Used bottles

[Sstraley01]

Sorry for the newbie question.. Can I reuse commercial beer bottles?ie Budweiser, miller etc. that have a twist off cap. I have a capper and caps.
Thanks
Steve

 

[BarrelAgedForrest]

No. The bottles with twist off caps are not as strong in the neck area. When you put a crimp cap on them they may shatter or blow during conditioning. Regular bottles that aren't twist cap are recommended!

 

[feinbera]

Yeah, what he said; tough to get a good seal on a twist-off without pressing so hard the bottle breaks.

Ideally, you want brown ones, but green or clear can be fine if you're careful to keep the beers out of the light.

And, rinse them the same day you drink them, nothing is worse than having to get sticky, moldy beer residue out of a bottle you poured a week ago!

 

[BeerFireBrew]

I re-use commercial beer bottles often, but i prefer re-using my stash of 22oz bottles. When I plan to save commercial bottles, I save the box too. I've made it a habit to rinse the bottles as soon as possible and put the cap back on, simply to keep out as much dust/etc.. as possible, not reusing the caps later. I then place the bottle back into the box. When ready, you won't have to scrub out moldy beer or worry about much stuff getting into the bottle. I recommend using brand new caps from your LHBS, not reusing commercial.

 

[Twotaureanbrewing]

I reuse quality craft bottles all the time. Example Founders, Bells, 3Fs.

 

[ThomasPaine]

If I'm going on one of my regular macro brewery binges, and I know I need bottles, I will buy quarts of bud or bush with the large twist caps. I have never had one of them fail when I recap with the same cap.

 

[Mexibilly]

All my bottles (no twist off) once contained commercial beer. Immediately after pouring I fill about halfway and dump twice, then fill and shake 3 or 4 times, then fill to the top and leave em on the counter over night. Next day I dump, fill halfway, shake, dump and they go on the bottle tree.
OCD I know, but I've never washed a bottle and never had an infection

 

[madscientist451]

I save non twist off commercial bottles for brewing. Mix 3 heaping teaspoons baking soda into about 2 gallons of water in a bucket and soak the bottles in that. After a while, you'll find out which labels come off easy and which ones are a pain and not worth the effort.

 

[perle]

I soak all my bottles in hot water and PBW for about 30 min before reusing them, then sanitize and fill as normal.

 

[MaxStout]

A few people have said they use twisties. But the mouths of those are so thin the chance of breakage is too great, IMO. And they don't always seal well, so you could end up with some bottles of flat beer.

You work hard and spend good money to make good beer. Why risk it on substandard bottles? Put those twisties in the recycling bin.

 

[pdog44450]

When I first started brewing I bought a 24 case of empty pop top bottles to have. Then as I would drink store bought beer I would save the bottles and ask friends and neighbors to keep their empties, and they quickly gave me enough for multiple batches. I would not recommend buying empty bottles because it is cheaper to go to the store, buy a case of beer, and drink the beer than to just buy emptys (kind of odd isn't it).

I just run the bottles under warm water and remove the labels with a butter knife and and a scrubber or brillo pad and voila, plain homebrew bottles!

 

[mattdee1]

I've read posts by people saying that twist-off bottles can be re-capped for home brew, but for the life of me, I can't understand why anybody would take the risk.

Even if it's only a 1-in-24 chance that a twist-off bottle will break or the cap won't seal properly leading to a flat beer, that's too much of a risk for something that takes so much time to make, IMO. Heck, fill up some empty plastic club soda bottles and keep them in the dark. Not very classy, but at least it's cheap and will be guaranteed to work.

 

[Sstraley01]

Thanks for all the advice.. I broke down and spent a whopping $14.95 for a case of bottles.. I also bought a 1 gallon kit that the guy already made but had the jug, some other items, a capper and caps for $10.00..thanks craigslist..Why take the chance at that price..

 

[okiedog]

I fill twisties from the keg with no problems, but I don't condition in them.

 

[Rojozilla]

When I first started and while my first beer was fermenting I enjoyed some store bought Alaskan Amber. The beer is good and the labels literally float off when soaked overnight. There are other options (Sam Adams, etc.) but the labels on some of the others can be a pain, even after soaking.

 

[sebs]

I've been using the Canadian twist-offs for a while now. Never had a problem but I hear they're stronger than the American ones.

 

[Twotaureanbrewing]

When I first started and while my first beer was fermenting I enjoyed some store bought Alaskan Amber. The beer is good and the labels literally float off when soaked overnight. There are other options (Sam Adams, etc.) but the labels on some of the others can be a pain, even after soaking.

I like Bells bottles for the same reason. A 10-15 soak in warm water and the labels fall off. I'm thinking its environmentally safe glue? Wish more brewers would use it, make my job of re-using their bottles easier!

 

[Simps]

Highly recommend buying a case of Guinness draught for your bottles. It's not much more expensive than buying a case of empty bottles, you get to drink the beer, the labels are plastic wraps with no glue, so you just slit the bottom and peel it right off, and finally they don't have any engraved symbols (like the harp on other bottles).

 

[glenn514]

As an experiment, I tried to cap a "twisty" with my usual Red Baron capper. I could NOT get the cap tight enough to prevent it from turning on the top of the bottle! The vast majority of my pop-top bottles are either Boston Brewing [aka Sam Adams brews] or New Glarus Brewing [aka Spotted Cow]. And I stick to what works.

glenn514