Bottle Saving for Nostalgia?

I'm pretty sure that it's implied there will actually BE beer in the bottles on most of those. They show them empty, but from what l understand, it is the best way to sell rare beer - illegally.

 

Buy a case of rare beer, drink one, take a picture of the empty and sell the full ones.

 

I'm guilty of saving some bottles for nostalgia's sake...Here are two l'm proud to have in my collection: one I bought for the cap for $5 back in '95ish (the Bass on the left) but ended up loving the bottle even more. The Thomas Hardy's purchased back in 1993 and drank with a friend in 2010 (not bad at all!)
These two bottles show that l'm not proud in general: Lucky Buddha and a Budweiser bowling pin bottle, made exclusively for the bowling championships in Reno, Nevada...

 

I have a couple cases of empties that I keep around for nostalgia - rare beers, special ones, cool artwork, that sort of thing. There is only one that SWMBO lets me keep on display in the main part of the house - an Ommegang Abbey Jeroboam signed by the brewmaster.
I do have a ton of other empties I keep for bottling homebrew - those don't count, though.
To the OP: Keep it at a couple cases of really special ones that you can box up and tuck into a closet or storage area of some sort, hang on until the mancave is approved.

 

Sorry, gotta ask: what the hell is SWMBO? Remember folks: you don't have to pay extra if you use too many characters here!

 

She Who Must Be Obeyed.

 

I save labels that are easily removed with Oxy-Clean and water, but beyond that the only bottles I save are the printed on variety (that also look cool) for a yet to be determined project.

 

I need to do something like this, one question. How do you get the labels off cleanly.

 

Damn! That is a shitload of bottle caps. Do you roughly know how many?

 

At last count there were more than 5,500 different caps. I have about 50 more to add as soon as l finish a new board or two. I have extras if anybody needs some!

 

Some just come off.. Toppling Goliath, for example. Very high quality, foil-based labels.
Some need to have very hot water run over them for awhile. It helps melt the glue and the moisture generally helps soften the adhesive.
Some need a label saver.. Which is essentially a clear, plastic sticker that you apply to the label. When you peel it off, it just pulls the top layer of the label off, and leaves the back layer attached to the adhesive.

 

The water doesnt damage the label? Thanks for answering I've been saving some bottles and want to do something like this.

 

Na. Some become a little fragile, but just be careful. I just lay them in a paper towel to dry. They aren't pristine, but they look fine in a collage behind glass.

 

Essentially there are three kinds of labels, and the procedure that you use is different with each. I always start off but just soaking bottles in a bucket of hot water for a half hour or so. Some labels float off or pull off very easily using this method. The water itself does not damage the labels with one exception, Zombie Dust labels get cloudy for some reason.

Then those that don't come of with hot water are soaked a second time with some OxyClean added. This stuff can also take some of the ink off of some labels, so you have to watch it closely. I've also had some success by using baking soda instead of the OxyClean, and it didn't remove ink. (But maybe I didn't have labels that time which might have been susceptible?)

The third option is necessary for labels that look like they are vinyl (although Pliny uses a paper label and I have to use this method for those bottles). The only way that I have found to remove them is to place one or two at a time in the microwave and heat for 30-45 seconds on high power. (Experiment to longer times if necessary. Pliny bottles take about 2 minutes for one bottle.) Be careful because the glass gets hot so you have to protect your hands when removing from the microwave. Use your fingernail or a knife blade to pull up a corner of the label until you can grab it with your fingers, then pull slowly and evenly until it's off. With this method, a lot of the glue comes off with the label, so you need to have a sheet of paper there on which you can stick the label. Then use scissors to cut around the label. Some people report success using the oven of the kitchen stove instead of the microwave, but I have not tried that method to be able to say what temp setting and time length is necessary for this to work.

There have been a few that just won't come off at all, so hopefully you aren't collecting any of those. I don't recall which breweries fall into this category to be able to forewarn you. Good luck.

 

Thanks for the response, I'm still surprised water isn't going to hurt paper labels. I guess I'll give it a try with beers I don't really care about.

 

Water will cause the labels to curl a bit, but I have not had any disintegrate or anything like that.

 

As long as the ink still looks fine I'm happy. I was planning on doing a collage like @dwagner003 posted. It looked good and I need to clear up some space.

 

When I first started collecting bottles (about 4 years ago), I kept every unique bottle that I had and after 3 years, I had around 200 in my collection. My "man cave" room has a 'bar rail' around the perimeter and I kept them on it but after awhile, it got cluttered and did not look good. After realizing that I was also using BA to keep track of the beers I have had, I made a personal decision to get rid of most of them and keep ones that were either limited editions or not available in my area. I get my dose of nostalgia every once in awhile by looking through the beers that I've had here on BA (without the mess of having 200+ bottles in my basement ).

The only reason I keep bottles now is strictly for use in homebrewing.

 

Bottlecaps are the perfect in-between. Small enough to display, yet big enough to see and enjoy!

 

I've been meaning to start saving bottle caps but the opener I usually use makes a mess of the caps... Time for a new opener??