Buying Bottles from HBS

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Thunder_Chicken

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I feel that I must confess a sin. I...I..bought 4 cases of empty beer bottles today so I can bottle my brews.

My brewing was getting ahead of me. I have 5 gallons of hard cider stashed under the sink, 5 gallons of beer ready to bottle, and another 5 gallons cranking away in primary. I deliberately did a lot of quick turnaround small beers and ciders for summer drinking, and it needs to get bottled ASAP if I am going to enjoy it when the heat hits. Everything I have bottled now won't be ready for a while.

My buddies also homebrew and need their bottles, and I really couldn't get through 4 cases of anything in a week or so. So I broke down and bought empties. Works out to about $4 per six pack after shipping. I think with these I can start a rotation where I'll be emptying and filling bottles at more or less a steady rate.

How many bottles do most of you (those who bottle anyway) have in rotation? With these additions I'll have over 200 in circulation.

And to forestall the inevitable "Why not keg?" question - no refrigerator space and personal preference. It's easier to store, age, transport, and gift my brews, plus having beer on tap in the house would be dangerous :drunk: - sorta like to have bottlecaps to count to monitor my consumption rate.
 
I trade one full for 6 empties, and have collected about 300 bottles. 2/3 full, 1/3 empty at the moment. I have 10G to bottle in the next month, think I have just enough. I'd rather invest in brew equipment than keg equipment, but I'll get there!
 
I bet I have 300 or 400, mostly bombers. I started kegging this winter, and am slowly getting more empties. I bought a lot of my bottles on Craigslist for cheaper than the HBS had them for -- but a lot of them needed some serious cleaning.
 
No shame in buying bottles as far as I'm concerned. Collecting/ de-labeling commercial bottles can be a pain in the a&$, even if emptying them isn't.

I keg, and I have about five cases of 12oz brown bottles in circulation (some styles lend themselves to bottle conditioning of course, plus I bottle from the keg for sharing/ trading).

And btw: +1 to the dangers of kegging vs monitoring consumption. Beer flows so freely from the faucet, especially when it's a 9% IIPA.

Cheers!
 
I too bought my first case of bottles from my LHBS. Since then I've collected another 2 cases through drinking. No shame in buying to get thing flowing.
 
The only ones I've gotten from the LHBS have been 1liter flip-tops. I probably have 200 clear for emergency use and for my rice wine and other beverages. I have enough brown bottles to do about 15 gallons of beer. I like bombers more then the 12oz bottles though.
 
Couple growlers.
1 case of 1L flip-tops.
2-3 cases of 750mL Belgians.
1 case of 24oz corona bottles (for skeeter pee)
4-5 cases of bombers.
12+ cases 12oz.

I have so many bottles that need soaked and washed right now. My friends keep on giving me their empties. I have a bunch in water soaked cases by the trash barrel in case I decide to just toss 'em.
 
I've got about 350 bottles in circulation...and I have not "purchased" a single EMPTY bottle! Right now, I've got a stout in secondary, and I've got plenty of empty bottles to take care of it. I don't brew often enough to run myself out of bottles.

glenn514:mug:
 
Yeah,me too. I've got a couple hundred bottles,so I have more than I can fill. I also have 45 Cooper's 25oz PET bottles & caps I've been trying to trade for a 5 or 6 gallon better bottle to oak in. No takers yet in the fore sale thread.
 
Oh Thunder Chicken I feel your pain. My brewing has gotten out of hand and I am going to have to buy prolly 4 cases of empties to bottle what I have waiting. Either that or quit my job so I have more time to keep myself supplied with empties...

Sorta caused the problem when I brewed a couple batches back to back that need extended aging.
 
Winter time my pipeline runs about 15 cases but in the summer it will go up to 20 cases since I will not have as much time to brew. I leave them in a warm room to carb for a couple of months and then stack them in my cellar after that. So in the summer I generally have 10 cases in the cellar and ten carbing stashed around the house.

I am not hurting for beer anytime soon :rockin:
 
My longnecks are all non-returnable commercial bottles.....from a great variety of breweries. Mine came from home- a family that drinks a lot of beer. Local bars should be a cornucopia of such bottles. They work fine, and repeatedly. The few failures I had (vertical cracks in the neck) were from when I was using the wing capper; once I switched to a bench capper, nary a problem.
 
The few failures I had (vertical cracks in the neck) were from when I was using the wing capper; once I switched to a bench capper, nary a problem.

This is also an issue I am running up against. Last bottling session I noticed some hairline cracks and one bottle I had to toss as I heard a little *crack* when I capped it. Seems like my Guinness bottles don't handle re-use all that well.

I've been using my cheapo wing capper but may need to upgrade soon. I'm getting a little more diligent (paranoid) about inspecting my bottles too.
 
If you are going to buy from LHBS buy the 22oz bombers...I find I've got plenty of 12 oz bottles by picking up a 12 pack of SNPA every once on awhile. Goes in the groceries budget whereas purchases from LHBS end up hitting the hobby budget...
 
I have 2.5 cases of homebrew conditioning now, just cleaned one more case of empties, and have 4 more cases coming from HBS.

Next bottling day (probably next Tuesday), I have enough to fill 4.5 cases, so I should be good for now. However in 3 weeks I'll have another 5 gallon batch ready to bottle, so I'll need another 2+ cases, and my brews won't be ready by then, so I'll have to get some more empties. Hopefully the batch after that I'll start into my brews that are ready to drink and the bottle population will reach something close to steady state around 240 bottles.

I have some mead and apfelwein going as well but those can bulk age for a while and I will probably bottle them still in real wine bottles, so they are not a factor.

Man, I've really ramped up my production! Not too shabby since restarting homebrewing in January with a 1-gallon kit! I can't wait until I can drink as much as I brew.
 
cooldood said:
I like those 22s but I dont always get them back after GIVING away beer

I do the same, but I also use it as a deposit system; if I dont get my bottles back, you dont get more beer.

To the OP, I also petition friends to keep their bottles to give to me, and im always surprised with quite a few CLEANED empties. Just give them high quality home brew, and just ask for empties in return.
 
I prolly have 3-4 cases bottled right now. Have 12 empty 24oz Corona bottles, around 60 or so clean and de-labeled twist offs, and I just picked up about 150 pop tops from the local recycling center for free. Got about 50 or so of them cleaned and de-labeled. I have a 7 sankes (1/4 and 1/6 bbl) that I'm dying to use, but I still have build up my keezer, so it's gonna be bottles for a while.
 
I bought a bunch of those EZ Cap bottles with flip top lids, from a store that was going out of business. I spent like $300, but at less than 80¢ a bottle+lid, it was soooo worth it.
 
To the OP, I also petition friends to keep their bottles to give to me, and im always surprised with quite a few CLEANED empties. Just give them high quality home brew, and just ask for empties in return.

That's the plan, but I don't have a reputation for homebrew yet. I have a couple brews that should wow the friends and family.
 
I've got about 75 craft bottles (mostly 22oz) and about 150 12 oz. recently I had just about every bottle filled and bought a case of 22s but I'm good again with enough empties for about 1.5 batches and at least 2 weeks away from next bottling...

This puts my bottled beer capacity at about 27 gallons. I am thinking I'd like to get to about 40 gallons as I start to put up more beer intended for aging.

I've started collecting some belgian cork and cage bottles. Have about 8 now, have a vague plan to invest in a Portuguese corker and start using these on some special beers designed for aging.
 
I have no issue buying bottles. My friends are homebrewers, so I'm not going to get bottles from them (since they need them too). I brew enough, and well enough, that I don't really purchase beer unless at a bar. I purchase a case of nugget nectar once a year, that won't help. I also keg, but as pointed out, sometimes you need to bottle condition. Or, as we've gotten into sours (and I'm too chicken to put them in a keg), I bottle those too. But at my LHBS, a case of empties is 12-14 bucks. FAR cheaper than buying a decent craft beer and drinking/delabeling.
 
I've purchased 4 cases (three 12 oz brown, one 16 oz flip-top) so far and have supplemented those with the occasional sixer I get from the grocery store. We have a surprisingly good selection of craft brews in there, can even buy mixed 6-packs. This process seems to work, although I admit taking labels off is just one more step of work in this hobby. I'd also like to see a few more bottles that I've given away find their way back to me.
 
I have about 5 cases of bottles. Never bought a single one. Go to a bar and ask the bartender or server for returnable bottles. I've gotten cases for free. Just give them a nice tip.

I switched to kegs, so they sit idle now.
 
I just counted how many cases of 12 oz bottles I have.

27.

600+ bottles. Plus 4 cases of pint/bomber/750s. Plus 6 Belgians. Plus a few cases of wine bottles for mead. Plus five growlers that I've filled a grand total of once.

I've bought bottles twice, once on craigslist while buying other stuff, once in a novelty shop for 30 cents each. For bombers. I got about 20.

I remember getting my 100th and 200th bottle. I still pick up cases of bottles when I steward competitions.

And can we talk about my beer glass collection?

I have a problem. I have a serious problem.
 
I just did a recount myself. 14 cases of 12oz bottles,45 Cooper's 25oz PET bottles. I advertised the PET bottles to trade in the for sale forum for a 5 or 6 gallon better bottle with no takers. But at this point,I like the 12oz glass bottles better,& need a secondary for oaking,etc more.
 
I have 25+ cases of 12oz bottles and prob 50 or so 22oz bottles. I have a recycling center a few miles from my house so when I started home brewing I went dumpster diving.

I brew in spurts so I might not brew for a few months but then I'll brew 50 gallons in a few weeks, I just started kegging but I have 12+ cases still full in my basement. I'm torn on the kegging thing, I like to share my beer and I like knowing how many I had in a sitting, hard to do with a keg, but I can keg 5 gallons in 20mins instead of at least an hour to bottle.
 
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