Aluminum Bottles?

Yuri Rage .... I love your pics of brew.. i think these bottles are the way to go for shipping! but thats my 2.......!

MOD EDIT: Threads with identical titles and subjects merged. This post was the first one in the newer thread.

Never thought I'd be inspired by Bud Light, but at the Met's game last night I noticed all the bottles they use there are aluminum as opposed to the plastic ones many stadiums use. I haven't seen these ever at a LHBS, online or really anywhere. I read online that they are supposed to keep things colder longer, which goes against my initial thought that glass bottles would insulate better and avoid temp swings. Not sure how cleaning them would be, but never worrying about breaking one would be nice.

I can't find anything on these boards about them. Does anyone know if home brewers can buy these or if they'd be a bad idea for any reason?

Mike

I have a case of Mountain Dew Bottles that are also aluminum. You CAN NOT cap them with a wing capper, but if you have a bench capper...they work great. VERY hard to get the paint off of them though.

If you find a supplier...POST IT. Talk about light safe beer bottle.

Someone was using different things to remove the painted on bud label from the metal...and came up with some nice looking bottles...Try doing a search for Aluminum bottles or Metal bud bottles.

Looks like you can use them with a bench capper.

I like them because they are shatter proof bottles. Safer for parties.

I would love to find a supplier of the blanks for these bottles, specifically for shipping.

I have used a couple six packs of these bottles for home brew. You do need a bench capper but they cap just fine and work great. Its nice that they are nearly the same size as a 12oz glass bottle but hold 16oz.

I havn't seen any where you can buy home brew quantities of these bottles. It seems they only sell the finished product painted ready to go in truck load quantities. I'd be interested if you could buy blanks.

If you can stand the label then buying Bud in the bottle is probably a good value. Glass 22oz cost nearly $1/bottle at the LHBS so I would expect these to be similar. You can probably find Bud in the bottles for less. My problem would be finding a suitable disposal mechanism for the Bud. I know I won't drink it.

Craig

Maybe we could get everyone here together and get a big enough order...Have the HBT Logo stamped on them....cool spot to write in your brew name, or a place to put your label.

We get a bulk order together, dish them out at a slight profit for the site, let brewers order them 2 or 4 cases at a time.

The only supplier I could find wouldn't ship less than an entire semi-trailer full of them. The minimum order is something in the tens-of-thousands of bottles.

10,000 bottles divided by 24 = 417 cases.

21,867 HBT members. We should be able to average .019 cases per member? Cause there's gotta be guys like me that'd take like....10 cases.

Depends on the price of a case, at least they shouldn't be very heavy to ship.

BigKahuna said:

10,000 bottles divided by 24 = 417 cases.

21,867 HBT members. We should be able to average .019 cases per member? Cause there's gotta be guys like me that'd take like....10 cases.

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Are you going to organize the buy?

If they are less than a dollar a bottle delivered then i'll take a couple cases.

Craig

I would love to....but seriously...I'm lucky I've organized my ass enough to actually find this thread again.

We would need to get Tx's approval...

I'm going to pick some of these up and test them out. If their durability is good I would consider buying them unpainted if we did a bulk buy, or just a single base color, no logos. But I want to test it first. Boy, it'd be nice to get rid of all the glass and just store milk crates of these lighter bottles instead of the heavier and more dangerous glass.

I would be in for buying some nonpainted bottles as well. That would be cool if he could get a homebrew label on them and a place for us to put the name of our brew on them as well if we could pull that off.

CCL Container. is one of the companies that makes them. They have a long neck model that looks perfect for a wing capper. I have requested some samples and pricing for my own information. It will be interesting to see what they are like and what they cost.

I did not mention this board when speaking to them. when I get pricing I will post it if anyone is interested.

Very Cool lapaglia. I think there may be enough interest here if the price/amount is right.

Keep us posted.

It would be interesting to see how much they would charge for some plain bottles. We had a car show in town a couple weeks ago and they were serving domestic beers in them. After the show was over, I was able to get about 30 of the empties and cleaned them up.

I live about an hour from CCL's facilities. I will be contacting them to see if I can purchase smaller quantities, if the order is picked up at their site. This could allow other members who are interested in obtaining these cans an opportunity to purchase a case or two or more at a time.

I will let you know if they are willing to sell smaller lots as a customer pickup.

CBBaron: You are pretty close to the facility yourself, you know (about 1 1/2 hour) And what's up with the Steeler emblem from a Cleveland fan?


Salute!

lapaglia said:

CCL Container. is one of the companies that makes them. They have a long neck model that looks perfect for a wing capper. I have requested some samples and pricing for my own information. It will be interesting to see what they are like and what they cost.

I did not mention this board when speaking to them. when I get pricing I will post it if anyone is interested.

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I hope you have better luck then the rest of us have had. Myself and at least two other members have done the same with no reply back or samples sent. I went as far as giving a quantity of 10,000 for pricing. This was several months ago and even after a reminder email to them I have had no response.

Edit: I bought 2 cases of Mountain Dew in the aluminum bottles when walmart had them on sale. They will cap, but a wing capper likes to get stuck on the bottle. I suggest a bench capper.

Sorry, but I had not read all of the posts to this thread before responding. I did send them an e-mail and I also will contact them by phone if possible. It may be worth the effort. I will let everyone know if I am able to get a response.

beerthirty: If you re-used the Mt. Dew cans, I supose that means they are re-useable, right? Again, I did not read the entire thread! I have a buddy who owns the bar three doors away from me and his old man drinks Iron City from the Aluminum Cans. I know I can score about three cases a day from there.

bmckee56 said:

beerthirty: If you re-used the Mt. Dew cans, I supose that means they are re-useable, right? Again, I did not read the entire thread! I have a buddy who owns the bar three doors away from me and his old man drinks Iron City from the Aluminum Cans. I know I can score about three cases a day from there.

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I don't know if they are coated or not, but I have used them to ship beer and mead across country to my Dad. He has had no problems with what I shipped. I would snatch up all the Iron City bottle cans you could. It makes a trip to the lake or the park so much more enjoyable when you can take homebrew without the worry of "no glass" laws.

bmckee56 said:

I live about an hour from CCL's facilities. I will be contacting them to see if I can purchase smaller quantities, if the order is picked up at their site. This could allow other members who are interested in obtaining these cans an opportunity to purchase a case or two or more at a time.

I will let you know if they are willing to sell smaller lots as a customer pickup.

CBBaron: You are pretty close to the facility yourself, you know (about 1 1/2 hour) And what's up with the Steeler emblem from a Cleveland fan?
Salute!

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If they are willing to sell unprinted cases in person, I'd be willing to make the drive, however I'm guessing you will run into road blocks. Good luck.

As for your Steeler and Cleveland comment you've got it wrong. I'm a STEELER fan LIVING in Cleveland. Gets me plenty of grief from the locals, but I have always been a diehard Steeler fan. Now outside of the NFL, I'll usually root for Cleveland team, but I'm not nearly as into those sports.

Craig

Glad this thread re-surfaced!
I just bottled some up in the Mtn.Dew Bottles to give out at work. I'd love to see some unpainted Aluminum Bottles!

Any pricing updates?
I found out they don't sell anything in these bottles in North Carolina (at least not in my area). My father-in-law found them in Pennsylvania and got me two cases. We drank one at a party, the other has taken me a LONG time to get mostly done. I can only really drink the stuff when it's really hot and I'm on the mower.

I haven't gotten a bench capper yet, but damn, these bottles would be the bomb if I test it and it works out. Super light, take up less space, safe to ship or travel with...

incidentally, I am also trying to sell my house (and my beautiful 900 square foot workshop/brewery! ALAS!). My wife took a position in Pennsylvania, so once I sell the place and find a job up there I'll move, too.

WHile going back to the cold north will suck, on the bright side I can more easily get aluminum bottles. The price-tag is high, though. I have to give up my awesome detached garage (which is really just my workshop and brewery). At least until we get settled and I can work on building a new one up there. WOE AND SADNESS!

I just requested samples of their traditional and gothic bottles. I didn't imply that I was a company, but I also didn't imply that I wasn't a company. I said that I was interested in their packaging methods for my craft ales.

Anybody else tried requesting samples from their website?

FYI, if you guys are truly interested. We would have to get a helluva lot of people interested before we could do a bulk buy...

Reply from CCL:

Thank you for your interest in CCL Container. I will be more than happy to
provide any information to you concerning our bottle making process.
If you have not already, please visit our website, Marketers obtain brand distinction with aluminum packaging from CCL Container.
<http://www.bottlecan.com> which includes an image gallery link that contains
profiles of bottles that we have produced in the past.
If you are interested in a particular bottle, please let me know. I would gladly
send you samples for review.
We are a large volume aluminum extruded container manufacturer based on a "make
and ship" principle.
Our minimum order quantity for beverage bottles is 100,000 units. 50,000 unit
orders are accepted at higher price points.
Pricing is dependent upon order quantity, size and specifications of the bottle.
Once a particular bottle is chosen, we can process a quote.
We have the ability to print up to 8 colors directly on line. Artwork charges
are $550/color seperation and $550/plate (one time processing charge unless
revisions are made).
We can offer 8oz up to 20oz bottle sizes.
CCL does not provide the caps, but could provide you with a number of suppliers.
Please let me know what other information I could provide to assist you in your
research.

Best Regards,
____________________________________________
Carrie Schmidt | CCL Container | Customer Service
One Llodio Drive | Hermitage, PA 16148
Tel: 724-981-4420 ext. 328 | Fax: 724-981-7226

Hmmm, yeah that is a whole lot of bottles. Almost would need a big online supplier to make that kind of buy.

As many others have said, they would be sweet for shipping.

So think you could get about 1000 sample bottles and send them out to people?

i just went to their site and asked for samples. they took about a week to get back to me, but i told them i wanted to sample 3 of the different bottles. they said they would send them right out. now i need a bench capper.

i asked for some samples, this came in the mail. the shorter ones work awesome with my hand capper. the taller ones get pinched at the next with the hand capper but they still work

check them out

cheeseshark said:

Hmmm, yeah that is a whole lot of bottles. Almost would need a big online supplier to make that kind of buy.

As many others have said, they would be sweet for shipping.

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Where is Forrest?
Austin Home Brew Supply?

Austin Home Brew Supply

Austin Home Brew Supply

Austin Home Brew Supply

Austin Home Brew Supply

Austin Home Brew Supply

Austin Home Brew Supply

Austin Home Brew Supply

Austin Home Brew Supply

Austin Home Brew Supply

Austin Home Brew Supply

Austin Home Brew Supply

These really would be great for shipping, also good when you want to order a couple cases of bottles and they cost less to ship...

ooooooo damn, I can't wait until they are available in homebrewer quantities. I'll take 10 dozen.

Miller Chill comes in aluminum bottles now. The neck is very similar in shape to typical glass bottles. The mouth has an exaggerated lip compared to glass. Nothing on the bottle says anything about a liner. Looking in the bottle, I don't see anything that looks like a liner, even after smacking it around some.

I capped one this morning with a regular bottle cap and wing capper. It seemed to fit fine. Problem is the capper bit the neck a little. Enough to peel up a very thin roll of aluminum. These bottles may not be reusable as many times as glass.

Once a brew is ready, I will bottle in the aluminum and save it to drink last.

pics? Is miller chill one of those horrendous lime drinks?

so has anyone heard anything about pricing or a group buy?

I'll just take a loan on my 401k and pick them up for re-sale. Oh, wait, someone already took it...
Anybody find if there is a coating on the inside?

i got a couple samples. they are shiny, like polished, i cant tell if its a coating. if anyone is near by they can look at one