Hey everyone I'm brand new to home brewing and I'm trying to save money any way I can. I'm in need of beer bottles! Does anyone know where I can come across some empty ones for free? Any suggestion help. Thanks!
Raid your neighbors recycle bins? Go ask a bar for empties on a sunday morning? FYI - Don't spend too much time/money collecting bottles. After a few batches you will realized how big a PITA it is to de-label, clean and sanitize 50+ bottles and you will start scouring Craig's list for 5gal soda kegs.
volunteer at a homebrew competition. The organizers will be more than happy to give you all the empty bottles, plus they will need minimum cleaning and all of the commercial labels have been removed.
I'll be brewing my first beer soon so I've just been collecting bottles as I drink them and having friends collect. I've already removed some of the labels and it's definitely a pain but it's cheap if you are already drinking the beer anyway.
As a side note, to remove labels really easy: soak in a bucket of oxyclean overnight. Most just fall off into the water with on a few left to lift easily off.
There was a bottle shop that would do weekend tastings that saved bottles for me any time I asked. I've sense been more diligent keeping the ones I drink. If I know I'll be drinking more than giving away I'll just thoroughly rinse after drinking, hit it with one spray of starsan, and top it with aluminum foil. Then I just need to re-sanitize and not worry about the labels or oxyclean. If I decide to remove labels, I oxy soak all of the bottles at once in the tub.
Yea, and crank up your water heater so the water gets super hot. Mixed with Oxyclean the labels will come off real quick. I always save bottles from the commercial beers I drink. Usually just put them in the dishwasher and they come off. Now I have TOO many bottles in my closet, I need to start home brewing again.
For our wedding, my wife had this harebrained centerpiece idea that involved wrapping various glass bottles in stuff (wine and liquor mostly). You’d be surprised how many bottles you can find if you really look for them. Send an email out to coworkers, friends, and family. Talk to your local watering hole. I did it the old fashioned way by keeping what I drank. I earned those bottles! Since I started kegging, I haven’t bottled. In fact, I had a good 50 or 75 bottles than I just took to the redemption center that I’d not gotten around to delabelling. Might be somebody local to you in a similar predicament.
Collect your own bottles from the beer you drink. You'll soon learn that bombers >>>> 12oz (but always bottle a few 12oz for test bottles). More importantly, cleanliness is crucial. Every bottle I use is thoroughly rinsed with hot water, shaken, and left to drain upside-down till completely dry. After checking for crunchies and anything stuck on the inside (anything at all = recycle bin) they are capped with a square of tinfoil until bottling day (keeps out dust, bugs etc). Failure to do this will eventually result in weeping and gnashing of teeth
have a tasting party at your house. invite a handful of friends over with the rules being that you must bring whatever quantity of brown non screw top bomber bottles. you only need 24 or so. then keep and re-use the bottles. when i started brewing there was an asian market across the street from me that had cases of bombers of some not too good chineese lager for $8 or so. i took a case into work one friday and said help yourself, just put the bottle back when your done. easy way to get 12 empty bombers and be popular at work.
When collecting bottles, be careful of the twist off bottles (ie Miller Lite). My fiance drinks a lot of that water and when I try to bottle in it with a hand capper, the bottle doesnt always fit nice and I have to try again. Just my .02!
I agree. That's a risky process to use them. Twist-off caps have an extra crimp that is not found on the standard crown cap that is used by homebrewers, and I think for it to work those caps have to be twisted onto the bottle.
all of my brews stay carbed up well! It is just a pain to get a good seal sometimes... I brew too much to save the good bottles only!
