trek87654

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Hey all, I just joined this site and new to home brewing but very excited about the hobby. Does anyone know where to buy bottles in bulk? Looking to reduce per bottle cost through buying in bulk. Any advise would help! Thanks.

RadicalEd

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Your best bet is probably to post a Wanted ad in the classifieds here and on Craigslist; there's a surprising number of people who have way too many bottles and are willing to give them away for free or cheap. If you're in a state with deposits, offering a nickel or so more per bottle is a good way to accumulate a lot of bottles quickly.

daholl01

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Well you can buy them at your local home brew store - Austin Homebrew, and MoreBeer are both good online retailers that you can get bottles from. These will all cost you quite a bit.

However, to get any sort of "bulk" price break you are going to need to buy a lot of bottles, more than any new brewer would want or need.

The good news is though there are so many other ways to get bottles for nothing or next to nothing. Ask a bar manager, or ask a friend, or start drinking and saving your own bottles - they will work fine and you will just need to buy caps and a capper. Also I should mention I just got 60 pint size swing top bottles on Craigslists for $10 to save time and energy from the capping process - so check Craigslist.

-daholl

trek87654

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great info thank! i'm gonna go check craigslist
another related question.... do you have any tricks of the trade for removing labels or is it just some soap, water, and a little elbow grease to scrub off the glue?

FlyGuy

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If you aren't afraid to do some washing, go to your local bottle recycling depot and see if they will sell you bottles. I was able to pick up 400 swing-top Grolsch bottles for $60. Most were very clean, and some even must have belonged to a homebrewer because they had neoprene seals.

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Yuri_Rage

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I find that bottle re-use is equally as expensive as just buying bottles. In other words, I buy beer that I like and keep the bottles. My current collection:



The pic is deceiving - there are well over 100 bottles there, and I have another couple of cases in hiding around the house.

My BMC friends help me empty the Bud Light aluminum bottles - they work REALLY well for homebrew as long as you have a bench capper.

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homebrewer_99

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This is another one of those times when letting eveyone know where you hail from may benefit you...

Last year I sold almost 100 Grolsch bottles and gave the guy 8 cases (almost 200) more 12 oz bottles for the hell of it just because he was fairly close by.

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magno

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Yeah, where are you?

Say Houston, Austin or somewhere in between, and I have two cases+ coming your way.

- magno

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SixFoFalcon

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OxiClean in hot water works well, especially after a soak for an hour or so. Most of the thicker labels will peel off easily in one piece--then soak them a few minutes longer and go back with a brush to get the remaining glue off of the bottles. Be careful--the OxiClean solution is hell on your skin. I used 1 scoop to 5 gallons of hot water and got good results. Next time, I'll use less OxiClean.

Thinner (especially metallic) paper labels can be a PITA because they don't want to come off in one piece. I prefer to soak them a little longer, waiting until the paper is fully saturated, and then hit them with a scrub brush. These thin labels typically disintegrate into the bath water, which makes rinsing take longer since there will be little bits clinging to the outside and inside of the bottles. I try to avoid those kinds of labels altogether, but beggars can't be choosers!

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trek87654

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wow I'm glad I found this site! You all have been most helpful and I will definately be back on here often!

As for my location I'm in San Diego, CA