Which beer bottles are worth saving for bottling home brew?

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Chadwick

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Twist tops are out, that much I'm assuming goes without saying. I am looking at some Guinness bottles and Sierra Nevada bottles and thinking they might be ok to use. I also have a few bottles from Brooklyn Brothers and their chocolate stout. They look like good possibilities too. Of course I also have access to returnable Ale-8-1 bottles, I know for certain these are good. Thicker glass has never been realized in any glass beverage bottle.

The Ale-8-1 bottles aside, which beer bottles are safe to use for home brew bottling? All of them? Some of them? None of them?
 
I seem to end up with Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada. I really like the 24 oz. Sierra Nevada.
 
Anything that's not a screwtop will work. Most of mine are Mexican Coke bottles, but I suppose brown is better than clear or green.
 
I find Bell's bottles to be obnoxious getting the labels off. Maybe it was the particular bottles I had. Dunno. Same goes for DuClaw bottles. Outside of that, I haven't had a problem with any particular bottles, but I'm a fan of Lagunitas bottles if only because I like the stubby shape (fits places in my beer fridge the standard longneck doesn't), but also since the labels and glue just fall off in even a very brief PBW soak.
 
Breckenridge Vanilla Porter bottles work nice and the labels come off clean.. Oh and the fact its one of my favorite beers don't hurt the emptying process.
 
Sierra Nevada and Founders are the same shape bottle, labels come off easy... Sam Adams labels come off fairly easy... Any corked Belgian bottle if you ever think you might start corking, start collecting now... Guinness comes off even easier with a knife, the labels are shrink wrap. There are more, those are just the ones I use cause thats what I buy for now.
 
Just about any pry off will work. The biggest issue is staying with brands with easy to remove labels. For me that's New Belgium, Redhook, BBC, and Sweetwater. The worst ones for me have been Yazoo and Red Brick. I love their beers, but I don't waste my time trying to re-use their bottles.
 
I find that the easiest way to remove the labels is to pour the beer into a glass.

I can't argue with that logic. Once the contents are empty, its gone. lol.

I don't have any hang ups about the labels. I know what is in there. In the case of the famous Ale-8-1 bottles I mentioned. The label is silk screened on. It isn't coming off without a great effort. Still, if the contents are dark, everyone will know it isn't Ale-8-1. My father used those bottles for decades. Good bottles. Worth way more than the $0.30 return value. I'll recycle some beer bottles. But I plan on using a healthy amount of Ale-8-1 bottles.

Thanks to everyone that replied. I appreciate the feedback. It's good to know that most beer bottles that can be re-capped are good to use. I was a little hesitant to use them. Now I feel pretty good about moving forward once I'm certain my priming technique is working good. In the case of excess pressure, I'll start with Ale-8-1 bottles. They can take it.
 
New Belgium easiest label to remove by far.

For stubborn labels.....i soakn in hot water ammonia bath.

On bottle day, i sanitize in dishwasher on antibacterial cycle and heated dry cycles. Short stubby bottles like sierra or summit easy to put on top rack. Sam Adams an New Belgium on bottom rack.
 
I can't argue with that logic. Once the contents are empty, its gone. lol.

I don't have any hang ups about the labels. I know what is in there. In the case of the famous Ale-8-1 bottles I mentioned. The label is silk screened on. It isn't coming off without a great effort. Still, if the contents are dark, everyone will know it isn't Ale-8-1. My father used those bottles for decades. Good bottles. Worth way more than the $0.30 return value. I'll recycle some beer bottles. But I plan on using a healthy amount of Ale-8-1 bottles.

Thanks to everyone that replied. I appreciate the feedback. It's good to know that most beer bottles that can be re-capped are good to use. I was a little hesitant to use them. Now I feel pretty good about moving forward once I'm certain my priming technique is working good. In the case of excess pressure, I'll start with Ale-8-1 bottles. They can take it.



For removing labels, I found that soaking them in my sink with hot water and a cup of oxyclean works great. If the label is going to come off at all, this ought to do the trick in under 20 minutes.

I've had some problems reusing bottles, but there has definitely been a pattern. There are two lips at the top of the bottle. The top-most lip is the one that the cap sits on and wraps around, but there is also a second lip that seems like it may not have a purpose... here is where I've had a problem. On bottles where this second lip is really close to the top, my bottle capper will crack the neck of the bottle. Once I started avoiding these types of bottles, and going exclusively with the ones with this second lip further down I haven't had a single bottle crack on me. Sam Adams and Belle's are good examples of bottles that work great and the second lip is very low.

Good luck!
:mug:
 
AssKisser bottles labels are extremely easy to remove. They are plastic, not paper. No soaking , no scrubbing. Just peel it off
 
For stubborn labels.....i soakn in hot water ammonia bath.


Actually I find oxyclean to work even better. Even the cheap no name stuff.

Also local micro-brews tend to use the same brown bottles you buy at your LHBS.. but the labels are harder to remove. But not so much in a bath of hot water and oxyclean.

Oh as for the breckenridge bottles I mentioned before.. those aren't the best to use if your competing, as they are branded. that said I like to use them specifically because they are branded.. and I can identify the bottles at a party so they aren't thrown out.
 
I prefer Guinness with the plastic label. Just slit with a knife and peel off. Yank the widget with needle-nose pliers and you're golden. Got to get them when they are fresh though. Don't want to have to soak if you don't have to.

Otherwise I'd avoid Shorts and a few others. Most like founders, bells, Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada, etc. come off with a 1-2 hour oxiclean soak (Which is good for cleaning the inside as well.) I think it's best to try a few that you can get in large quantity and find out which ones are difficult and avoid those.
 
1-2 hour oxiclean soak (Which is good for cleaning the inside as well.)

I make sure the water in the bath is smoking hot.. and make sure each bottle sucks all the water in so it goes to the bottom top up. Then use the bottle washer on the faucet to get everything out.

Load up in the dishwasher and put on sanitize..

Always nice and clean.
 
More to avoid, Opa Opa and whoever makes Crooked Tree. Worst labels ever.
 
My favorite bottle is Belikin Beer. It's only brewed and distributed in Belize, so you basically have to go there to get some. They are very thick, meant to be re-used. An empty one weighs about the same as a regular beer (bottle + beer), and they have a cool bottle and label that's printed right onto the glass. I brought back 6 on my last trip. Some are practically brand new, but 1 is so old that it's scratched all over the outside (where the contact points would be for a bottle that's been repeatedly re-used and stored in a shipping crate). Kind of cool to re-use a bottle that I know has already been used many times before by countless Belizeans. Anyway, obviously pretty hard to find, but if you do...hold on to that bottle.
 
I prefer Guinness with the plastic label. Just slit with a knife and peel off. Yank the widget with needle-nose pliers and you're golden.

^^^^^ This is the way to go. Now they even have the plastic Guiness Draught bottles without the widget. I bottled this past weekend and it took me about 10 minutes to remove all of the labels.
 
Another thing you may want to consider is buying an 8 or 16 pack of Mr Beer 1L PET bottles, or another version of 1L PET bottles, they make bottling go so much faster.
 
The worst ones for me have been Yazoo and Red Brick. I love their beers, but I don't waste my time trying to re-use their bottles.

Yes, I cleaned bottles this past weekend for my bottle day. I cleaned in total about 2 cases of Sam adams and a case of Yazoo, give or take a couple, bottles.

Needless to say, I will not be keeping Yazoo bottles anymore because those things are such a PITA, I'm seriously considering throwing the other case of them away. I took a brillo pad to them just to remove the paper, but the glue is still stuck to the side of the bottle. Is keeping your label on the beer bottle really that serious?

Thank God for the other 6.5 cases of Sam Adams/New Belgium that I've been collecting over the last couple of years.
 
Easiest by far is the Guinness bottles with the shrink on label. Last two 12 packs I bought didn’t even have the widget in them to take out.
 
Double Take Brewing Company (i think they're from Rochester, NY) uses bottles that are almost identical to those at my LHBS and the labels FALL off of them after 24 hours or so submerged in an Oxyclean bath.

Sidenote: Their 'mixed' 12 pack is on sale at Vons for $13.99 !
 
When I first started brewing, I used a bunch of Sam Adams bottles. Unfortunately, the bottles have the name in the glass so you always know it is a Sam Adams bottle. After I read a bit online, it was recommended to get the Kirkland beer since it is relatively tasty and the labels come right off. I was at the store the other day and saw that they changed which beers are in it. They removed the bad one (I think it was a Belgian) and added in an amber or brown ale instead. Hopefully all 4 beers in the pack are good now. Oh, and it is under $20 for a case of decent beer with easy to remove labels. :)
 
Needless to say, I will not be keeping Yazoo bottles anymore because those things are such a PITA, I'm seriously considering throwing the other case of them away. I took a brillo pad to them just to remove the paper, but the glue is still stuck to the side of the bottle. Is keeping your label on the beer bottle really that serious?

TRUST US.. if its a Paper label and leaves a lot of glue (Or you have to scrape the things off with your finger nails) a hot soak in oxyclean and they will fall off adn the glue will wipe off.

Legend Brewery, bottles were the same way for me.

That said I have quit saving them.. and going with the Breckenridge because they are a tad thicker, and the labels come off easy.
 
Just to weigh in on larger bottles, I've been tearing through Boatswain beers from Trader Joes lately (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/435/76400). Mediocre beer, but $2 a pop for 22oz and the labels just fall right off with a little hot water. I don't even bother with oxyclean or anything else to remove the labels.
 
I like the Dogfish Head bottles. Worst label to get off was innis and gunn. I like having a few clear bottles (protect from light) to see the development in the bottle as it ages. But those plastic labels and the adhesive were horrible to remove.
 
I'll be saving all recommended bottles. Thanks everyone for your replies.

I was out today and picked up materials for my next brew, a chocolate stout, and bought some glosch (spelled right?) EZ-top bottles in 32oz sizes. I like the tops on these. They look like an easy way to do things. Anyone use these much?
 
Grolsch are what I use and are very easy to use , and delabel. They seem to hold carbonation well.
 
Mine are primarily New Belgium, Dogfish Head (and others similar to this), and Corona bottles. I know, I know, clear glass is a sin, but they're readily available in my house and I store my beer in 14gal bins when not being refrigerated. I don't recommend Corona bottles, the paint is a PITA to remove. New Belgium are by far the easiest, and they're nice to look at and give a good pour. I don't like stubby bottles myself, but to each their own.
 
I always save Bell's and Sam Adam's bottles as they come off very easily with just a soak in plain water. I basically don't save anything else as they require too much effort/chemicals to get off. Short's labels are my bane as so many people around here drink it and I could get bottles very easily.
 
I always save Bell's and Sam Adam's bottles as they come off very easily with just a soak in plain water. I basically don't save anything else as they require too much effort/chemicals to get off. Short's labels are my bane as so many people around here drink it and I could get bottles very easily.

Every time someone posts their easy, no fail method to easily remove a beer label I want to send them a Shorts beer bottle.:mug:
 
Yes Short's is the worst. What do they use for adhesive? I could probably get a thousand Short's bottles, but I don't have the patience to clean those labels, not in a million years.
 
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