Soc

Recipes 

I have been homebrewing for about two years but I have never bottled before. I had a kegging system right away so all of my brews have gone to keg. I have a Holiday Ale right now, however, that I want to bottle so I can give some away as Christmas presents. I don't have any empty bottles right now and I feel like buying beer bottles without beer in them is a waste. When needing good bottles for homebrew, what beers do you guys buy? I'm looking for several things here, they obviously need to be dark non twist off bottles but I would also prefer no real markings on the bottles and obviously need them to be good tasting brews. Any suggestions?

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Primary #1: American Light
Primary #2: American Pilsner
Secondary #1: Holiday Ale
Secondary #2: Empty :(
Keg #1: Empty :(
Keg #2: Empty :(

Please don't make fun of my for my beers currently in fermenter, I told some friends I'd let them pick out the next few beers I'd make, those are the ones they came up with...

bad67z

Recipes 

My two favorite are Sam Adams and (I hate to say it) American Lager from Budweiser. They are some of the heaviest bottles I have found.

riverfrontbrewer

Recipes 

New Belgium bottles..... labels fall of with 10-15 minutes in hot water and the minimal residual glue comes off very easy with a kitchen scrubby pad.

EvilGnome6

Recipes 

I buy a Folly Pack every week. Decent beer and nice bottles. The labels come off easily and I like how the mouth is a little wider than other bottles to make for an easy pour.

ognam

Recipes 

I agree with all of these (I have numerous Sam Adams and New Belgium, and one case of Budweiser). Althought all three of these have embossed logos in the glass. Many microbrews use plain glass bottles. Rogue, Bells, Three Floyds, Dogfish Head, are ones I can think of that I have purchased recently with plain bottles.

I soak in OxiClean and warm water for a few hours or overnight and most labels fall right off, with minimal scrubbing to clean residual glue.

hopvine

Recipes 

I really like the short fat Sierra Nevada bottles. They're easy to find, the contents are relatively cheap and enjoyable to drink, and the bottles are great (especially for stouts).

The meanest glass bottles I've found are the Lion Stout bombers. Those things are really thick and heavy. Beastly. I'm not sure what their six pack glass is like.

SugarJohnson

Recipes 

I like Duvel bottles for their shape, although they are pricey and only 11.2 ounces. I was just at a new bar last night that serves well over 50 Belgian beers and begged the manager to let me have some of their bottles-NO LUCK

shimbii

Recipes 

Bear Republic bottles have worked very well for me. Seems like they use thick/strong glass for the bottles and the labels just fall off when soaked in oxyclean and hot water solution. There's very little glue residue to scrub off as well. It's on the expensive side for buying in mass qty however they do make some pretty good brews so I'm sure you'd enjoy drinking them.

KingBrianI

Recipes 

I agree with sierra nevada, easy to clean, I like the shape and the contents are always delicious and reasonably priced.

I do like the shape of Anchor bottles the most though. Labels come off relatively easily too and Anchor makes good beer, though it is somewhat overpriced. But those bottles look so cool.

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I'm too lazy and have too many beers going to keep updating this!

alexdagrate

Recipes 

My favorite 12 oz bottles are the deschutes bottles. They have hopvines rather than logos in the glass.

For 22's, Ninkasi and Full Sail uses VERY easily removed stickers. They can be peeled right off, no soaking needed or anything.