Bottles

[Barley_Bob]

I'm a pinch-penny. And, although I've been saving my bottles, I don't have enough for my next batch of beer. Actually, I really just haven't been saving bottles because I can't afford to buy lots of bottled beer (hence the homebrewing). Anyway, there's no way I'm going to spend money on bottles - not when people are throwing them away. So, today I called around and got in touch with my local recycling center. They were more than happy to let me take as many empty bottles as I wanted and told me I could come back any time for more. I had suspected, although I didn't know for sure until I asked, that it cost them money to recycle glass, and this proved to be true. The only recycling they make money on is cardboard and plastic. That's why recycling companies charge you so much to haul it away. I know the subject of where to come up with beer bottles has been a topic of some conversation, but I thought I would share my experience. If you, like me, aren't going through bottled beer fast enough and don't know a bartender, the 'ol recycling center is more than happy to unload its bottles onto you. A wash and a rinse and they're good as new.

PS - Even Chimay reuses its bottles (video segment 4)

 

[kewlceo]

Great tip, thanks Bob!

 

[danthebugman]

My local recycling center does the same, but for some reason I seem to make it to the store to buy beer more often than to the recycling center .

 

[pumpkinman2012]

A wash and a rinse and they're good as new.

I hope that it's a Wash, rinse and intense sanitizing and they are almost as good as new.

 

[darrenbrews]

I still buy micro beers from the distributor and I always make sure the bottles are pop-off before buying. It's a win-win situation.

 

[Rockn_M]

My favorite us using Real Ale brewery bottles. The are pop tops the labels come off very easily plus when I buy them for bottles to reuse they come with free beer.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

I've been asking neighbors/friends/coworkers to hold onto their crown cap bottles. A trade of six empties for 1 homebrew seems to be going over well so far and will allow me to brew another batch sooner

 

[Ron_Blackhurst]

I'm a little hesitant to drink out of a bottle from a recycling center. Is that odd?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[Onkel_Udo]

I'm a little hesitant to drink out of a bottle from a recycling center. Is that odd?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Home Brew mobile app

If you do to restaurants and eat off non-disposable plates, yes.

 

[trigger_andy]

Id be worried that the disposable bottles will burst under the conditioning pressures. :O

I only buy bottles designated for Home Brewing. I go for the Grolsh type bottles and caps to save on the hassle of buying new caps and fitting them.

 

[bowskibrew]

Having friends and family who can save bottles for you definitely us a plus. I go to quarterly beer tastings at this German restaurant and ask them for the bottles. There happy to oblige as they don't have to dispose of them. Last time I ended up with 40 erdinger bottles, which seem like great quality glass.

Sent from my N8000_USA_Cricket using Home Brew mobile app

 

[cluckk]

Id be worried that the disposable bottles will burst under the conditioning pressures. :O

I only buy bottles designated for Home Brewing. I go for the Grolsh type bottles and caps to save on the hassle of buying new caps and fitting them.

So long as it is a crown cap bottle it's fine. Most of the commercial guys buy the same bottles that you get in cases at the LHBS. They just buy more of them.

 

[zdbrown1]

Id be worried that the disposable bottles will burst under the conditioning pressures. :O

I only buy bottles designated for Home Brewing. I go for the Grolsh type bottles and caps to save on the hassle of buying new caps and fitting them.

I wouldn't worry about the pressures ...just make sure you don't add too much priming sugar so you hit the desired volume of CO2 and you should be fine.

 

[skitter]

I go to my LHBS, he has bottles you can buy, but he also has a huge stack at the front door of freebies you just have to wash.

 

[placated]

If you do to restaurants and eat off non-disposable plates, yes.

...and back in ye olde days all soda came in bottles that were reused. You'd buy some Pepsi and you would actually be charged a deposit that you got back when you brought the bottles back.

 

[Onkel_Udo]

I miss the days when bars had the option to by Bud and Bud Light in reusable bottles in heavy cardboard cases. I was still bartending the DAY our local distributor told us the program was discontinued. Scored 20 cases (again, heavy stapled and glued cardboard) of bottles for free. Gave most away to fellow homebrewers as I was keg-only at that point. Those bottles where more like the returnable bottles used in Germany than the ones we get from a homebrew store or from recycling.

 

[skitter]

...and back in ye olde days all soda came in bottles that were reused. You'd buy some Pepsi and you would actually be charged a deposit that you got back when you brought the bottles back.

In Oregon you still get charged a deposit, the sucky thing is, upon return when you get your deposit back, it goes into a crusher and the glass gets shattered

 

[Epimetheus]

Bottles from the recycling center or local package store are great ideas!

I miss the days when bars had the option to by Bud and Bud Light in reusable bottles in heavy cardboard cases. ...Scored 20 cases (again, heavy stapled and glued cardboard) of bottles for free.

Yeah, I was fortunate to get 2 cases like that from a home brewer who was moving and did not want to pack empty bottles. They are truly superior to the newer, thinner bottles. The new one do not get reused - they are melted down to make new bottles.

 

[Barley_Bob]

I'm a little hesitant to drink out of a bottle from a recycling center. Is that odd?

I get it. At the same time, not much can survive a liberal dose of bleach. I sanitized 51 beer bottles and 6 champagne bottles today. I'll hit them again with starsan before the homebrew goes in. I'd love to have all matching swing top bottles, and I'll save Grolsch bottles when I can, but the new ones from the LHBS are absurdly priced - something like $2.25 a piece. I just don't see why I should pay money for something people are literally throwing away.

 

[GatorWayne]

To get started brewing at home I wanted to use flip top bottles. I searched the internet to come up with a price somewhere between $2.50 - $3.00 per b500 ml (16 ounces) bottle. There is a TotalWine store down the road from me. They sell Furst Wallerstein hefeweizen which tastes pretty good to me at $3.99a bottle. So I get beer around $1.00 - $1.50 for 500 ml. I like to call them pre-filled empties

 

[Ron_Blackhurst]

How long do the seals last on the swing top bottles??

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[iaefebs]

I'm surprised that more states don't have a bottle deposit law. In Michigan and other states with deposit laws you can get returned bottles for the cost of the deposit from the local stores. I know when Michigan had a no deposit no return policy for a few years, the parks and highways were littered with cans and bottles. Now if someone throws a can or bottle away someone will pick it up and return it to a store for the deposit money. I wish we had to pay deposit on bottled water and get that junk out of the trash and recycled.

 

[Garrettmacklin]

An you sanitize bottles in an oven if they are cleaned first? As in stick them in a hot oven for 20 minutes or so like people do for jam?

 

[Onkel_Udo]

How long do the seals last on the swing top bottles??

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Home Brew mobile app

Used to have about 40 various swing tops. I think I replaced 4 gasket in many years of using them. That being said, if you get them used, in unknown condition, I would replace them all preemptively.

 

[Ron_Blackhurst]

They are pretty reliable then. I have wanted to get some large ones for long term aging.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[skitter]

Kinda off topic...

22oz bottles (just picked up a bock of free ones from my LHBS) get treated like 12oz at bottling time right? nothing Special?

 

[aggiejason]

22oz bottles (just picked up a bock of free ones from my LHBS) get treated like 12oz at bottling time right? nothing Special?

Yep!

 

[skitter]

Sweet...

 

[aggiejason]

Sweet...

If you treat them like 12oz bottles at drinking time, however....

 

[rowan57]

Id be worried that the disposable bottles will burst under the conditioning pressures. :O

I only buy bottles designated for Home Brewing. I go for the Grolsh type bottles and caps to save on the hassle of buying new caps and fitting them.

Now that is a random-ass statement What is a home-brew-designated bottle? And what is a disposable bottle versus a home-brew-designated bottle?

 

[jonmohno]

I use all commercial craft bottles and reuse them even after making homebrew in them. They are built for pressure. Particularly the thicker ones may be bettter, and I prefer the longnecks and bottle conditoned beer bottles. I suppose certain bottles are weaker than others and I stay away from ones that are thin light or seem more fragile but that isnt very common. I would be more worried about cleaning any gunk out of recycle center bottles as they are not always rinsed out previous making mold or crusty hard to clean gunk, a pbw soak and bottle brush should take care of that though.

 

[trigger_andy]

Im sorry you find my statment so bizzare. Im new to this so Ive been following the advice of a local Brew Shop and also Muntons Extract Ins
Instructions. See step 11.

http://www.muntonshomebrew.com/wp-c...untons-Premium-Range-Brewing-Instructions.pdf

Also, Home Brew designated bottles are much thicker than regular bottles to withstand the conditioning.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Swing-Top...pt=UK_Home_Garden_Food_SM&hash=item5af96b4dc4

Now that is a random-ass statement What is a home-brew-designated bottle? And what is a disposable bottle versus a home-brew-designated bottle?

 

[crookedibrews]

I have been using the red hook low rider bottles . And I like the dfh bottles label comes off easy. I have been reusing them for almost two years. Of course I don't always get them back.

 

[trigger_andy]

Im sorry you find my statment so bizzare. Im new to this so Ive been following the advice of a local Brew Shop and also Muntons Extract Ins
Instructions. See step 11.

http://www.muntonshomebrew.com/wp-c...untons-Premium-Range-Brewing-Instructions.pdf

Also, Home Brew designated bottles are much thicker than regular bottles to withstand the conditioning.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Swing-Top...pt=UK_Home_Garden_Food_SM&hash=item5af96b4dc4

Now that is a random-ass statement What is a home-brew-designated bottle? And what is a disposable bottle versus a home-brew-designated bottle?

 

[Brewskey]

I reuse a ton of commercial brewery bottles, some for several years and multiple batches. Most of them are from Sweetwater, Sierra Nevada, Terrapin, etc. I've never once had a bottle bomb. Just make sure your beer is done fermenting before you bottle.

 

[rowan57]

Im sorry you find my statment so bizzare. Im new to this so Ive been following the advice of a local Brew Shop and also Muntons Extract Ins
Instructions. See step 11.

http://www.muntonshomebrew.com/wp-c...untons-Premium-Range-Brewing-Instructions.pdf

Also, Home Brew designated bottles are much thicker than regular bottles to withstand the conditioning.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Swing-Top...pt=UK_Home_Garden_Food_SM&hash=item5af96b4dc4

Both websites are equal parts rubbish. As a fellow UK-er, I urge you to reuse bottles Your 'Grolsch' style bottles are no different to actual 'Grolsch' bottles, you could be (kind of) enjoying the beer first! On a secondary note, use crown cap (normal) bottles! MUCH more common and cheaper. Few people bottle in Grolsch style bottles but Grolsch. There is a reason almost everybody in the world bottles using Crown Caps.

 

[ScotBrew]

Got 10 cases of bottles that had store bought craft brew in them and reused them numerous times without any problems. If you're worried about bottles exploding you're obviously not following the bottle conditioning instructions properly.

 

[Barley_Bob]

I would be more worried about cleaning any gunk out of recycle center bottles as they are not always rinsed out previous making mold or crusty hard to clean gunk, a pbw soak and bottle brush should take care of that though.

Funny you mention this. I picked up 51 bottles, and a glob of Lord knows what did come out of one bottle (it got triple bleached). I was surprised the rest were pretty clean. I think they're only so clean right now because it has been freaking cold. Pretty tough for anything to grow when it's below zero.

As a side note, I also realized while cleaning the bottles that not a single one was one of the big American brands (Bud, Coors, etc). There were a lot of Sam Adams, which came the closest. I guess this recycling center caters only to beer snobs, haha.