SteveM
Well-Known Member
This is probably old news to most but it had not occurred to me before tonight.
I was going to buy another case or 24 bottles so I could cut down on the intervals between brews. They were almost ten bucks for a case - for empties!
I decided I would spring for a case of a nice premium and simply reclaim the bottles left over (I bought a case of Stoudt's Red Ale - no screw top, brown bottles and a great beer). I was chatting with the guy who runs the beer distributor (I still shop there - my wife's Coors Light, plus some other party cases sometimes). He could not believe that a case of empties would be so much. He told me that he still sells some cases of returnable bottles, including Stegmeiers Lager (from Lion Brewing in Scranton, PA. He said the deposit is a buck and a half a case and he didn't care whether he sold the cases back to the distributor or to me. There is also, of course, one of those old school battleship beer boxes that are made to be reused many times.
I would be a bit afraid of the Steggie's (imagine what you get for fifteen bucks a case for 24 pint bottles) but I would not mind buying a case of pint brown empties plus a box for a buck and a half.
If you need nice tough, cheap empties there may be nothing better.
I was going to buy another case or 24 bottles so I could cut down on the intervals between brews. They were almost ten bucks for a case - for empties!
I decided I would spring for a case of a nice premium and simply reclaim the bottles left over (I bought a case of Stoudt's Red Ale - no screw top, brown bottles and a great beer). I was chatting with the guy who runs the beer distributor (I still shop there - my wife's Coors Light, plus some other party cases sometimes). He could not believe that a case of empties would be so much. He told me that he still sells some cases of returnable bottles, including Stegmeiers Lager (from Lion Brewing in Scranton, PA. He said the deposit is a buck and a half a case and he didn't care whether he sold the cases back to the distributor or to me. There is also, of course, one of those old school battleship beer boxes that are made to be reused many times.
I would be a bit afraid of the Steggie's (imagine what you get for fifteen bucks a case for 24 pint bottles) but I would not mind buying a case of pint brown empties plus a box for a buck and a half.
If you need nice tough, cheap empties there may be nothing better.