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The Best Reusable Bottles For Homemade Soda

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Carbonation | Glass Bottles | Plastic Bottles | The Best Bottles | Our Picks

Making and bottling carbonated drinks at home has been done for years. When I was a kid, my mom made Ginger Beer and used glass beer bottles and crown caps. There was always a risk of the bottles cracking or breaking if the pressure inside became too high for the bottles. Kids were not allowed near the unopened soda bottles.

plastic bottles for carbonated drinks

To be safe, try using plastic bottles to store homemade carbonated drinks.

Thankfully we have bottle options that are much safer for both parents and children to handle.

What Is A Carbonated Drink

Carbonated drinks bubble when carbon dioxide gas dissolved in the beverage is released into the air. Carbonation (dissolved carbon dioxide gas) can occur naturally or artificially. Examples of carbonated drinks include Mineral Water, Sparkling Wine, Soft Drinks or Sodas, and Beer.

Commercial Beer and Soda makers, inject carefully measured carbon dioxide gas into the beverages. This means there is no risk of over carbonation and each bottle is safe to handle. Home brewers of Wine, Beer, and Sodas naturally carbonate beverages by using yeast and sugar in each bottle. This method is a less accurate method of carbonating your beverage. It requires practice to ensure you achieve just the right amount of bubbles. In the end though, whether commercially made or brewed at home the result is the same, a delicious bubbly drink.

Glass Bottles For Carbonated Drinks

Glass bottles are used for many types of carbonated beverages, and have been for hundreds of years. Glass bottles are reusable, great looking, easy to clean, and great for the environment. Many brewers of Sparkling Wine, Beer, and Soda use thick glass bottles which are strong and generally safe. It takes practice and experience for the home brewer to get the carbonation level just right.

Be aware, if bottles are over carbonated, they can and will crack or break. If you’re lucky the top will blow off leaving you a mess. If you’re unlucky, the glass bottle will burst adding broken glass to the mess. For all the great properties glass brings, care is needed to ensure safe use. This means choosing the correct type of glass bottle designed to handle the pressure of carbonation. By using bottles designed to hold carbonated beverages, and careful control of your carbonation, will ensure you don’t over stress the glass.

Plastic Bottles For Carbonated Drinks

Many brewers of Beer and Soda choose to use plastic bottles (PET or HDPE bottles). Plastic bottles are reusable, easy to clean, and recyclable when warn out. Plastic bottles are safer than glass in the off-chance that your carbonation levels get excessive. As a rule, plastic bottles are safe to 5 atmospheres, so they can swell up to 2 times the original size before they burst. If they should burst, then there is no sharp material to cut fingers or bare feet. It’s very easy to tell when the beverage inside a plastic bottle is carbonated, because the bottle becomes rock hard. The bottle can’t and won’t shatter, even if it’s dropped.

Best Bottle For Carbonated Drinks

After using both glass and plastic bottles for years, my preference is PET Plastic bottles. The bottles come in a range of convenient sizes from small to very large. These bottles and their lids are easy to clean and reuse. The bottles can easily and safely handle very large pressure from accidental over carbonation. The bottles can be dropped without risk of shattering. If you’re brewing Soda, using plastic makes the bottles safe for children to handle. Modern plastics are food safe and fully recyclable. For these reasons, plastic bottles are simply the best choice.

What Color Bottles Are Best For Soda

You may have noticed, that Beer bottles are usually made of glass or plastic colored green or brown. This is because dark colored bottles can reduce the detrimental impact of light on the Beer, meaning the Beer will keep longer. Many naturally brewed Sodas benefit from dark colored bottles in the same way.

Clear glass or plastic bottles make it easy to see the color of the Soda inside, however dark colored bottles have become my default choice. Using dark brown plastic or glass means you no longer need to think about how long you will store your Soda before drinking. The dark color will limit light reaching your Soda and it will keep for longer.

What Is A PET Bottle

PET (also abbreviated PETE) is short for Polyethylene terephthalate, the chemical name for polyester. PET is a clear or colored, strong, and lightweight plastic that is widely used for packaging foods and beverages, especially convenience-sized Sodas (soft drinks), juices, and water.

Are PET Bottles Recyclable

Some types of plastics (1 (PET) and 2 (HDPE)) are easier to recycle than others. Some get contaminated with food waste and cost more to be recycled (take-away food and drink containers). Some plastic types (3,4,5,6 and 7) are often not worth recycling.

Is PET Plastic Safe

PET plastic has been approved as safe for contact with foodstuffs and beverages by the FDA, Health Canada, the European Food Safety Authority and virtually every other health-safety agency in the world. It has been used for food and beverage containers for decades without any known adverse effects. For much more detailed information on this topic, you can read this article “PET Polyethylene terephthalate“.

How To Clean Reusable Bottles

All plastic soda bottles are reusable as long as they are in good condition. I regularly clean and reuse old soda bottles once they are empty. This is great for the environment and great for your wallet.

Used bottles must be cleaned carefully and thoroughly. To prepare bottles for sanitizing, they should be soaked in a solution of water and bleach for 20 minutes. Make the solution as 1 tablespoon of bleach to 1 gallon (3.8 Liters) of water. Before removing your bottles from the solution, scrub the inside of each bottle with a nylon bottle brush to remove anything left behind. Now rinse your bottles in fresh water until all traces of the bleach solution are gone. The bottle is now ready for your sanitizing solution. 

How To Sanitize Reusable Bottles

I recommend using a no-rinse sanitizer as your bottles do not require a thorough rinse once sanitized. Make sure you choose a sanitizer that is suitable for the material your bottles are made from. For example, I choose to use PET Plastic bottles for my Soda, so I always choose a sanitizer that works with PET Plastic bottles.

For a detailed article on how to “sanitize your brewing equipment“, this article is one of the best I’ve come across. It’s full of no nonsense real world advice.

Conclusion

When you’re making Soda at home, it’s really important to choose the correct bottle. Your choice must be able to handle the pressure that carbonation brings. Whether you choose glass or plastic, make sure the bottle is designed to hold a carbonated beverage. As I discussed earlier, I am a fan of PET Plastic bottles because they are so user friendly. For safety and ease of handling, I recommend PET Plastic bottles as the best choice for homemade Soda.

Our Picks

High-quality equipment makes all the difference in your projects. Always buy the best quality you can afford. The products below are our picks of good quality equipment for making carbonated drinks. They are all supplies you can add to your kitchen and re-use on other projects.

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