Can you prime a growler?

[kw642]

I've been extract brewing for only a couple of months now, and so far I've been using only 341ml, 500ml, and 650ml bottles.  I have a few growlers kicking around in my basement, can I use those?  I've been told that priming a growler will result in a beer explosion.  Also, I assume that using something with a threaded cap will require CO2?

[dtapke]

It's definitely not recommended. Growlers aren't really built for the pressure of carbonating. At 70 Degrees F, carbonating a beer to 2.5 Volumes (pretty standard) would generate roughly 30PSI. The large surface and thin walls of MOST growlers aren't made for that.

If you had CO2 and a regulator, they make carbonating caps, these could be used to force carbonate at lower temps, to carbonate to the same volume at 34F would only be 9-10PSI.

TL;DR If its a super sturdy growler, give it a try in a place it can explode without ruining anything! if not, don't.

[Master]

I've done it with lower carbed drinks like cider.

But I've always had it in a "secondary container" like a 5 gallon bucket with a lid.

Was in a pinch. Dropped and broke 12 bottles in a box once the bottling was underway.

[dtapke]

Since someone drug this back up, I'd like to post that I have a conditioning chamber i use. It's a 55g food grade hdpe barrel with a seal-able/removable lid. I can fit a few cases in there. I have a hole in the top where i drop a couple temp probes and run heating elements with. This allows me to condition at a consistent temperature and not ever have to worry about a bottle bomb ruining anything.

If you had growlers you could do something similar to contain any potential explosions.

That being said, i bottle condition VERY infrequently. I would assume if one brewed a lot, they may run out of space in a setup like this, however i think most bottle bombs occur pretty quickly, so as long as you had perhaps 3-4 weeks to condition you'd probably be safe to remove and store in a cool place.