Today,as I took my empties to be recycled, I wondered if I should seek out a local home brewer instead? I probably have about a case of empties a month. Opinions please?
Post on Craigslist or on a message board at the Local Home Brew Shop. Brewers will contact you for them for sure. Only thing is rinse them after pouring your beer. Brewers won't be overly happy with you if every time they get a case of empties from you they have lots of mold, bugs, crust, and vinegar at the bottom. I had a buddy who would give me his empties all nasty inside and even after a good cleaning ended up with some infected bottles of beer. I stopped taking his empties.
Thanks for the reply. I didn't think about rinsing them because I thought home brewers sterilized them before filling but I see your point. Now to find a good hiding place for them (instead of the recycling can) so my wife doesn't see how much beer I actually drink.
It's very thoughtful of you to take the extra steps to share a perfectly reusable resource. I'm sure homebrewers will take you up on it. Homebrewers do clean, and sanitize the bottles, but not many have the resource or time to sterilize them. That's a different process! Thanks for passing on the goods! Regards, Chris
It is just easier to get clean initially if you do this. Makes a big difference when you are cleaning a bunch at once.
Yeah, I don't bottle, but I even rinse my bottles out after being empty. Just a quick rinse and dump, and you'll make a brewer happy as hell for the bottles. Would probably even offer up some beer for the bottles, so it's not all lost! I'd be happy to offer a sixer of something to a guy who had a case of bottles rinsed and ready to be filled. I don't bottle much though, but I'd still offer some beer!
For bottling each bottle must be immediately rinsed with hot water several times, then drained upside-down until completely dry, then covered with a square of foil to keep out dirt and dust and bugs. ANY even slight bit of crud on the inside that doesn't easily come out when rinsed with hot water, bottle is rejected/recycled. Any bottles not processed in this way - rejected/recycled. That's the only way I will take bottles from my friends. If they provide bottles in this manner tho, they do get some free beer, of course. Bombers preferred.
Dang Al, that's some quality control. I've had bottles given to me full of spider eggs and dust, a day long soak in bleach, followed by a good scrub and rinse has worked well for me. But now that I have gotten past the initial hump I have found myself giving some away to local brewers who are in a pinch. The downside, I have given crappy directions to pick them up...
If i get a soiled bottle, i.e not rinsed form a friend or I forget, I'll just let it soak for 30 minutes with oxyclean, then rinse it a few times and it's perfectly clean. I'll sanitise it with a squirt of star san and let it dry upside down, then put it away in a box with a load of other bottles and sanitise on bottling day again. I've never used a bottle brush, if a 30 minute oxy soak doesn't clean it perfectly then I can't be bothered with the bottle. I reckon that's happened maybe three or four times out of the 500 or so bottles I have.
