What do you do with the empties?

Many, many years ago while walking in the woods in northern Michigan I stumbled onto a hunter's shack made out of beer bottles.

 

These are just ones from our favorite breweries. Had to start throwing away most when we started running out of room in the closet

 

Have you considered dubbing this "liver damage"????? Too cool! Epic really! Cheers

 

what would possess you to collect all those bottles???? do they hold a value...curious

 

are they like glued to each other???

 

I show up to the recycle center with all of my empties.
The old man must think I'm a psycho but he always comes out and stares at my bottles in awe. (He will usually go through them all and check out the label and ask me about them) lol

 

Recycle religiously. My wife puts aside the good looking bomber bottles and takes them to friends who bottle wine in them.

 

Recycle them or if I know they delabel with hot water I save for homebrewing.

 

The material value is negligible.

The genesis of me doing this is multi-fold. When I was around seven years old (1976), my family and I would go to a pizza place that had a giant can collection on every wall of the establishment and I was fascinated by the scope and variety of the cans. The colors, the patterns, the symbolism. Just mesmerized. When I started to get into good beer at the tail end of my college career (1990) I thought it would be cool to document each and every beer I had. Michael Jackson's books had a lot to do with with my search for new and unique beers to try and lead to my exploration of the world of beer. The empty bottles served as my documentation in an age where Beer Advocate and online sites to review and talk about beers didn't exist.

Again, I was drawn to the artwork and creative labels that were out there and really enjoyed looking back on what beers I have tried - many have stories behind them that I remember well. Like the night at Dusseldorf's on Fort Myers Beach when I drank 15 different beers while watching members of the Chicago Fire Department complete their beers cards (they consumed 120 beers in six days!!) before taking to the streets to stop traffic while doing the chicken dance. Quite the sight! Sadly Dusseldorf's is gone.

I've done approximately 30 beer tastings with two different groups over the past 20 years and have many memories that are rekindled by looking the bottles the we have traded for and consumed over that time frame. I've been fortunate to drinks beers with many cool people over the years and I enjoy reminiscing over the times we've had. Corny I know, but what the hell.

 

I break em behind WaWa

 

Plain long necks and bombers with easy to remove labels go to the home brew pile - everything else gets recycled.

 

I donate them to the local organizations like schools, sports, scouting etc..We have a 5 cent deposit on bottles and cans...

 

I've thought of saving the rare ones (Lawsons, Alchemist, etc)...but end up just recycling. No redemption in NH.

 

Recycle everything except growlers that are reusable.

 

I do this, pic #1 of 2

 

Recycle all the bottles, and my wife recycles any empty growlers she finds because she doesn't like clutter.

 

Second picture of what I do with the empties, Not as good as the first picture, oh well !!!

 

Into the garbage they go - I don't collect trash.

 

its 2015 I recycle them

 

I save them for homebrew. But anything that's hard to find and rare, I keep the bottle. But in the case of Heady Topper, can. Almost like a trophy. I have a beer of fame on my mantel.