Can I get my bottles professionally cleaned?

I wanted to see if I can sell some cases to my local mom and pop shops of bottled iced tea. The only thing that is holding me back is the cost of using new bottles. The local beer homebrew shop sells cases of used bottles for about 4 bucks which is fine. I went home and cleaned them with my sanitizer and they seem clean and look brand new. They would be fine for me to use but what if I wanted to use used bottles for my little startup idea? Are there places where you can take your bottles and they can professionally clean/sanitize them? Are there any other solutions for this problem?

Bottles are expensive. This is why breweries buy them in bulk and figure the loss into their prices. You need to talk to the local homebrew shop and see if they'll cut you a deal on a contract of new bottles. When the mom and pop shop gets done with their bottles, you can probably find somewhere to sell them for recycling.

I dont see why you cant re-use bottles. As long as the bottles do not have anything on them other than your label...I say clean em, sanitize em, and sell em.

Not worried about licensing and Health Department codes??

Most of us clean and sanitize our own bottles.

It looks like you are more interested in bottling iced tea than brewing beer. We can help some, but are not the best resources. I'd recommend doing some internet research on bottling and see where to go from there.

Bottling and giving away to your friends is one thing. Selling the product at any store requires quite a bit more planning and legal process.

Homercidal said:

Not worried about licensing and Health Department codes??

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Yep, the agency that is licensing you to sell the product would be the best resource for bottling. They have very strict standards (commercial kitchen, water testing, etc) so start with the Health Department and go from there.

If you're just making up iced tea in your kitchen, and bottling it for sale, you're breaking some laws. It doesn't matter then whether you use new bottles or not- you'll have many other worries.

YooperBrew said:

Yep, the agency that is licensing you to sell the product would be the best resource for bottling. They have very strict standards (commercial kitchen, water testing, etc) so start with the Health Department and go from there.

If you're just making up iced tea in your kitchen, and bottling it for sale, you're breaking some laws. It doesn't matter then whether you use new bottles or not- you'll have many other worries.

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I'm sure with this being a mom and pop run establishment, some health codes are probably overlooked.