Is there a beer you buy just for the bottles?

[rmyurick]

I have a lot of Anchor bottles. Like the beer, too, but don't drink it as much as I used to. Too many other things vying for attention. Once you've had Anchor Liberty at the brewery taproom, the bottled stuff seems like a pale imitation.

 

[kegnation]

I'll swing by Costco and pick their variety pack when I need bottles they are nice standard non-stamped bottles and runs $18.99 a 24pk and a 24pk of clean glass from LBS is $14.99. I don't really care for any of the beers (my fave is the German Lager) but my friends always help me out! For $4 I can clean and delabel them no problem!!

 

[Rotgut]

A friend tipped me off to Drakes bottles. Great beer, and the labels peel right off clean and easy.

 

[slacker1]

Hacker Pschorr in Ontario, Canada are only available in 500ml swing tops. And they are available in both the LCBO and the Beer Store.

 

[Riot]

Hacker Pschorr in Ontario, Canada are only available in 500ml swing tops. And they are available in both the LCBO and the Beer Store.

And empty swingtops are worth almost as much at every homebrew shop I've been to.

 

[wingedcoyote]

I would buy Orval at twice the price even if it came in screw tops, but I would also buy Orval for the bottles even if it was terrible.

 

[Clarke]

grolsch

 

[troy2000]

Lol I went through 7 12 packs of these for the bottles came to bottling day and went to cap with my wing capper and was like WTF!!!!

You need a bench capper.... I went on ebay and bought a cheap old antique one, about twenty minutes after trying out my brand new wing capper.

 

[troy2000]

I have been working on preparing favors for my son's wedding and wanted to standardize on long necks. In the process I discovered Lagunita's Little Sumpin'. It's clone will be one of the favors. Couldn't stop buying them, despite their stubby stature. They will be relegated to other give-aways.

Early on before I started kegging, I bought a closed case of Grolsch, hoping for swing tops. They were capped and I left the green bottles out and learned about skunking being caused by the sun. I haven't bought a green bottle of anything since.

If you stumble over a stash of Lagunitas Lucky 13 somewhere, buy everything they have. I bought a bottle, loved it, went back next day and the display was completely empty.

 

[Zoidberg]

Any cheap-ish but good beer. New Belgium beers come to mind. Needing bottles definitely makes me avoid canned beers like the plague.


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I use a few New Belgium bottles and just so you know too, something I read on here in a few spots. These have notoriously blown up or broken as I guess they use thin/cheap glass. I plan to weed mine out of my supply.

I buy grolsh or German beers (swing tops), Ayinger comes to mind, just for the bottle.

 

[drainbamage]

I may have picked out beer based on an interesting name/label/bottle, but I've never bought a beer I knew I wouldn't care for just because I wanted to save the bottles for HB.

Shape-wise, I like Anchor bottles, but I generally just go with whatever has easy-to-remove labels. Ayinger bottles are nice because they're built sturdier than some American longnecks, and the labels come off very easy. Redhook bottles could be cool because of the unique shape, but the labels are too hard to take off.

 

[Zoidberg]

I love the redhook bottles, just soak them in oxyclean for 24 hours and they just need a quick hit with the sponge after it peals off.

 

[RPCidery]

I buy Innstadt Helles for the 1/2 liter fliptop, and the beer is decent, too. I like many of the Euro 1/2 liter crown cap bottles as well. Nice and sturdy.

 

[cjonesga]

I agree with Costco post. Their kirkland brand is an okay beer, but more importantly, it is cheap. However, I drink a lot of Sweetwater Brewery beer, so that is my bottle of choice. I've been looking for a good Sweetwater IPA clone, and plan to try some that have been posted here.

 

[Zoidberg]

I agree with Costco post. Their kirkland brand is an okay beer, but more importantly, it is cheap. However, I drink a lot of Sweetwater Brewery beer, so that is my bottle of choice. I've been looking for a good Sweetwater IPA clone, and plan to try some that have been posted here.

There's a Kirkland beer? And it comes in a crown cap glass bottle? Do they have craft styles or just a lager and light?

I had a Costco card long ago but haven't been there in a while.

 

[MannyZ]

 

[David_Trucks]

I use a few New Belgium bottles and just so you know too, something I read on here in a few spots. These have notoriously blown up or broken as I guess they use thin/cheap glass. I plan to weed mine out of my supply.


I hadn't heard that, thanks for the tip.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Beerswimmer]

I try and buy New Belgium when I buy a twelve pack. I mostly brew Belgians, and my homebrews look like Trappists. Classy.

 

[OleBrewing]

Corona Familiar 32 oz bottles. After the bottling of 170 gallons of cider one year I hate to look at 12 oz bottles with that much volume. At 2.99 a pop it is a cheap durable bottle. Don't drink the stuff until you are well buzzed and taste buds are dead or add tomato juice.

I do bottle 5 gallon batches in 12 ouncers and prefer long necks. After de-labelling 80+ cases of beer bottles you find out which company uses the cheap glue and the expensive glue; and which are easier to cap with the 1930s capper I use.

Otherwise I have no style preference, similar to mason jars. If it keeps a product for a shelf life it is good for me.

 

[MannyZ]

I picked up a 12er of New Belgium last year sometime in hopes that I'd get good beer and bottles but after washing them I'd say 4 or so had weird hairline cracks from what seemed like a manufacturing defect.

 

[drainbamage]

I picked up a 12er of New Belgium last year sometime in hopes that I'd get good beer and bottles but after washing them I'd say 4 or so had weird hairline cracks from what seemed like a manufacturing defect.

I've had trouble with the NB bottles too. They seem more brittle than most.

 

[rodwha]

I buy all sorts of beer bottle styles, but had a bit of a time with completing a 12 pack box with Ranger Creek small batch series bottles, which look like Belgian bottles with 16.9 oz, but cost almost $6 a piece.

I found their English barley wine and finished off what I needed to fill the box.

Not sure how to copy and paste a link using an iPad.

 

[Hopinista]

I've had trouble with the NB bottles too. They seem more brittle than most.

My main trouble with NB bottles is that they have NB beer in them.

 

[bnairuni87]

Sam Adams

 

[rodwha]

I've been bottling with plenty of NB bottles up to 2.6 vols of carb with no issues. Not sure what's going on with many of you. Am I just lucky then?

 

[drainbamage]

Part of my problem was the old wing capper I used to use. It was rough on bottles in general, but NB and Anchor seemed to be particularly susceptible to shattered necks. I might only have a couple NBs that survived until I got a bench capper, but the Anchor bottles handle it much better.

 

[andvari7]

Rogue XS comes in 750mL ceramic bottles. I like them a lot, because they are hefty, completely opaque, and flip-top.

 

[DakotaSouth]

Green Flash. I do not buy it now for just the bottle. When I first tried their Palate Wrecker, I was just trying their beer and kind of liked the bottle. Turns out I like how their short bottles pour, how easy they are to store and carry, how easy their labels come off and have yet to have one of their brews I don't like.

I don't buy them just for the bottle but will try about any new thing they put out partly because I know that I will like the bottles.

 

[KVANTAN]

If you are in Asia Tiger beer is cheap as...and comes in a nice heavy weight 22oz.

 

[mattmmille]

I have a friend that spear fishes and dives where he finds megalodon fossil shark teeth. He traded me a big one for a batch of hefewiesse. I put as much of that batch as I could in bottles from Dogfish Head...they have an oval emblem with a shark on the shoulder of the bottle. And I customized a label with a great white shark on it.