Corona Bottles

the handy Corona bottle

You wouldn't think that Corona bottles would be ideal for homebrewing, would you?  First of all, they are clear.  Every homebrewer knows that if you expose bottle-conditioned beer to bright sunlight it can skunk the beer.  That's why the majority of beer bottles are made from either green or brown glass.


Secondly, it has that damn painted-on label.  No way you're getting that off.  "You say this is your beer, but it looks just like Corona to me..."  Whatever...you know what I mean.  When bottling, I seek to have at least one Corona (or otherwise clear) bottle with my brew in it.  You might ask why...  You see, when you bottle the beer, you mix in between three quarters and one cup of corn sugar, or you can use light DME (dry malt extract) in a bit of water and boil it.  This gives you sterile water with some sugar.  You put this in a 6-10 gallon food grade clean bucket.  Once it's in there, you siphon in your beer.  Although you leave a lot of yeast sediment behind in your fermenter, there will be enough yeast left to eat up this last bit of sugar.  This is what carbonates your beer--it's called bottle conditioning.  Mass-produced beers do not do it like this.  They brew the beer, let it ferment, then pasturize or otherwise filter the hell out of it which removes all the yeasties.  Then they (what I like to think of as) artificially inject carbon dioxide into the beer during the bottling process--just like they do Coke and Pepsi.

ale yeast

So...still you are wondering why the Corona bottle?  Well, dear reader, we have finally arrived.  You see, as the little yeast friends are in there swimming around eating that last bit of sugar, the beer appears cloudy.  When they are finished--either when the pressure is too great from the natural CO2, or all the edible sugars are gone..they go dormant and, just like in your fermenter, they return to the bottom.  It's like after a big meal...all you want to do is go nap.  It is at this point that your beer is crystal clear (or at the very least a lot more noticeably clear) and its ready to chill and drink!  This process usually takes 7-10 days.  Today----is day four.