Desperate For Beer Cases

I've been bottling of a long time now and the cardboard cases are starting to wear out. I remember as a kid in Belgium having the delivery guy bring plastic cases of beer and soda to my grandmother's house. Does anyone know where I could find hard plastic cases that would fit 12-24 12oz bottles? I've scoured the internets and no luck there either. Help.

contact bmbox12, he makes wooden beer cases: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f41/lasered-engraved-wooden-beer-case-holder-126430/

McHandbag said:

I've been bottling of a long time now and the cardboard cases are starting to wear out. I remember as a kid in Belgium having the delivery guy bring plastic cases of beer and soda to my grandmother's house. Does anyone know where I could find hard plastic cases that would fit 12-24 12oz bottles? I've scoured the internets and no luck there either. Help.

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I just go to the liquor store and ask for used boxes. They usually have stacks of them. They are not plastic but they work well

Those look really great, but I was hoping to find plastic ones for easy cleaning, portability, and stackability.

I will be hitting up bmbox come xmas though.

McHandbag said:

Does anyone know where I could find hard plastic cases that would fit 12-24 12oz bottles? I've scoured the internets and no luck there either. Help.

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The Smart & Final grocery in my neighborhood store sells sodas in hard plastic crates that hold 24 bottles. Not sure if they fit beer bottles, but maybe check around at the warehouse type grocery stores in your area to see if they sell them like that (or have spares you can have for free).

Those boxes cost more than the bottles & contents within! I guess I'm too frugal (aka cheap) to pay that much for something that spends most of its time tucked away out of sight.

(Real, not the file crates at walmart) Dairy Milk crates are what you're looking for. From what I understand they hold 24 normal long necks perfectly.

Cost will vary. And no, I don't know how you can get them free other than stealing them from a grocery store. (You can find them on Craigslist and ebay usually, probably stolen too)

I found one in the field where I was picking blackberry's one time. I snatched it up.

I see milk crates on the side of the road all the time near the freeway entrances and exits. Homeless people like to sit on them while they hold signs.

I'm slowly acquiring milk crates to replace all the bottling boxes myself.

They hold an entire case of 12 ouncers in half the space of a regular cardboard beer case, and stack better as well.

yea I think I just seen crates at walmart for about 3 bucks.

Saw your post, they do cost, however, I try to keep the cost at or below the average cost of an extract kit, for the most expensive box. Shipping is a killer, but I only charge actual shipping cost. Can always pick up right at the shop. These will last a long time. Solid ash, 1/2" sides. Good looking, great present. Look great at your home bar. I am checking out a new wood supplier in the near future, so may be able to reduce the cost in the near future. Didn't mean to hijack your thread.

Mike Schultz
owner
B & M Box

Couple links I've collected the last few days.

http://www.usedmilkcrates.com/ Scroll down and see the dividers they sell. Was contemplating seeing if they would consider dividers that would fit 25 beer bottles to a standard milk crate.

Milk Crate – Commercial Milk Crate - Duluth Trading Company

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/milk-crates-133621/ Actually most of the other links are from this thread.

The Container Store > Authentic Dairy Crate

•.¸(¯`*•.¸ Barrels/Buckets/Drums/Tanks/Totes ¸.•*´¯)¸.•*´¯). ¥ Scroll mmost of the way down.

I've found piles of milk and soda crates stacked up behind HEB and walmart in the past. One day my wife came home, said she was driving by a bar and saw a bunch of plastic crates lying by the dumpster and picked em all up for me. Each holds 16-20 bottles perfectly and never wear out. In other words...try driving around a while and you may get lucky.

yea I think I just seen crates at walmart for about 3 bucks.

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Not those, those are file crates, those are made of soft plastic and larger than a milk crate.

I've found piles of milk and soda crates stacked up behind HEB and walmart in the past.

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They're generally there for storage, the stores pay deposits on the crates. I'm guessing you are aware of that but I'm mentioning it just so somebody doesn't get themselves into trouble.

Nugu said:

They're generally there for storage, the stores pay deposits on the crates. I'm guessing you are aware of that but I'm mentioning it just so somebody doesn't get themselves into trouble.

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Maybe they do, maybe they don't. The guy I asked said I could take as many as I wanted. Where I work we have soda crates all over the place, we also "pay a deposit", but the soda companies have so many of them they always leave them when they're supposed to take them.

If you want to try to make your own, you could do something like I'm working on. It's still not nearly perfect but right now I can hold 12 bottles either side up in this version. I think I can modify it for 24.

File crates have worked great for me. And no stealing was involved. Just needto cut some thin scrap wood to fit in to male a solid bottom. I actually like them better than milk crates because they fit a few more bottles in every case. Stack pretty good too since they interlock.

mosquitocontrol said:

File crates have worked great for me. And no stealing was involved. Just needto cut some thin scrap wood to fit in to male a solid bottom. I actually like them better than milk crates because they fit a few more bottles in every case. Stack pretty good too since they interlock.

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28 bottles in each of my file crates. A precut 11x14 piece of thin plexiglass is enough for a bottom reinforcement. No longnecks in them though. They are too short for longnecks.