Degrolschifying fliptop bottles

When you reuse fliptops, do you (can you?) do anything other than sandpapering off the top of the plastic cap to rebrand your beer as your own? Is adding your own label cheap looking, since the bottle has Grolsch in relief on the side?

Just a case of enjoy the beer and disregard the bottle?

I melt them down and hand blow glorious new bottles of my own design, a la Dale Chihuly.

Pretending that the OP CG is even close to serious. ... (I wasn't sure till I read the handle.)

My Grolsch bottles cost less than buying new bottles, so I'm already cheap.
Any label I put on any bottle is going to look cheap no matter what.
And my most recent cheap eBay buy was a single amber Grolsch with a ceramic "Grolsch Georgia" top. After the snitfit by the seller, who offered the bottle for an initial bid of $0.99 and free shipping, then tried to charge shipping so he could make a profit on my winning $0.99 bid, I very much enjoyed soaking off the remnants of the "vintage" Grolsch label, then using the cheap "Drom John Oaked Imperial Whiskey Stout" label applied with milk. Cheapening a collector's item felt righteous. But I'm not sanding off the "Grolsch Georgia" even if I could sand it off in front of the seller.
That said, how come Grolsch bottles usually sell for more on eBay without the Grolsch than I can buy with Grolsch?
And how can an amber Grolsch bottle be "vintage" when it had beer not wine in it? and there was no date on the label or bottle?

Wait, you guys even bother to soak the old Grolsch labels off in the first place? Tools...

If you really wanted to be cool you could acid etch your labels. Not sure how well they'd show up on green glass though...

CreamyGoodness said:

When you reuse fliptops, do you (can you?) do anything other than sandpapering off the top of the plastic cap to rebrand your beer as your own? Is adding your own label cheap looking, since the bottle has Grolsch in relief on the side?

Just a case of enjoy the beer and disregard the bottle?

Click to expand...

I don't bottle in anything smaller than 1 liter anymore (except for a few mead samplers). I use these:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/ez-cap-bottles-brown-1-liter-with-flip-tops.html
Regards, GF.

I never label a Grolsch bottle. Too much relief. I do have a few brown label from 2-3 brands that would work better, but I don't label those either. I save those to give away to people just to show how fancy I am. Not giving the beer a name or label shows just how lahz-E-fare I am.

It's what's inside that counts.

Just tell people your last name is Grolsch and that you are locked in an intense court battle with them over the name.

I like 'em buck naked. Why not do what Grolsch does and put a label around the neck or over the cap. Something like this:



Plus you know homebrewers are DIY'ers. They'd take used bathroom equipment in a heartbeat to make a cheap mash tun. The majority wouldn't be offended by the engraved Grolsch logo.

Revvy even does a fold over label:

Here is my label for the Grolsch bottle caps:

if you're really worried about it you can get replacement swing tops for about a buck a piece:

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/produ...10202&osCsid=493082960266689775b212d4c35c5211

or you can buy a case of 1/2 liter swing tops for like $30, which works out to $2.50/bottle. no labels to remove, no markings on the bottle to worry about, and they're amber so you don't have to worry about light exposure.