Trying to find re-usable (heavy duty) beer cases

Cardboard cases only last so long. I don't think I'll have much luck finding antique wooden beer cases, and I'm not really feeling like building my own. There simply must be some source of re-usable beer cases with the dividers in them. Wood would be fine, plastic would probably be better. Good ole Googlor is shooting blanks on this one, and the usual online homebrew places don't seem to have anything either. ANYONE?

try hanging file folder crates

Milk crates work pretty well

eriktlupus said:

try hanging file folder crates

Click to expand...

Staples had them on sale for $4.99 so I bought one to give it a shot. The problem is, the bottom is solid plastic, and pretty flimsy at that. I may use this one for the bottling process though (something to hold the filled bottles until I get a chance to cap them... I always dread knocking them down like dominoes!)

I'm thinking my best bet might be to get the rectangular milk crates and make some sort of durable divider. The idea is to be able to bottle everything up, rack it in the crates, and then hose everything down to clean up the beer spillage. And of course, I want them to be stackable with the bottles in them. This will appease SWMBO, which is a good thing.

You might be able to find fruit crates that will work. Some are a bit flimsy but I have seen others that are actually pretty nice. Even with the flimsy ones, you might be able to easily beef them up. Just a thought...probably should ask around at your local grocery store. Or even better...if you live in an area that has a lot of local farmers (I work in Lancaster PA so there are the Amish) you might be able to find crates like the ones you are looking for.

Good luck!