteveM]

Bottles are cheap - they come free with beer. Why risk it?

 

[wilserbrewer]

NOT ADVISABLE, but I have heard it works...FWIW.

Bottles are less prone to failure in several ways.

 

[amfukuda]

You have to boil Masson jars to get the air tight seal I don't think your beer would appreciate that

 

[ong]

Yeah, a) you'd be relying on the rings to hold the lids in place, which isn't what they're designed for; and b) you're setting yourself up for bottle bombs. Well, ok, JAR bombs, but I wouldn't think those are any more pleasant. Plus the clear glass is harder to find when it's embedded in your walls, ceiling, and carpet.

 

[Loftearmen]

I tried it. It didn't work. The gas can escape from the space between the lid and the ring when the pressure builds up so they can't carb properly. If you are trying to save money you can bottle them in used pet bottles. They sell generic 2 liters at wally world for 69¢ and you would need 10 of them to bottle 5 gallons of beer

 

[MistaCitra]

What about temporarily using them as a vessel to share your kegged beer? Has anyone ever tried this method?

 

[S-Met]

Yes, but not with cannin lid and ring. You need a solid cap. Might be able to get away with press-n-seal under a ring/cap if you are drinking within a couple hours.

 

[MistaCitra]

I guess we will see what happens...16oz. jars are full and capped with ring and regular metal lid... Time will tell with this experiment. They will be sitting in the fridge for about 10hrs or so.

 

[mmb]

The rings are designed to let pressure out as something building pressure in a canning jar means an infected jar.

It you're pressure canning still wort for feeding or krausening then that's a different story. It's a difference between compressive pressure and expansive force. A vessel can be designed for one or the other but is rarely designed to accommodate both and internal force out and an external force in.

 

[MistaCitra]

Let the force be with you!...or me.. I'll let you know how the test turns out and if my beer is flat when I get home.

 

[MaxStout]

What would be the advantage of packaging beer in Mason jars, versus using bottles, which are cheap, plentiful, come in many sizes and are designed specifically for the purpose? I don't get the attraction, aside from a mere curiosity, to see "if it can be done."

 

[MistaCitra]

it's for a 'in-a-pinch' scenario and also curiosity. I wouldn't say buying beer bottles is cheap and if you brew your own beer like I do purchasing beer doesn't happen often so that just blows the idea of using 'used' beer bottles out the window. For me it would make sense from a cost effective approach. Mason jars are super easy to clean and I have a ton of them from storing vegetables. The only thing that I can see being an issue is the expansive forces pushing on the thin metal lid causing it to buckle BUT you are distributing clamping force all the way around the circumference of the metal lid which in theory supports it. As for the jar design they are fairly robust I have froze liquids in these jars before granted there WAS some head space though you still have side pressure.

What would be the maximum amount of pressure a beer would expel in the confines of a bottle? Does anyone have an estimated amount?

 

[bleme]

For sharing beer from a keg, a 2-liter bottle works great. You can also naturally carb in them, for force carb with a carb cap. I know 2-liters can hold 40 psi with no problem.

For free bottles, I went to a local sushi restaurant and talked to the owner. He had me come by right after closing on Friday night to get the night's bottles. I usually got about 5 gallons worth per Friday. I now have a garage full of bottles that I don't even use. You are welcome to them!

 

[cegan09]

The force on a bottle cap is significantly smaller than the mason jar lid. Because pressure affects an area. (PSI=lbs per square inch). Some rough math because I don't have anything in front of me to measure.

Assume the pressure in the container is 12psi. I'm basing that purely off the pressure I put into a keg. I'm sure various beers change that pressure in bottles (regular bottles are rated to about 45psi btw)

Bottle cap is roughly 1in across, so area of the cap inside the bottle is roughly .785in^2 (area=pi*radius^2)
This gives you 9.4lbs of force on the bottle cap (12psi*.785in^2)

Mason jar, roughly 3in across? so the area of that lid is 7in^2
Force here would be 84lbs.

You can see the difference here. Same beer, same pressure, hugely different force on the lid. I'm guessing the mason jar will just release pressure until it is down to a level it can hold. I knwo they'll hold a little pressure, because I've thrown yeast starter into mason jars a touch early, and they held onto some of it, but most just leaked until it was at that acceptable level.

 

[mmb]

Let the force be with you!...or me.. I'll let you know how the test turns out and if my beer is flat when I get home.

Cold liquid will hold its pressure better than warm. A better test would be outside the fridge.

 

[MistaCitra]

Cold liquid will hold its pressure better than warm. A better test would be outside the fridge.

I concur with your statement that it would be a better test but beer is gold! They did hold pressure in the fridge and there was not any visible signs of lid failure. I did not notice a big difference by taste though a much better approach would be brazing a pressure gage and fitting onto the lid and applying co2 pressure while monitoring over time...maybe with a few slurpy's i'll get the gumption...or not.