Dumpster diving for bottles

So my question is has anyone dumpster dived for bottles? And if so how were the pickings? Thanks -Adam

I guess it depends on the dumpster.

I find people that drink good beer and ask them to save their pop tops in return for a beer or two. I posted I will trade beer for empty beer bottles on a local car forum and have got a ton of bottles from people. I've got cases worth from one guy. Also, whenever I buy beer, they are pop tops and I use those. Craigslist might be a good option, post you need empty pop top bottles.

i have friends save the bottles and when they are taking up too much space, i come get them and give out homebrew. It works fairly well. You can also talk to managers of bars to procure bottles as some may enjoy trading for your beer. Digging through a dumpster containing posisbly broken bottles seems risky even for me...

Another good idea is to walk the neighborhood on recycling day.

I've done some dumpster diving! We have a bottle deposit in MI, so the bottles from MI aren't available but we're on the border of WI. So, at the recycling center, there are tons of non-returnable bottles in the glass dumpster. I don't usually grab the bottles anymore, though. (I have enough, and have switched to mostly Grolsch bottles).

I grab the Carlo Rossi wine bottles and use them for fermenters for small wine batches. I also get wine bottles that have easy to remove labels.

I recently scored 9 cases of bombers on Craig's List for $20. Keep checking there, IMHO it's worth the cash to get the cardboard boxes, and not have to climb into dumpsters. I had to get anal and check online several times a day for a week, but eventually I scored.

Never done the dumpster thing, I would also fear broken glass or whatnot...if it came down to that I would rather pay the $12.99 for a case of empties from LHBS than free disease from the dumpster.

Otherwise, I just got the word out to friends, family, and coworkers. My father even took some of my homebrew to his neighborhood 4th of July party. All the neighbors are going to start saving bottles. In addition, one of the neighbors had brewing equipment, C02 tank!!!, which he offered for free. I will give him plenty of homebrew for it anyway.
I'm brewing 25 gallons this weekend and I'm not worried at all about having enough bottles, there are enough flowing in from everyone that knows me.
I also have kegs for backup, beer storage is no issue here lol

I guess my long winded answer means just one thing, make sure everyone around you knows you need them and you should have ample supply.

TheMan said:

Never done the dumpster thing, I would also fear broken glass or whatnot...if it came down to that I would rather pay the $12.99 for a case of empties from LHBS than free disease from the dumpster.

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No doubt! As cheap as bottles are to buy, I can't see how it would be worth it do dig through the trash on the off chance you might find some empties that would be useable.

Brian

Post ads up on sites like craigslist looking for free bottles....and ask friends, coworkers, family to save ones they don't want. It adds up VERY quickly..

Costco usually has 28 packs of Sam Adams for $22. 28 bottles and 336oz of beer for 22 bucks isn't too bad.

if you were close to Louisville i'd give you boxes full. i've switched to kegging in the last few months and have a ton of bottles in boxes sitting in the basement.

If you have a recycling center you should NEVER have to buy a beer, wine or champagne bottle again.

Short Drive said:

Another good idea is to walk the neighborhood on recycling day.

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+1 to that! A trip or two through a decent sized community/neighborhood will get you a decent amount of bottles.

I actually see elderly folk taking the cans out of the recycle bins in the neighborhood early in the a.m.

mattmcl said:

I recently scored 9 cases of bombers on Craig's List for $20. Keep checking there, IMHO it's worth the cash to get the cardboard boxes, and not have to climb into dumpsters. I had to get anal and check online several times a day for a week, but eventually I scored.

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I couldnt agree more, the CL is amazing! Shoot I found 4 cases of 22s, cleaned in boxes for FREE on CL on day. Just keep an eye out!

Deposit state here, so usually they're being scrounged by people who want them more than me. Once I spent a buck on a bunch of bottles from some guy who had already collected them, does that count?

Though the one LHBS, as it's also a beer store, will sell deposit bottles it collected for 10 cents a bottle. They need some heavy soaking, but they need more to get the labels off than to get the insides clean anyway. Especially since their used bombers mostly seem to be Indian brands, and whatever they use for glue there is pretty fearsome.

OK, I admit it. I do. But only after dark! There are a couple of the recycling bins (big like TRUCK size) about a 1/2 mile from my house. I ride my bicycle there and can load up about 18 bottles in a daypack. It's actually quite fun. I found a couple of 22's the other evening and a Grolsch bottle along with 3 Carlo Rossi 1 gallon bottles. I thought it was quite the score! I also look for 5 gallon plastic buckets that I can use at my shop - the squarish ones that horse vitamins come in are the best.

btw - I don't actually "dive". I have one of those pickers that is about three feet long with a trigger actuated claw. That way I can pick up a bottle without actually touching it and inspect it to make sure it is not broken, cracked or chipped... or been used as a spittoon!

Found 7 more Dead Guy 22's this evening...

I got mine from a mexican restaurant that i frequent. Worked like a charm, i was getting about 40 bottles a week, and now i am drowning in them. Took them home, soaked for a few days in oxyclean and then inside in the dishwasher.. I got bottles, they got samples of homebrew, so win-win for everyone

btw. where do you live adam? If your close enough in IL i have bottles here if you want 'em..

Yup! I dumpster dived when I needed bottles for my first batch. Now I have a pretty good pipeline and a friend who saves bottles for me, but I think I'm going to have to do it again this week because I'm building up from about a 5 gallon pipeline to a 20 gallon pipeline.

It's not really as bad as it sounds. First of all, you're not really going into dumpsters because in most states the bottles will be in recycling bins or large recycling cans.
It helps to live in a dense city neighborhood with a lot of drinkers. I live in Capitol Hill in Seattle in a very dense neighborhood where a lot of drinking goes on. So I only had to spend about 20 minutes walking between apartment buildings before I had 40 or 50 bottles. Some good stuff too like Stone's painted bottles, which saves me de-labeling work. Unfortunately the majority of people still drink BMC or beers like Corona that have clear bottles. So only maybe 1 out of 5 recycling bins have usable stuff near the top, but usually when you do find something there are 6 to 10 usable bottles.

Of course, you have to soak them in PBW when you get home and a couple I had to discard because they had been sitting a very long time and had deposits that wouldn't come off.

You can also try going to your local bar and asking for their discards or just checking in the alley in the back.

I'm really opposed to the idea of paying for bottles (wha? you want me to pay for bottles and they don't have any beer in them??) so that's why I haven't done so yet. In most of the local craigslist ads I've seen, people have been asking for serious cash for their empty bottles.

Also by the way, people might look at you strange when they see someone who doesn't look like a bum rooting through recycling. But don't worry, that's half the fun - if they stare at you, just say I'm a homebrewer! Often that leads to a funny conversation.