Would this make me an A-hole?

Seems like I can't get my hands on enough bottles. Currently sitting on about 400 bottles and will need more.

I believe I have collected every available free bottle in town via craigslist and the LHBS, friends, etc. Now it's time to exercise a little creativity.

I have a few family members and friends that are interested in trying my beer. The plan that I came up with is to give away a 12 pack with the requirement that my bottles are returned along with another 12 pack of empty, rinsed out pry off brown bottles.

Now, I try to be a nice guy but often come off as an a$$hole. Do you think enacting such a requirement will make me more of an a-hole than I already am or is it a reasonable request?

Good luck getting the original bottles back, much less having someone collect and clean extra bottles. I can see it now..."No, this is a screw top! "

Newgene said:

Good luck getting the original bottles back, much less having someone collect, clean, and delabel bottles. I can see it now..."No, this is a screw top! "

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Delabeling is not a requirement - just rinse them out.

In my opinion it is a perfectly acceptable request. If you have any "push back" invite them over to brew or bottle. If they don't understand after that how small of a request this is I would let them buy there own beer.

Lots of luck with that.

I have one friend who keeps wine bottles for me. I leave him a empty box when I pick up a full one. He does generally rinse them, but I delabel them. I also usually toss a couple that are screw tops.

If you want free stuff from other people, don't ***** or make it too difficult for them or you won't get anything.

This problem is why I keg

I have got to many bottles now and have told people to quit giving them to me.

Airplanedoc said:

Lots of luck with that.

I have one friend who keeps wine bottles for me. I leave him a empty box when I pick up a full one. He does generally rinse them, but I delabel them. I also usually toss a couple that are screw tops.

If you want free stuff from other people, don't ***** or make it too difficult for them or you won't get anything.

This problem is why I keg

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So rinsing out is asking too much. Perhaps I should just ask for 12 bottles, preferably rinsed but not required?

People are stupid. What will happen is that they will drink your beer and give you some corona bottles instead.

Varmintman said:

I have got to many bottles now and have told people to quit giving them to me.

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Sounds like a good problem to have. Just curious, how many is too many? About how many do typically keep on hand?

BoomerHarley said:

People are stupid. What will happen is that they will drink your beer and give you some corona bottles instead.

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This is true. I do try to keep the number of stupid friends to a minimum.

If I asked for brown pry off bottles in exchange for free brew and I get corona bottles, cutting off this particular persons supply of free beer would be doing them a favor.

OrdinaryAvgGuy said:

Sounds like a good problem to have. Just curious, how many is too many? About how many do typically keep on hand?

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I have not counted lately but I guess I got about 20 cases cleaned and full and a bung load that still need de labeled and cleaned.

I really do not need to brew again for awhile

Varmintman said:

I have not counted lately but I guess I got about 20 cases cleaned and full and a bung load that still need de labeled and cleaned.

I really do not need to brew again for awhile

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20 cases... Id'e say you are set for a while.

Varmintman said:

I have got to many bottles now and have told people to quit giving them to me.

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That's happened.

People usually offer my bottles back. They figure I can refill them... and give them back to them full. Talk about a lather, rinse, repeat cycle.

I've had bottles show up on my porch too, that were never mine.

What's funny is giving a full a bottle to a home brewer and he says he'll give the empty back. No. Keep the empty and just give me a full one of yours. Or I'll already have his. What, you wanna trade back identical bottles?

We all mean well.

I tried this with wine bottles. After collecting an adequate amount of beer bottles, I discovered I really hate relabeling bottles and had no interest in doing likewise with wine bottles. So when I gave out wine, I politely asked for the empty bottles back and whatever other wine bottles they had and weren't using. I never saw a single empty bottle, so I stopped supplying full ones.

I recommend having them come over to sample a beer or two. If they like what they taste, offer to brew a beer with them, you provide the beer, they provide the bottles, and you split the batch. Your bottle collection grows, they get "free" beer, everyone prospers.

Or just say screw 'em and get your own bottles.

Next time they ask for beer tell them to bring over something to put it in and pour the beer out in that. Maybe they will understand that??

Nice idea, though I think you will probably break even at best.

Frankly I wouldn't even ask for the originals back as a condition for giving them the beer in the first place.

There HAS to be bottles around the area. If you have bottle deposit, you can probably find returnables for the cost of the deposit at any place beer is sold. If not, check for recycling centers.

If necessary, call places in a nearby town, like bars and recycling centers, etc. Many time they will allow you to pick up the bottles for the small deposit or recycling cost. I've even had a bar in town save all of the Guinness bottles they used (basically had 1 guy drinking Guinness except for on St. Patrick's day...) and I bet more places would save any pop tops for a week or two if I asked.

Asking people to save, rinse, or delabel a bunch of beer bottles is not going to work out.

jmendez29 said:

__________________
Does that make me an ***hole?

No, that's not what makes you an ***hole.

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Love your signature!!

Good luck getting any back.

I am lucky I live in Maine and we have deposits on bottles and recycling centers so I can get all the bottles I want for about $2 a case