Source to Buy Aluminum Bottles

[KevinWP]

Has anyone seen a source to purchase new aluminum bottles?

I've googled and can't find anything. Someone must be making them... A-B sells in them. Pepsi is selling Mt Dew in them... Someone must be making them and selling them prior to screenprinting them. I would love to buy a case or two, and shipping will be more about volume instead of weight...

Has anyone seen a likely source for 'virgin' aluminum bottles in quantities less than a box car load?

Thanks

Kevin

 

[portski7]

Here's the source:
http://www.bottlecan.com/

 

[Yuri_Rage]

With the link above, you can request a sample. I'm not sure how many "samples" they'll send at a time. It's worth getting in touch with CCL to find out. Perhaps you'll open a new market to them if you mention selling empty, blank bottles for homebrewing. I'd do the legwork myself, since I'm very interested, but I'm not going to be brewing any more beer until this fall.

 

[Dr Vorlauf]

I know CCL pretty well. They most likely require you to buy full truck loads or huge quantities.

I would suggest calling them and if the above is the case ask them for their distributor that sells smaller quantities.

On the other hand you can look and see what beers are packaged in aluminum bottles ( I think Bud Select was a few years back ) buy some , drink it and then reuse.

Shudder at drinking Bud Select...

 

[Brewmando]

I just ordered some samples under the in-laws pubs name. Hopefully that 'll work to make them believe I'm important enough to respond to. These bottles would work great for taking my brew on the river (Mississippi), disc golfing, camping or fishing and the like.

:rockin:

 

[KevinWP]

Hmmmm - very interesting....


I had seen these around... but just got my hands on one for the first time this week. These things feel rock solid, and seem to just beg to be used in a more appropriate fashion (with our beer).

I currently run a small ebay store out of my garage... so I am already set up with boxes, a Fedex account, etc.....

Is there enough demand to seriously look into getting a shipment of these?

I'm going to request some samples and inquire about short truck pricing (LTL)... I'll report back and see if the economics make sense for a one time buy... or more.

Thanks for the source site!

Kevin

 

[KevinWP]

Well... As surmised above... they are a big order only company.

I got this email this morning...

----------
Kevin, thank you for your interest in CCL and the aluminum bottle. Our current capacity in North America is serving our core customer base. We do not sell in quantities less than a full truck, and our minimum order requirements is 120,000 bottles. You might want to contact Elemental Containers, they may sell smaller quantities. Thanks



Eric L Umsted
National Account Manager,Rigid Packaging
CCL Container

--------------

So it looks like 5000 case quantity is the minimum order.

(I did reply back and ask for a rough dollar quote for that minimum order, and I also inquired about misprints or similarly flawed production runs)

I have already visited the elemental container website.. it appears they work almost exclusively in screw top containers and not crown top bottles... so I doubt they will be any more open to a smaller purchases..


Oh well.

 

[RockfordWhite]

5000...ew i suggest a case of iron city and a can of paint...

 

[Germey]

I had similarly gone down this road (except I never got a reply back). It seems that 120K bottles would be a lot for a smaller brewery like Big Sky (they put their Moose Drool in the Bottle cans) to use at once. Maybe they would split a partial order with someone enterprising. Also, I wonder if that same enterprising person could coordinate with homebrew shops to move a big chunk of them out to retail availability.
I considered all that and decided pretty quickly that I would just sand down a couple cases of bud select that would be used in the smoker and for other cooking.
Certainly not drinking.

 

[KevinWP]

I think I will probably just start collecting and hoarding them myself. (SWMBOs eys bugged out when I mentioned I was trying to buy several pallets of bottlecans)

I found a local c-store that is selling the Mt dew bottlecans for $1.39 each (instead of the $1.99 they are supposed to). I'm thinking I will go buy them out before they realize the pricing error. At least I will drink the Mt. Dew.

 

[jezter6]

I'd love to know the cost of 5000 cases.

It would be a heck of an investment, but for someone with a buttload of money and a little time, could be an enterprising business. Sell a pallet or two to some of the big homebrew shops, and try to sell the rest on the internet....

 

[chione]

I'd love to know the cost of 5000 cases.

It would be a heck of an investment, but for someone with a buttload of money and a little time, could be an enterprising business. Sell a pallet or two to some of the big homebrew shops, and try to sell the rest on the internet....

$.60 bottle x 120,000 bottles = $72,000

 

[KevinWP]

That's about in the range I was expecting... 0.45-0.75 apiece in bulk purchase. I was thinking of somewhere between 10-100 cases depending on the price break points and then reselling them at cost here, and with a markup elsewhere. Unfortunately I beleive 120K bottles somehwat exceeds the Homebrew Annual new bottle market by several multiples.

Also, unfortunately I got no hard answers... here is the rest of my email exchange...

***********************
-------------
Eric,
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I'm sorry to hear that your minimum order requirements are so high. Could you please give me a 'rough' dollar figure for a minimum order quantity? Also, do you ever have misprints or otherwise flawed quantities that you might want to get rid of to an aftermarket for your product?

Thanks
Kevin
-------------
Kevin,

You would be better served to contact a distributor. CCL does not have containers available at this time. Thanks

Eric
-------------
Eric,
Thanks for your time today. Can you recommend a distributor of your
products? (You previously mentioned Elemental Containers, but did not
identify them as a distributor of your products)

Kevin
------------
We do not have a distributor that stocks our product , that is why I
mentioned Elemental Container. Good Luck.
------------

*********************
Note the lack of salutation or signature in the last response.... I do believe I have been kicked to the curb.... 'CCL does not have containers available at this time' and 'We do not have a distributor that stocks our product...'

Oh well.

 

[Germey]

In one of the articles I read regarding the bottles, it mentioned specifically that, despite the high price, the demand is currently outstripping the supply. It is still a new process and the throughput is slow. At this point, we are kind of at the mercy of larger economic forces to make these a more readily available commodity.
Hops, grain, aluminum bottles, can't the homebrewer catch a break lately?