Bottles

If by regular you mean standard brown glass pry off bottles, then yes.

 

Almost all of us who bottle instead of kegging our beers will recycle commercial bottles and fill them with our homebrew. Just clean them perfectly and sanitize them. Removing the label is optional, although most of us do that. The label is also something to collect for putting into a scrapbook, or for laminating a bar top, table top, etc. Do a search this forum for threads for label removal procedures. Removing them can be a challenge depending on which brewery's bottles that you have.

I have had one issue with trying to cap a bottle that was an import and the fit wasn't quite right, but maybe others can post more comments on that issue. I've read that some stubby bottles are difficult to cap, but I've never tried them.

 

Flying by the seat of your pants here, eh? LOL! Make sure you have enough bottles too, if you're making a standard 5 gallons batch. I'd get some bombers if you're in the habit of drinking more than 1 beer per session. You'll have fewer bottles to clean, sanitize, fill, and then drink from.

 

If you do decide to remove the labels, certain retail labels come off easier than others. Usually a soak in hot water + PBW or oxyclean for a few hours will do most of the work for you, but have some green scrubby pads ready and plan on adding some elbow grease. I've seen this tool which looks cool, but have never used it.....

http://www.labelnator.com/

 

Common Fellas, don't you buy new bottles for every batch?

Joking, just try to buy the right bottle. If you look at the bottles sold in brew stores you can see how the top of the bottle is shaped, imported and some domestic brewers that sell the pry cap will use European bottles. The difference is the space between the top of the bottle and the lip at the top of the neck. The the space on European bottles is just a little shorter and you do not get a good seal. Once you bottle a batch and 4 of 45 beers has the right carbonation, you'll check before buying that beer. If you can spin the cap WITHOUT A CLOTH TO GRIP TIGHTER, it will not seal properly.

 

Never looked before to be honest.....

 

CB carbonated beverage bottles work too, but look a little ghetto.

 

Point of Order...Mr. Chairman
OP claims 1) to be a N00B and 2) has a 'first batch' in a fermenter.

No argument the OP is a N00B; however...wort is held in a fermentor while the fermenters (yeast) engage in fermentation.

 

For the fermentation vessel, either fermenter or fermentor is correct. That's according to Webster's, not to mention common use. (For the yeast, only fermenter is correct.)

 

[Insert compulsory kegging recommendation here]

 

I've found most Sam Adams and Three Floyds bottles to be very easily removable, while European bottle adhesives have been a bit more troublesome. A word of caution as well: If you started harboring multiple cases of bottles, make sure you intend to use them soon. I had like four or five boxes of unused ones that I never got back to and ended up pitching because they looked infected.

 

Weihenstephan bottle labels came off perfectly for me the other night. Did a warm water Oxiclean soak overnight. Not only did they just fall off, there was zero sticky residue. Just needed to rinse and store. Plus, it's one of my favorite beers in the whole wide world.

 

Good size for homebrew, too!

 

If the bottles are thoroughly cleaned, store them upside down in the case. According to Louis Pasteur, the nasties can't climb upwards.
(they 'looked' infected? )

 

I thought it was they can't go around corners.

 

no they can't see in the dark, duh, that's why some bottles are brown.

 

As if Noah brewed beer.
Apparently...your source disagrees: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fermenter

As for common use...being wrong about something doesn't make it right.
Many use 'doughing-in' incorrectly when they're actually 'mashing-in.'
Many use 'blizzard' incorrectly to describe an winter storm with heavy snowfall.

Next thing you know...someone will claim perception is reality and the earth is only 6000 years old.

 

Here's what "my" source (from your link says)...
------------------------------------
Definition of FERMENTER
1: an organism that causes fermentation
2 or fer·men·tor : an apparatus for carrying out fermentation
------------------------------------

Do you understand what 'or' means in Websters? It means the original spelling (the one being looked up, in this case fermenter) or the alternate spelling (in this case fermentor) can be used for the definition on that line.