Bottle search

I'm not a big fan of the online market, as everywhere I have lived has had a small homebrew warehouse of some kind. The problem I have run into, however, is that all of these local places now stock purely plastic bottles. While some people seem to love them I personally love the presentation of a glass bottle. I am from Canada, and I am wondering if there is any reliable online homebrew websites for buying homebrew material. A lot of american websites either don't ship to Canada, or the shipping is pretty expensive. Any advice would be very welcome. Thanks!

Are you convinced that buying them online is the only way for you to get glass bottles? I've had plenty of luck just picking up recycling materials and asking friends to save their bottles for me.

I also need caps and a capper. I'd rather just get it all in one go then trying trying to scavange around. However, there appears to be no Canadian sites that sell glass bottles. It feels almost as if glass is banned in Canada.

I had great luck with Craigslist and was able to meet some other Brewers along the way. worth a try.

I got all of my glass bottles by buying commercial beer, drinking it and keeping the bottles. Shipping on cases of bottles would cost you as much ad buying a couple of cases of full bottles, even in Canada where the price of beer is outrageous!

What about a bar or restaurant? Maybe they'd save all their non-screw top bottles for you.

inspector13 said:

I had great luck with Craigslist and was able to meet some other Brewers along the way. worth a try.

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I'll put in another shout for Craigslist; it's local so you don't have to worry about shipping and you can inspect before you buy. There are occasionally great deals from people who receive homebrewing equipment as a gift but have no interest in the hobby.

Even try websites like freecycle where people swap one mans trash for another mans treasure for free.

I see you're in Guelph.

Do you ever make it down to Sarnia/Port Huron? If you crossed the blue water bridge my way, I could set you up with a lot of bottles and there are three places in Town to buy your caps and capper. One of them is a smallish brew shop owned by a buddy of mine who I could arrrange to have him ber around (He has flexible hours) a convenience store/beer store that has an aisle of HB supplies, and a make you own wine of premise place that has some HB supplies.

Or if you wanted to take another 45 minute drive to your trip I could point you in the right direction to a large HBS that is like Mecca, and has a ton of different types of glass bottles beyond the 12 ouncers.

I live about a mile south of the bridge on main street downtown, and the small lhbs I was referring to is a couple blocks from me.

I finally pulled a favor from one of my buddies who tends a bar in the area. His bar recycles bottles in the beer cases they come in. He is going to bring me a few cases of bottles. Now of course I am going to have to pick out the twist off; but I should get a few per case. It's free (or a promise of brew his direction) and its simple. So if all else fails in your search check with a bar (or any friends at a bar).

Make the short drive south to Edgewood, New Mexico and I'll give you 3 cases of free glass bottles. J

I would just go to the beer store and ask to buy some bottles off them. Ask for 2 x 24 as it's easier for storage. Bottles for a batch would run you less than 6 $. When you get home put as many bottles as possible in the sink and put a pot of water on the stove. Once boiling remove all the labels and your set for a batch. Sanatize them and your all set to go for less than 10$.....

Thanks for the offer Revvy, but being a student I tend to be a little short for time and I'm a good 3 hours from the border. I may ask the local beer store if I can purchase bottles of of them, seems to be the cheapest option.