Interesting Bottles?

Does anyone else have any "special" bottles that they use? I'm talking about a bottle that has some significance, antiquity, special story, or anything else that may make it near and dear to your heart.

I've got this smallish, maybe 10oz., brown, non-descript bottle that I found while SCUBA diving in Lake Erie. It was mostly buried in the mud when I came across it and picked it up by feel (anyone whose ever dove in Lake Erie can sympathize with the visibility there) while picking up Zebra Mussles for a research project at OSU. I stuck it in my BC for later inspection and handed it to my soon to be wife, who was our surface support, once back on deck. She is fond of old bottles, and I thought it might be of interest to her. But, it didn't appear old enough to hold her interest, so she just gave me that "Good job, Honey" confused look and put it aside. I cleaned it.....many times, and decided when I bottled my first brew, to put it to use.
I wish it had some really cool story relating to Canadian bootleggers, or the Detroit mafia, but it was most likely just chucked overboard by some half-drunk fisherman trolling for walleye.

It's not from any exotic locale, and it wasn't bestowed upon my by any royalty, or even family......but it's a cool little bottle. I've tried to figure out how old it is, or what beer it may have originally held.....to no avail.

Hopefully I come across more interesting bottles in the future........I can't wait to fill them with beer!



Who else has a story?

Heh. Well, I will admit that I have some unique bottles.

My father-in-law grew up in the sticks of Southern Illinois. He studied by coal lamps and didn't have indoor plumbing until he was 12. Lots of cold trips to the outhouse in them middle of the night. They didn't have trash service and burned their trash out in the woods. His aunt still lives in the house and I hate to say it, but one of my favorite things to do is go out in the woods and look for bottles. I have found several glass jugs that I use for starters, "half-quart" RC Cola bottles, a great 10oz green Coca-Cola bottle, and several other bottles that decorate "my space". My wife just shakes her head.

When I find them, they are completely filled with dirt and moss. I put it in the laundry wash tub for a few days to loosen the dirt, and then take an old bottle brush and put it on my drill. After getting the dirt and grime out, I soak it in sanitizer for a few days and then use the nice bottle brush on my drill. Then they go through the dishwasher a few times and get a final sanitze before I use them.

I've made several starters in the jugs with no problems. It sounds stupid to go through all of the trouble but to me it's part of the fun of the hobby.

Casey

I used to work construction and i was working at St Francis in Denville NJ, its an old hospice for rich people like where Charles Linburg's wife went et al...so sitting up on a dusty rafter i found a sweet Trommer's Malt beer bottle from 1940. I also found at another site which was located next to a civil war house 2 bottles from the 1700's which came from england. I researched them and discovered they were hand made english ale bottles. I dont use them but they are still cool...

Most of my bottles are the battle scarred returnables of old. I also have 7 oz returnables. They are virtually indestructable.

I value all of them.

If I give away a sixer, I practically make that person take out an insurance policy as it is more likely that someone will toss it out than it will break.

I have never lost a returnable to bottom blowout like I have with some of the newer bottles.

olllllo said:

Most of my bottles are the battle scarred returnables of old. I also have 7 oz returnables. They are virtually indestructable.

I value all of them.

If I give away a sixer, I practically make that person take out an insurance policy as it is more likely that someone will toss it out than it will break.

I have never lost a returnable to bottom blowout like I have with some of the newer bottles.

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That's the truth! Sam Adams, though the beer is quite good, uses very thin/week bottles.

I'm afraid I don't have any "special" bottles yet, but I do prefer the Guinnes s Extra Stout bottles (shorties) and the Guinness Draft bottles (curvaceous). I can recall drunken conversations of discussing the ladder's resemblence to the female form. Also Hoegarden(sp?) bottles are cool.

I really like using the Grolsch Swingtop bottles as they are very easy to cap and hold a pint. They are getting harder and harder to find as Grolsch seems to be phasing them out for a regular style bottle. Only bad part is the green tint but if you keep the bottles in a pitch black room the color really doesn't matter much.

That's the truth! Sam Adams, though the beer is quite good, uses very thin/week bottles.

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Hmm that's my Prefered Bottle. I have never had one break, unless dropped.

aren't those small 10 oz bottles called ponies?
i bought a case of them once from some brewery in new orleans full of tasty white chocolate beer. maybe they were abita?
it was before i started brewing, man i wish i kept them!

my favs that i never give out are 2 full cases of old pabst bottles, i still have the cardboard cases to keep them in. the bottles are sooo thick.

i have also have a case of gennesee cream ale 16 oz bottles that i cherish, cardboard case and all. somebody left them behind in our graduate studios so i grabbed them while cleaning up. they were still full of beer, i had no idea how old, but they tasted fine and didn't kill me. i have never seen them anywhere, so they must be very rare!

barrett

I just toured the Steven's Point Brewery in Steven's Point, WI over the weekend.

I was under the impression the returnable bottles were dead, but look....



Tour guy sez that other breweries are trying to keep the tradition alive.

Returnable bottle products are available in Milw at Discount Liquor and in Steven's Point at JR's.

olllllo said:

Returnable bottle products are available in Milw at Discount Liquor and in Steven's Point at JR's.

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I get all my bottles from Discount Liquor. $1.20 a case and a bit of cleaning

And Budbo if you saw the thickness of the Point Brewery bottles or the bottle used by Pabst/Old Style they'd make you crap your pants when you compare them to Sam Adams

I don't have them anymore, but I used to have a few cases of returnable 16 oz. long necks. I loved them and I have no idea what happened to them.

Years ago I found a bottle just like the one pictured while camping. I used it on my very first batch and never drank it, so it simply resides in my brewery as the icon of where it all began.

Pumbaa said:

I get all my bottles from Discount Liquor. $1.20 a case and a bit of cleaning

And Budbo if you saw the thickness of the Point Brewery bottles or the bottle used by Pabst/Old Style they'd make you crap your pants when you compare them to Sam Adams

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Is that the place on W. Oklahoma? I just checked with them to see if was worth making the trip, he said he might have 5 cases total in the basement and didn't want to sell them becasue they belong to the brewery.