Any reason not to reuse commercial bottles?

[lmacmil]

I like to give away some of my beer to friends so I usually bottle 6-12 in bottles that came from commercial beer. Then I give those away and don't worry about getting them back.

Haven't had a problem doing this but I'm wondering if there is any reason not to. I suppose that bottles not intended for reuse might be a little thinner than bottles made to be reused. Anything else I should be concerned about? Should one limit the number of times one reuses commercial or any other bottles or just keep using them until they break?

As a data point, I'll point out that I have broken only 3 or 4 bottles (cracked during capping and discovered when opening) in 6 five gallon batches, i.e., about 290 bottles.

 

[smagee]

I use nothing but repurposed commercial bottles for my bottling setup and have never had a problem. Yes, some bottles will vary in thickness; a friend has had one particular vendor's bottles (Widmer) break on him quite frequently. That said, in general you should be fine so long as you don't overprime them.

 

[integrator]

You should not have any issues. All of my bottles are reused, and from a ton of different companies.
The New Belgium bottles are some of the thinnest I've used and they are still going strong - they also have the easiest labels to remove.....

 

[brandonhagen1]

+1 on new belgium

 

[cyclonite]

I too only use repurposed commercial bottles for bottling. To clean, I use:

1) Rinse thoroughly after drinking (2-3 rinses with water, usually shaking the first if it is a bottle-conditioned brew to get the yeast cake off the bottom)

2) Soak in OxyClean for at least a day or two to remove labels (I keep a cooler full in the garage and dump bottles in as I drink them). The labels will fall right off - never encountered a bottle that wouldn't.

3) Use a sponge/towel/scrubby pad to get any leftover adhesive off and then rinse thoroughly with a Jet bottle washer, both inside and out. I'll do this once my cooler reaches critical mass with bottles ;-).

4) Dry on bottle tree.

Steps 2-3 only need to be done once to remove labels. Once the bottles are clean, to reuse them again, just rinse thoroughly after drinking as in Step 1.

Once bottling day comes, I use a vinator to shoot StarSan into the bottles (2-3 pumps) to sanitize.

This process actually makes bottling a lot less painful than when I first started. If you are going to bottle a lot, I HIGHLY recommend getting a bottle tree and vinator for drying/sanitizing. Totally worth it.

 

[emit31]

the worst labels to get off are Firestone bottles

 

[PVH]

the worst labels to get off are Firestone bottles

Except for those Stone bottles. It's like they're painted on or something.

 

[Fillmoreslim]

the worst labels to get off are Firestone bottles

I agree the Firestone labels are tough, but ever try and get one of these off? Biggest pain in the ass ever.

 

[Fillmoreslim]

Except for those Stone bottles. It's like they're painted on or something.

Dump your Stone bottles in a double strength solution of star san for a day, the paint comes right off. I use steel wool on them after they have soaked but it's not really even necessary, they would come off with a sponge.

 

[TheWeeb]

Great thread on label and silk screened paint removal on bottles; CLR is awesome!
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/silk-screened-painted-label-removal-154515/

 

[PVH]

Dump your Stone bottles in a double strength solution of star san for a day, the paint comes right off. I use steel wool on them after they have soaked but it's not really even necessary, they would come off with a sponge.

Indeed, the Starsan will help you conquer Stone bottles. Fortunately, I may never have to remove labels again. I recently discovered that I have been a little overzealous about getting used bottles from friends and removing the labels. It seems I have somewhere between 200 and 300 bottles in the basement now, and I keg most of the time. O well.