Source to Buy Aluminum Bottles

KevinWP · 01-20-2008, 07:31 PM

Has anyone seen a source to purchase new aluminum bottles?

I've googled and can't find anything. Someone must be making them... A-B sells in them. Pepsi is selling Mt Dew in them... Someone must be making them and selling them prior to screenprinting them. I would love to buy a case or two, and shipping will be more about volume instead of weight...

Has anyone seen a likely source for 'virgin' aluminum bottles in quantities less than a box car load?

Thanks

Kevin

portski7 · 01-20-2008, 07:35 PM

Here's the source:
http://www.bottlecan.com/

**Yuri_Rage** · 01-20-2008, 07:45 PM

With the link above, you can request a sample. I'm not sure how many "samples" they'll send at a time. It's worth getting in touch with CCL to find out. Perhaps you'll open a new market to them if you mention selling empty, blank bottles for homebrewing. I'd do the legwork myself, since I'm very interested, but I'm not going to be brewing any more beer until this fall.

Dr Vorlauf · 01-20-2008, 07:48 PM

I know CCL pretty well. They most likely require you to buy full truck loads or huge quantities.

I would suggest calling them and if the above is the case ask them for their distributor that sells smaller quantities.

On the other hand you can look and see what beers are packaged in aluminum bottles ( I think Bud Select was a few years back ) buy some , drink it and then reuse.

Shudder at drinking Bud Select...

Brewmando · 01-20-2008, 08:21 PM

I just ordered some samples under the in-laws pubs name. Hopefully that 'll work to make them believe I'm important enough to respond to. These bottles would work great for taking my brew on the river (Mississippi), disc golfing, camping or fishing and the like.

KevinWP · 01-20-2008, 09:27 PM

Hmmmm - very interesting....

I had seen these around... but just got my hands on one for the first time this week. These things feel rock solid, and seem to just beg to be used in a more appropriate fashion (with our beer).

I currently run a small ebay store out of my garage... so I am already set up with boxes, a Fedex account, etc.....

Is there enough demand to seriously look into getting a shipment of these?

I'm going to request some samples and inquire about short truck pricing (LTL)... I'll report back and see if the economics make sense for a one time buy... or more.

Thanks for the source site!

Kevin

KevinWP · 01-21-2008, 02:43 PM

Well... As surmised above... they are a big order only company.

I got this email this morning...

----------
Kevin, thank you for your interest in CCL and the aluminum bottle. Our current capacity in North America is serving our core customer base. We do not sell in quantities less than a full truck, and our minimum order requirements is 120,000 bottles. You might want to contact Elemental Containers, they may sell smaller quantities. Thanks

Eric L Umsted
National Account Manager,Rigid Packaging
CCL Container

--------------

So it looks like 5000 case quantity is the minimum order.

(I did reply back and ask for a rough dollar quote for that minimum order, and I also inquired about misprints or similarly flawed production runs)

I have already visited the elemental container website.. it appears they work almost exclusively in screw top containers and not crown top bottles... so I doubt they will be any more open to a smaller purchases..

Oh well.

RockfordWhite · 01-21-2008, 02:47 PM

5000...ew i suggest a case of iron city and a can of paint...

Germey · 01-21-2008, 03:01 PM

I had similarly gone down this road (except I never got a reply back). It seems that 120K bottles would be a lot for a smaller brewery like Big Sky (they put their Moose Drool in the Bottle cans) to use at once. Maybe they would split a partial order with someone enterprising. Also, I wonder if that same enterprising person could coordinate with homebrew shops to move a big chunk of them out to retail availability.
I considered all that and decided pretty quickly that I would just sand down a couple cases of bud select that would be used in the smoker and for other cooking.
Certainly not drinking.

KevinWP · 01-21-2008, 03:11 PM

I think I will probably just start collecting and hoarding them myself. (SWMBOs eys bugged out when I mentioned I was trying to buy several pallets of bottlecans)

I found a local c-store that is selling the Mt dew bottlecans for $1.39 each (instead of the $1.99 they are supposed to). I'm thinking I will go buy them out before they realize the pricing error. At least I will drink the Mt. Dew.