SilverZero

Recipes 

Since I started brewing last year I've been exclusively using Deschutes Brewery 12oz bottles, because they're easy to get (I live in Bend, so you can't pick three people out of a line-up without finding one who has a case of Mirror Pond at home ) and because I love the little hops embossed around the shoulder. But I just pulled a few out of the oxyclean bath and peeled off the labels - and realized the shoulders were all smooth! These all came from a get-together we had last week, and I also noticed a few that I brought home recently from a friend's house that are similarly bare. These were all recent purchases, probably from Costco and from Safeway, which leads me to believe that they've changed their bottles. Same shape, just no hops.

I guess I don't know where I'm going with this. But I've only got about 200 of the "classic" bottles in storage, and I bumped up from 5 to 8 gallons on my batch sizes with my last batch. I'll be bummed if this is a permanent change.

feinbera

Recipes 

I just noticed the same thing de-labelling bottles today.

I don't have much to add, as most of my bottles are de-labelled, but I've got some porters with a best-by date 1/14/'13 which are hopless, and an empty Mirror Pond 07/04/'12 which does still have the hops pattern.

I generally like their recent redesign/rebranding, but it would be a shame to see those unique hoppy bottles consigned to the dustbin of history.