Empty beer bottles?

Does anyone know where to get empty beer bottles when you're first starting out? I've saved all of my empties from last semester, but I only have about 6 gallons of bottle space (between all the different bottle sizes), and about 2 gallons of those are filled and conditioning. Help, I don't want to leave my beer in the fermenter for too long!

Go check at a local bar to see if you can buy or take away the empties.

Heckle said:

Go check at a local bar to see if you can buy or take away the empties.

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you could do the same ata local package store

david83 said:

you could do the same ata local package store

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I have heard that somewhere else but it doesn't make sense to me. Why would a package store have empty bottles? Do packies usually have a recycling depot in them????

I'm just starting out as well. Things I've tried/trying:

Ask a local bar for a bag or two of empties. The smaller bars seem to be a little more friendly to the idea. I offered to help clean up/shut down a bar one night their bags of empties from that night.

If you have any kind of recycling center, ask them if you can raid their bottle bin or if they have an after-hours drop dumpster (like mine) you can always go dumpster diving.

Ask friends to save theirs. You could always trade them some of your beer for their empties.

Drink a lot of beer from now until your batch is ready to be bottled. (make sure they are pop tops and not twist offs)

Buy them - though if you don't have a local place that sells 'em cheap you may as well buy them filled and empty them.

I'm sure theres other ways too.. these are just what came to me offhand.

Good luck.

You see, I've been drinking a lot more beer than usual to catch up, but since I'm in Canada, beer is pretty expensive (and I'm in college, which limits my funding). I've called all my local liquor stores, and they act like I'm crazy when I ask if I can buy their empties. I figured that the bars wouldn't have pop-tops, and the closest LHBS is across town. Taking three boxes of bottles on the bus for that long doesn't seem like the best idea

I'll probably just end up leaving my IPA in the secondary, but it's unfortunate that it'll be tied up for that long. Hopefully I can find somewhere on campus that will give me empties.

You're in college?

Have you asked around at any of the local dorms/student housing/fraternities/sororities?

Yesterday I went to a homebrew club meeting and I picked up a couple that the other guys left and one of the members asked if we were looking for bottles, I said yes of course and I walked out with about 70 new, rinsed bottles. I also posted an ad on craigslist once, but nobody responded... figures. But, yeah, if you have a homebrew club in the area, the members probably know were you could find some, or maybe have some extras they dont need to help someone get started

Mista Sparkle: That's a great idea, I'll see if there's a club in my area.

vitae drinker: No, I haven't. I have a friend in a frat, so I'll ask him, but I've never seen someone drinking pop-tops at a frat party :/

In NYC we have Beer/beverage distributors( a big store full of beer:rockin. They collect empties also. I n NY it's a nickle deposit on the bottles. So I made a deal with the guy for ten cents a bottle. Just got two cases for $4.80. Look for some place who collects empties and make a deal.

subtlephilo said:

I don't want to leave my beer in the fermenter for too long!

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It may not be possible... don't stress about that

Also always check out freecycle and craigslist. I made a posting cause I was in a situation where after the Holidays I gave alot of bottles out to friends and employees so I did not have enough for my up-coming brews. Made a simple craigslist post and I got 12 24 pack cases of de-labeled bottles and 12 hard-wood coke/pepsi bottle carriers for a few bucks. One of the best craigslist deals I ever got!

One easy way I found when first starting out was to host a party (not a get wasted frat boy party, but something like a poker game or something like that) and request that everyone bring a 6er of non-screw offs to share and drink. That will quickly net you another ~2 cases.

I've been using my need for more bottles for brewing as an excuse to purchase more beer. I can pay $1+ for a 22oz. bottle full of air, or I can pay one more buck to get it filled with Thunderhead IPA.

I wish I still lived in the States, especially a place like Portland that produces so much good inexpensive beer

My self I have been doing the Michelob Lager two 12's at a time and have a local party store 2 blocks away that lets me scour their back room for pop top bottles . . . Someone sure likes St.Paulis Girl in the 24 oz. bottles.
On another note I have a buddy that laughs about it and puts 80% of what he brews in 2 Liter bottles.

Heckle said:

Go check at a local bar to see if you can buy or take away the empties.

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I was told Sunday that it's illegal (in Colorado at least) for restaurants to give away empty bottles. I haven't confirmed that statement, nor was I given the reasoning behind it however...

I don't understand. You are in college, and are having trouble finding empty beer bottles?

I think I may have a problem. I've found all my empties by drinking them.

suckr said:

I'm just starting out as well. Things I've tried/trying:

Ask a local bar for a bag or two of empties. The smaller bars seem to be a little more friendly to the idea. I offered to help clean up/shut down a bar one night their bags of empties from that night.

If you have any kind of recycling center, ask them if you can raid their bottle bin or if they have an after-hours drop dumpster (like mine) you can always go dumpster diving.

Ask friends to save theirs. You could always trade them some of your beer for their empties.

Drink a lot of beer from now until your batch is ready to be bottled. (make sure they are pop tops and not twist offs)

Buy them - though if you don't have a local place that sells 'em cheap you may as well buy them filled and empty them.

I'm sure theres other ways too.. these are just what came to me offhand.

Good luck.

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Good answer. Former Bobcat here (suckr understands). I think your best (and cheapest option) would be to ask a local bar. Since you are in college, I'm sure there is one real close, so no lugging a ton of bottles across town. Just ask them (or just a specific bartender) to save you some pop top bottles (preferably brown glass).

A recycling center has bottles to make money off of, I highgly doubt they will be much help.

Dumpster diving is just plain nasty. IIRC, you are in Vancouver, correct? If so, with the olympics, that town should be overflowing with empties.

Friends is a great idea. Just be sure to include them in some of the spoils. Makes for a great excuse to brew more. Heck, maybe you can get a few to pitch in on buying ingredients. Split a batch 2 or 3 ways. Yeah, you kind of get shorted on beer, but especially at first its gaining experience that is more valuable than the beer itself.

The buying them route obviously works great too. It just costs, and like you said.... college student.... funds tight.....

Best of luck to you.

It seems at first that accumulating bottles is difficult but if you drink micros you will accumulate them really quickly. Also if you mention around to people that you brew and need crown bottles they will start showing up. There's also craigslist, and freecycle.org, hooking up with other homebrewers, recycling centers. Asking at beerstores that have a good selection of beer for their returnables.

It seems daunting but you'll get plenty really fast.

HABIT said:

My self I have been doing the Michelob Lager two 12's at a time and have a local party store 2 blocks away that lets me scour their back room for pop top bottles . . . Someone sure likes St.Paulis Girl in the 24 oz. bottles.
On another note I have a buddy that laughs about it and puts 80% of what he brews in 2 Liter bottles.

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I'm a big fan of the Michelob bottles. For what you get, its a pretty good beer at a good price. Not great beer, but better than Budweiser, Miller, Coors and much cheaper than buying the good stuff. Nice middle route.

MANY years ago, some friends and I brewed a couple batches, ran out of bottles and ended up using 3 liter bottles. The beer still carbonated just fine. It was horrible stuff, but it was carbonated horrible stuff.

You could always just bite the bullet and get a corny keg

The problem is that in Vancouver, prices for anything but local beer are outrageous (6-pack of coors light could run you $10). I've asked several local stores, but recycling is a really big deal here, so they all say no. I guess I could just bite the bullet and buy some, I saw some on Craigslist. I hope that someone will be nice enough to deliver them. . .

subtlephilo said:

The problem is that in Vancouver, prices for anything but local beer are outrageous (6-pack of coors light could run you $10). I've asked several local stores, but recycling is a really big deal here, so they all say no. I guess I could just bite the bullet and buy some, I saw some on Craigslist. I hope that someone will be nice enough to deliver them. . .

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That's outrageous. Homebrewing isn't a hobby up there, it's a necessity.

subtlephilo said:

6-pack of coors light could run you $10

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ouch. Yea, i would seriously consider getting a keg. It is kinda expensive, but it is worth it. Plus, having a keg on a campus is like a golden ticket...

iron_city_ap said:

MANY years ago, some friends and I brewed a couple batches, ran out of bottles and ended up using 3 liter bottles. The beer still carbonated just fine. It was horrible stuff, but it was carbonated horrible stuff.

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Was it horrible because it was in the plastic bottles or because you were less experienced ???
My friends are LAZY . . . I've helped them dump 5 gallon batches in 40 oz. bottles while maybe getting one flat one in the bunch. To each there own I guess. . . Their way of thinking is its less bottling and you almost always pour to a glass with homebrew anyways. Takes up less room in the fridge.
I'm stackin all my bottles in milk crates with a cardboard cutout over the bottles. Easy stackin next to the beer fridge and MIGHT try to lager like this in the near future.

P.S. Two more 12's of Michelob Lager to get to weekend started :rockin::rockin:

subtlephilo - are you at UBC? One idea is the recycling depot on W Broadway - although I can't remember the exact address, you might be able to buy some bottles back off them, or just hang around and buy them off somebody dropping bottles off themselves. Also there is Broadway Brewing at W Broadway a block west of Macdonald, they might be able to help as well, although i've never been inside, just seen it from the street.

You are a good Canadian boy, so bottles aren't that hard to get. Go to the local beer store and buy back the returns. The Canadian brands (Lab Lite, Canadian, Canada brewed Bud, etc) are all twist offs, but the glass is thicker up here and will handle a wing capper. I bought back 14 dozen bottles from the beer store for under 20 bucks, a couple of days to get the crud and lables off, and now have 168 bottles on hand. I bottled up two batches 5 gal. each and broke 2 bottles. And you know when it is going to break, sounds like grinding sand.

im going to upgrade to kegging this summer in vancouver and will need to get rid of ~50L of grolsch type bottles, 6x1.5L, maybe 15 1L, and the rest 473 or 455mL depending on the year that grolsch changed size to smaller

you should throw them on ebay, I sold two cases for 40 dollars a case a while ago, funny thing is you can buy them for that with beer in them. people can be dumb. those bottles are great to have around though.

gannawdm said:

I've been using my need for more bottles for brewing as an excuse to purchase more beer. I can pay $1+ for a 22oz. bottle full of air, or I can pay one more buck to get it filled with Thunderhead IPA.

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I know this is an old thread but came across it for something i was searching and had to +1 that. theres not many more things that puzzle, anger, and frustrate me than beer bottle prices.

a 6 pack of beer- $6 to $8ish for what i buy normally so about a buck a bottle or more.

a case of new bottles- $10-$15 so about a buck a bottle or more. hmmm what the hell am i paying for?

and dont get me started on the grolsch bottles...

Post up a want ad and put on the Exchange Board on campus?

KillJoy

TomHanx said:

a 6 pack of beer- $6 to $8ish for what i buy normally so about a buck a bottle or more.

a case of new bottles- $10-$15 so about a buck a bottle or more. hmmm what the hell am i paying for?

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The only thing I can think of is that you are paying for expediency. I thought I was going to have to buy some empties in a pinch to bottle my second batch (which will probably be this Sunday) but it turns out I am waaaaay ahead, especially after I started snagging empties from friends when it is convenient.

My wife had an idea to have a "bottle party" where people come over and bring their (brown non-twisty!) empties and trade them for HB. I'm probably going to try that in late May or early June, I'll let people know how it goes.

I just forced down a case of Sam Adams winter lager since Saturday. Now I have 2 cases of bottles. Can bottle on Wed. I have 12 Grolsch bottles too. And a couple 22's and 750 ml bottles.

I'm not sure they have Trader Joes up in Canada, I know they're spread out all over here in the states.... I've been buying their Nero's dark and amber ale $1.99 a bottle for a brown 500ml grolsh type bottle, which is cheaper that what the big online brew stores sell them for (12 for 27.99) and the beer isn't that bad! Dark one is better than the amber....

One thing I haven't heard yet is restaurants. I live near Iowa they have a deposit on bottles. I just asked a restaurant that I frequented if I could raid there bottle room. I paid them 10 cents a bottle and all was well. Usually if it is a good restaurant they have higher end beers that use pop tops. Between that and all the Fat Tire and O'dell's Levity I drink I almost have to many bottles.

I've been lucky in this aspect of the hobby.

Between my roommates and I, there are constantly empty craft brews on the counter and coffee table, so I rinse and scrape those.

All fall I would grab empties at tailgates and put them in my cooler. And then on Sundays I would stop by my friends houses and go through their garbage to find pop-tops. Some of them even started leaving them out for me to grab.

Football season is over on the plains and I'm graduating in 5 days and moving back in with my parents (and brew partner) but I'm hoping that I'll have enough in my pipeline to make up for the lower rate of consumption.

I dunno, I just bought Sam Adams for a few months and a few Grolsch type cases of bottles (500ml) from my LHBS until I built my keezer. Kegs only now, except I stash away a few 6 packs from each batch to take to friends. If I run out of bottles from friends I'll pay the 9 bucks for a Sam Adams or 2.

Steiger66 said:

In NYC we have Beer/beverage distributors( a big store full of beer:rockin. They collect empties also. I n NY it's a nickle deposit on the bottles. So I made a deal with the guy for ten cents a bottle. Just got two cases for $4.80. Look for some place who collects empties and make a deal.

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I know this post is extremely old, but what distributor are you talking about? I'm looking to buy in bulk here in NYC, and I'm looking for the best deal...