Wooden Grolsch Bottle Cases, Ten Years in the Making...

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vonZwicky

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This project has been on the back burner for a long time. It's been in the back of my mind that I'd eventually get serious about homebrewing for about ten years now, so I've been saving all all my Grolsch bottles during this time.

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I've rounded up all the ones from cardboard boxes in the attic, and the ones gracing the tops of my kitchen cabinets and counted 43 of these 16 oz (pint) bottles.

I started the woodwork on this several months ago, then got preoccupied with my keezer build, so it's been collecting dust for a while, but this is what I have so far:

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Two pine boxes custom sized to each fit 20 grolsch bottles. Twenty pints equal two and a half gallons, so both together will have a five gallon capacity.
 
I've got a couple of panels glued up so I can make the tops for the boxes. I hope to get these cut out, everything sanded, varnished, and hardware added over the next couple of weeks. I will add more pics as I go.
 
Thanks, guys. Come to think of it, it's been a while since I've seen flip-top grolsch bottles. So I'm not sure how available they are around here. I've seen people selling their empties on e-bay for reasonable prices, and I know some of the online homebrew retailers sell new flip top bottles of various sizes and colors. Amber colored flip tops would be nice!
 
I thought about cutting the handles in, but since I'm using green glass, I'd like to keep the boxes relatively light proof to prevent skunking. I'll probably just attach chest handles to the outside. Still shopping around for those.
 
INSIDE dimensions for the boxes: 16 5/8 long, 13 1/4 wide, and 9 5/8 deep <a capped grolsch bottle is 9 3/8" tall> (does not include the additional 3/8" dado lip <to accept the lid> around the top rim of the box).

These dimensions would have to be adjusted if you use anything thicker than 1/4 inch to make the dividers. The dividers I cut are 5 3/4 inches tall (this height isn't that critical). Their lengths will finish about 1/8 of an inch shorter than the inside dimensions they span (16 1/2 and 13 1/8 long) after I sand. I don't want them too tight in the boxes, so they can be easily removed.
 
The slots I cut in the dividers are 1/4 inch wide and just slightly over half the height long (3 inches). Again, I didn't want these to fit together too snugly- so they can be easily disassembled for cleaning or stacked aside. The 1/4 inch slot is actually a little wider than the true thickness of the material (a hair over 3/16").

There is a 3 and 1/16th inch space between each slot, so when they are fitted together the inside dimensions of the squares they form are 3 1/16" x 3 1/16". This gives a very small amount of wiggle room for a grolsch bottle (3" diameter at it's widest point).
 
I just want to reiterate that the above are INSIDE (the important) dimensions. Outside dimensions can vary depending on thicknesses of materials and style of construction. Also, these were determined for Grolsch bottles specifically. I have not been able to measure any other types of flip top pint bottles. Slight variations in bottle height or diameter might make these dimensions unworkable for some bottles. I'm curious about the exact dimensions of the amber colored flip tops out there in the market, and if they would still fit in my boxes.
 
Hey! I did the same thing! I stained them to match the diningroom furniture, so SWMBO wouldn't mind me conditioning in a corner of the diningroom.
 
I like your project but I don't use green glass bottles.
http://www.ejwren.com/servlet/the-37/500-ml-AMBER-Flip/Detail

While these would be more of an upfront cost they will reduce bottling stress, and are reusable.



Excerpted from evansale.com/skunked_beer.html

Almost all beer contains hops. Hops give the beer bitterness, and flavor, and aroma.

The hop compounds that are responsible for making beer bitter are called isomerized alpha-acids. These chemicals, along with sulfur compounds found in beer, are also culpable in beer skunking. When light hits beer, it provides the energy necessary to drive a reaction that transforms the iso-alpha-acids into 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol. The “thiol” part indicates that there is sulfur present. Sulfur compounds often have strong, offensive aromas. Some musteline animals, like skunks, have evolved the ability to produce this chemical.
In a sense, the aroma of light-struck beer doesn’t just resemble skunk spray, it is skunk spray! It’s the same stuff!

This photochemical reaction is the only cause of skunked beer. Warm storage, while damaging to the flavor of beer, does not skunk it. Cycling the temperature of beer from warm to cold and back again is also not implicated. Storing beer in the dark is the simple way to prevent skunking.

Blue light, and to a lesser extent green are the most damaging to beer. Most wavelengths of ultraviolet light are not a concern because glass blocks them quite effectively (that’s why you don’t get sunburned in your car). That is the reason beer in green, blue, and clear bottles is almost always skunked. Yes, even some very expensive imports.
 
SWMBO's dissatisfaction with grolsch bottles all along the tops of the kitchen cabinets was the impetus that got this project started in the first place. If it weren't for her, my homebrewery (in progress) wouldn't be nearly as nice! :mug:
 
I like your project but I don't use green glass bottles.
http://www.ejwren.com/servlet/the-37/500-ml-AMBER-Flip/Detail

While these would be more of an upfront cost they will reduce bottling stress, and are reusable.



Excerpted from evansale.com/skunked_beer.html

[/I]

Let's see... If a liter is 0.264 gallons, then a 500 ml (1/2 liter) bottle is 0.132 gallons. A pint (grolsch bottle) is 0.125 gallons (slightly smaller). 500 ml = 1.057 pints. A very small difference. It could be the same sized bottle, the pint measurement being given for American consumption, and the metric half liter (Mexican Reckoning) being used for everyone else. Without actually getting my hands on one of these bottles, or getting detailed measurements, It's anyone's guess if it would fit my box design.
 
If I had to do this all again, I'd try to obtain at least one of each type of similarly sized bottle, and then make the spaces in the box just big enough that it would fit any kind.
 
Excerpted from evansale.com/skunked_beer.html

Almost all beer contains hops. Hops give the beer bitterness, and flavor, and aroma.

The hop compounds that are responsible for making beer bitter are called isomerized alpha-acids. These chemicals, along with sulfur compounds found in beer, are also culpable in beer skunking. When light hits beer, it provides the energy necessary to drive a reaction that transforms the iso-alpha-acids into 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol. The “thiol” part indicates that there is sulfur present. Sulfur compounds often have strong, offensive aromas. Some musteline animals, like skunks, have evolved the ability to produce this chemical.
In a sense, the aroma of light-struck beer doesn’t just resemble skunk spray, it is skunk spray! It’s the same stuff!

This photochemical reaction is the only cause of skunked beer. Warm storage, while damaging to the flavor of beer, does not skunk it. Cycling the temperature of beer from warm to cold and back again is also not implicated. Storing beer in the dark is the simple way to prevent skunking.

Blue light, and to a lesser extent green are the most damaging to beer. Most wavelengths of ultraviolet light are not a concern because glass blocks them quite effectively (that’s why you don’t get sunburned in your car). That is the reason beer in green, blue, and clear bottles is almost always skunked. Yes, even some very expensive imports.

I am concerned about skunked beer. It's one of the reasons for the heavy, light proof wooden boxes. I've read an article recently (wish I could remember the source) that claims that skunking is not so much a problem with darker colored beers. The color of the beer itself protects from the offending wavelengths. I may just use my green bottles for porters and stouts and such, and keg my lighter color brews (if I don't wind up purchasing some of the amber 500 ml flip tops).
 
What? No hand cut Dovetails?

Nice job~!!

All my Grolsh bottles are brown
 
you coud make the rope handles with knots of the inside. blocks 99% of the light and will give some nice handles...just gotta make sure the knots dont get in the way of the bottles.
 
I would think that the rope handles would allow the boxes to be placed closer together than most exterior mounted handles as well. Well, other than the bent wire type, that try to eat your fingers when you carry them.
 
The folks at Northern Brewer would probably measure these for you ...they are helpful folks.

I really like these bottles, especially for their smooth surface. If I ever decide to dabble in labeling, these would be ideal. I just have so many other brew priorities now, it would be a while before I purchased them. If It turns out that they didn't fit, I could always build new boxes.
 
Very nice! With a decent drawing, a water jet or a cnc machine could cut out these pieces for pennies (literally). Someone could have decent business opportunity here.
 
Very nice! With a decent drawing, a water jet or a cnc machine could cut out these pieces for pennies (literally). Someone could have decent business opportunity here.

Ajwyllis, you don't know how right you are. If I ever build some more of these boxes, I'm definitely going to contract out the fabrication of the dividers. The wooden ones I made will work well enough, but they have been a major PITA every step of the way: A pain to cut out, a pain to sand, and they will be a pain to polyurethane (the one chore that's still ahead of me). Next time, I'll build some nice boxes, but the idea of having someone with a cnc machine cut out some plastic dividers for me is VERY appealing.

That said, I've made a lot of progress in the months since I last posted here. My apologies for my laziness in not bringing this build to a close sooner.
 
Bear with me folks, I'm trying to post some new pics I uploaded to the gallery, but I'm having trouble accessing them at the moment. The HBT server may still be trying to digest them.
 
After building the boxes, then the lids, and then routing out for the handles, it was time for the sanding and finish work. I opted for a couple of coats of some minwax sedona red stain followed up by two coats of helmsman spar urethane:

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and then the installation of the handles:

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Alright I'm taking a deep breath. I now have two custom boxes that will each hold 20 sixteen ounce grolsch bottles. They stack well and are easy to carry (I love the speaker case handles!). They should be relatively light proof and be able to stand up to a fair amount of abuse, all the while not being too hard on the eyes.

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One last step: I still need to slap some poly on all of the divider pieces and give it all time to dry :(. Then I can post some pics with the boxes full of bottles.
 
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