How many times do you reuse your bottles?

[user 30639]

Some pretty interesting information in this thread. I usually use mine until I see gunk in them, and then they go in the recycling bin.

 

[ol-hazza]

Every now and then I take pity on the world due to the fact they don't live in New Zealand..

Over here we have a phenomenon called swappa crates, which are a wooden crate of 12 745ml bottles which when emptied can the be returned and swapped for a full one at discount price.

The bottles are thick glass and take a beating, and have the added advantage that every single house in the country has at least one full crate!

Being made specifically to be reused, they are very unlikely to cause you any trouble. A mate of mine carbed some cider using dry ice in these bottles and it went horribly wrong, and opening a bottle resulted in a cider shower, but still none bombed.

Also if they get too dirty or cracked, you just put them aside and when you have a full crate go and swap it out for a full one. Most bottle stores will also sell them too you for about $5-6.

The pine crate can also be used as fire wood at a pinch, as only the bottles are counted and not the actual crate.

The one problem I had with them was when i was using boiling water to sterilise bottles, and the bottom popped off one of them, i'm thinking because of some cold water on the bench at the time.

So yeh i re-use bottles a lot.

 

[beerenstein]

The most recently bottled batch of beer I bottled was done with 1 full cup of agave nectar in about 4.5gallons of porter(I wanted to see what highly carbonated porter tastes like [it had an interesting mouthfeel and taste ]) It has more fermentables than a cup of table sugar. I'm a novice, first time bottling with glass bottles. No bottle bombs.

 

[Calder]

The most recently bottled batch of beer I bottled was done with 1 full cup of agave nectar in about 4.5gallons of porter(I wanted to see what highly carbonated porter tastes like [it had an interesting mouthfeel and taste ]) It has more fermentables than a cup of table sugar. I'm a novice, first time bottling with glass bottles. No bottle bombs.

Agave nectar is a syrup. The fermentable Part of Agave nectar is sugar. 1 cup of Agave nectar has less fermentables than 1 cup of sugar because it also has some water content. It probably has 25% less fermentables than sugar.

 

[beerenstein]

Agave nectar is a syrup. The fermentable Part of Agave nectar is sugar. 1 cup of Agave nectar has less fermentables than 1 cup of sugar because it also has some water content. It probably has 25% less fermentables than sugar.

Hah! Noob Misunderstanding by myself! Notice that this document says 40% sweeter. I'd read something wrong at some point. But that porter IS highly carbonated and definitely has a great taste and bite to I.