Tip on Good, Cheap Bottles

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.

You used to be able to find plenty of non-screw-top returnables in every liquor store, and cheap. But these days, in our disposable world, they are getting scarce. You've made a great find.

What about free empty champagne bottles with crown caps to fit?

Yeah, champagne botles rock! I only have a couple of them, but they sure are sturdy little buggers and are perfect for splitting a homebrew with a couple people.

-walker

I never thought of champagne bottles! Can you use typical crown caps and a capper on them?

yes you can.

Yuengling stills makes and sells their premium beer in those "battleship" cases... I see it around here all the time...

Man, I thought this was common knowledge, i got about 15 cases of returnables in my basment. They sell them for $1.20 a case here. I soaked them all in bleach water and all the labels come off clean, and I love the old school boxes.

Walker said:

perfect for splitting a homebrew with a couple people.

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For sharing homebrew, I use 2 liter soda bottles. You can force carb them with a carbonator cap or even naturally carb them up. It takes a ton of work out of bottling cause you can get a half gallon of beer in one. Plus they don't break.
I've even carried 2 of them on a plane.

I know I've mentioned this before, but a GREAT source of FREE Champagne bottles are wedding receptions!

Also, with New Years parties coming soon you can go to some of your local hotels and arrange to pick up cases of empties from them on NY's day.

Walker said:

Yeah, champagne botles rock! I only have a couple of them, but they sure are sturdy little buggers and are perfect for splitting a homebrew with a couple people.

-walker

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yeah sure, splitting with a couple of peaple :cross:

brewmister said:

yeah sure, splitting with a couple of peaple :cross:

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Good point - when's THAT gonna happen! That's why my local beer distributor and I still have a good relationship - for the beer I buy for everyone else!