Good Beer Bottles To Use

[amandabab]

anything brown that isn't cracked

exactly.

I like to bottle all the same height per batch but that wasn't always possible.
It is now and eventually will be for a newbie.

EZ-caps are great but expensive to get initially, but eventually they slowly breed.

Other than competition concerns or personal tastes, mechanically there isn't really any difference barring the European 29mm. you have to go out of your way to find them in North America.

 

[PoE_fosho]

new beligum (aka fat tire) all there lables come off super easy.

 

[AdamPag]

Idk what's with everyone using oxyclean... Scalding hot water in the sink for 20 mins the labels peel off them I take a quick steel wool to the glue and done, no soap, no scaling

 

[BreezyBrew]

I like Unibroue, glass is nice and thick Labels come off easy too.

 

[gmcastil]

The Good:

• New Belgium

• Odell Brewing

• Great Divide

• Mad River Brewing

The Bad:

• Avery bombers - sometimes the adhesive requires a bit of work and the aluminum bits are a little annoying

• Uinta Belgian bombers - label disintegrates after a soak in Oxyclean, but leaves a base layer on top of the adhesive that is a real pain to remove.

• Dry Dock bombers - label falls off easily, but adhesive requires some scrubbing

The Ugly:

• Russian River - labels come off easy but adhesive remains and requires an eternity to get rid of

• Odell Belgian-style bombers - an Oxy soak just leeches the ink out of the label. I have 6 of these that I've yet to remove.

• St. Bernardus

• Anything with a screened on label...

 

[tweezer159]

I've been trying to collect some red hook bottles (pretty dang cool), but have been having a hard time getting through the 6 packs.

 

[amandabab]

I've been trying to collect some red hook bottles (pretty dang cool), but have been having a hard time getting through the 6 packs.

I've been known to buy 6-packs of cool bottles and dump the free beer that came with them.

 

[divrguy]

Fat tire labels practically fall off with just water! My buddy loves them so I have a great supplier!

 

[milldoggy]

German hefe bottles. They are 16.9 oz. I think they are returnable in germany, so the labels just float off in water,

 

[ness22]

Sierra Nevada bottles are nice and small and the labels fall off very easily with an overnight soap and water soak.

 

[ness22]

Also anything from Bell's Brewery ie. Hopslam or Two Hearted have very easily removable labels and the beer is great! I have used Fat Tire and was very pleased as well!

 

[heavyfeet]

Any bottle from Bell's will work well for you. Most of my bottles are from Bell's. Soak them in warm water for a half hour and then gently peal off the labels and hit them with a scrub brush to knock off residual adhesive. No oxyclean or other cleaner is needed. Just high quality H 2 O.

If Bell's are hard to come by, then Sam Adam's will work also if you can tolerate "Samuel Adams" molded into the glass.

 

[idahobrew]

I've been known to buy 6-packs of cool bottles and dump the free beer that came with them.

Are you serious? I like the red hook bottles, good beer and nice solid retro bottles. Don't dump beer, I think that's against one of the ten commandments.

 

[k47k]

Sam Adams are good bottles but cant be used for competition

Ive entered many competitions all over the country and have used nothing but sam bottles. what competitions dont allow use of sam bottles?

 

[DoctorMemory]

I use mostly Anchor Stream bottles, because I seem to have a lot of them lying about. Only problem I ever had was when bottling my first batch, the neck cracked on one, but I think that was just because I suck at capping That said, I do prefer longnecks, but the Anchor bottles do have a good "handfeel".

 

[beerloaf]

Pretty much most bottles will work. I've used clear bottles, brown bottles, green bottles, 22 oz bottles, Swing tops, whatever. I bottled last weekend using 35 clear Coke bottles and a dozen short Chimay bottles for that batch. I wanted those because I carbed them to 3.5+ volumes of CO2. If you use clear bottles just keep them covered or out of light unless you're going for a Corona style.

beerloaf

 

[cullen]

There's an article in the wiki that compares characteristics of beer bottles and talks about how to remove labels. Feel free to add your own comments. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Bottles

 

[cullen]

Beers from the British Isles and Europe tend to be easiest to delabel. They also tend to have relatively narrow necks, which makes it harder to use a bottle brush (something I no longer bother with - if it needs to be scrubbed on the inside, it gets pitched).

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah,the German bottles are very easy to de-label,as are sam adams. I also found recently that Paulaner salvator doppel bock no longer has the bearded monks embossed around the shoulder.

 

[ultrastevep]

No one has mentioned Guinness bottles, they are my favorite as the labels are a plastic wrap that you simply score with a knife and they fall off.

 

[unionrdr]

I kinda like the Michelob bottles too,with that fused neck look from the ring at the base of the neck.

 

[AdamPag]

Ive entered many competitions all over the country and have used nothing but sam bottles. what competitions dont allow use of sam bottles?

Sam Adams bottles have their logo stamped into the glass, you arent supposed to be able to use anything with a stamped logo from a manufacturer

 

[ChaosStout]

I will never use Oxyclean again. After a 24 hr soak I rinsed and scrubbed with my bottle brush and after they air dried, I had wicked scale build up. Tried washing over and over to no avail.

I even cut back the soak to an hour and while the scale wasn't AS bad it still showed up. I had 60 bottles that I thought were ruined so I just soaked them over night in a 5 gal bucket full of Starsan I had left over from a previous bottling day. After rinsing and scrubbing, the Starsan seemed to get rid of it so I didn't have to chuck my bottles. But who knows, I live in FL and we have hard water so I am sure that had something to do with it.

Now...sorry about that rant... Magic Hat and Breckenridge use a lot of glue. I like Guiness bottles, no glue whatsoever!

I have Never had that problem Must be your water when mixed with oxyclean does nasty things.

 

[Wreck99]

Hot oxy clean FTW!

 

[gcdowd]

Sam Adams are good bottles but cant be used for competition, I also drink a lot of Saranac (they have a new White IPA thats unbelievable) and the bottles are just as good with no brand stamp

A little off topic but I've been wanting to try their White IPA. That good huh?

 

[jvp1]

Mickey's has some nice bottles. They're short, can be screwed on/off, and there are short riddle/puzzles under each cap. Labels come right off without even a soak, and the beer isn't bad, either.

 

[cullen]

No one has mentioned Guinness bottles, they are my favorite as the labels are a plastic wrap that you simply score with a knife and they fall off.

You do need a pair of needle nose pliers to pull the plastic widget out of the bottle.

 

[Wreck99]

You do need a pair of needle nose pliers to pull the plastic widget out of the bottle.

Extra stout bottles are good.

 

[Andy_Burbank]

I have a bunch of bottles, don't think they'll work but here's what I have that I'm not sure on - blue moon (pop off but has ridges), corona, taurino, & pacifico

 

[Hang Glider]

Andy - stay away from clear glass unless the beer will live in the dark somewhere. There is a mixture of sunlight, hops, malt and yeast that combine to skunk your beer. - this is not an old-wives-tale - do some research if you need to.

Miller uses a specialized hop oil to avoid this, but most folks are just used to corona's taste...