Beer bottling and canning – bottles, cans, labels and sealing

Here you will find equipment for packaging homebrewed beer, cider and wine in bottles or cans: beer bottles, crown caps, bottle fillers, cappers, beer cans, can seamers, can fillers, labels and bottle wax. The category holds around 200 products from brands such as Oktober Design, Duofiller, Tapcooler, Blichmann, Fermtech, Enolandia, Grifo, HERMA and Sincera Sistemi.

How to choose between bottles, cans and kegs

Bottles are the easiest way to start. You need bottles, caps, a bottle filler and a capper. Priming sugar is mixed in a bottling bucket and the beer carbonates in the bottle.
Cans require a can seamer, but cans are light, unbreakable and block out light. A can filler purges the can with CO2 and fills to the same level every time.
Kegs give you force-carbonated beer. From the keg you can fill bottles or cans with a counter-pressure filler, BeerGun or Duofiller, so there is no bottle conditioning.

A typical bottling setup is a 33-litre bottling bucket with tap and bottle filler, a Grifo TC2T bench capper with 26 and 29 mm cups and a bag of 26 mm crown caps. For canning, the Craft Brew Canning Kit contains a BenchMK can seamer, a Duofiller can filler, 24 cans of 500 ml and 320 lids.

Sub-categories

Bottling – 0.33, 0.5 and 0.75 litre bottles, PET bottles, 2-litre growlers, 26 and 29 mm caps, bottle fillers, bottling buckets and cappers.
Canning – 330, 440 and 500 ml cans, 202 CDL lids, Oktober Design can seamers and Duofiller and Tapcooler can fillers.
Labelling – HERMA labels for your own printer, plus Primera and DTM label printers and applicators.
Bottle wax – Sincera Sistemi wax in 100 g blocks and 17 colours for sealing wine, beer and spirits.
Label printers and applicators – machines for producers labelling bottles and cans in larger runs.

Frequently asked questions about bottling beer

What do I need to bottle beer?

You need clean bottles, crown caps, a bottle filler and a capper. A bottling bucket makes it easy to mix in the priming sugar evenly and leave the sediment behind in the fermenter. Bottles and caps must be cleaned and sanitised before bottling.

Is it better to package beer in cans or bottles?

Cans are light, unbreakable, block out light and chill quickly, but you need a can seamer. Bottles are cheaper to get started with and can be reused many times.

Which crown caps fit beer bottles?

The 0.33 and 0.5 litre longneck bottles take 26 mm crown caps. Some bottles, including many champagne bottles, take 29 mm. The Grifo TC2T capper and the VIK Capper hand capper come with cups for both sizes.

Can I fill bottles straight from a corny keg?

Yes. The Blichmann BeerGun and the Tapcooler counter-pressure filler fill carbonated beer from keg to bottle from the bottom up. The Duofiller Mono fills both cans and bottles up to 500 ml.

Related equipment

Kegs and CO2 – corny kegs, CO2 cylinders and regulators for force carbonation.
Cleaning – PBW, Star San, bottle rinsers and bottle washers.
Fermentation equipment – fermenters, airlocks and accessories.
Winemaking equipment – wine bottles, natural corks and corkers.
Professional packaging – beer bottles, cans and caps by the pallet for breweries.