Do you keep your empty bottles?

Oxiclean. Stuff works wonders.

 

I keep all my bottles for homebrewing. Some are better than others.

 

I keep bombers (for homebrewing) and a few smaller bottles if they are particularly beautiful (e.g., Lindemann's small bottles), but for the most part I simply recycle them.

One thing I started keeping though is BOTTLECAPS. I bought a big clear (cheap) vase and I have been pitching them in there one-by-one as I crack open new bottles.

 

Everything I drink would take up way too much space. I keep the bottles of my favorites/rare/nice artwork. I also keep several for homebrewing purposes although the labels are soaked off. I general keep all cork and caged ones to re-bottle my sours in.

 

So funny this thread came up, it's so relevant to my life right now!
I started keeping one empty from "new" beers starting around last April.
I'm moving into a new house in about a month and the wife has been after me about moving the empties.
She's already pissed about moving the 100+ full ones I have

And I also give each beer a simple grade from A+ to F on the bottom with a silver sharpie.
I've got almost 200 different empties now and have just decided it's time to recycle most of them.
If we weren't moving I'd probably keep the hoarding alive, but I just can't pack and move 200 empties.

I plan to keep the rarer or important ones and recycle the rest.
I was thinking about taking a photo of each beer with my DSLR and keeping it on file, but I probably won't have the time, besides I'd rather spend my time drinking them instead

 

I have saved some select bottles for a bar I am building. I plan to install a lighted display case in the front with some of my rarer bottles inside. Outside of that, I save bottles for homebrewing purposes.

 

They're in the basement...

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I used to, but it got too out of hand too quick. Now I collect specific one's. I collect all the Dogfish Head 750s because the bottles are just beautiful, and the Firestone Reserve Series beers, because I think they're awesome. Other than that, I have a bunch of bottles saved up for when I start homebrewing

 

I keep them out in my shop. Tasting notes tucked into the necks. I keep adding new ones. I'm about to head to London for a week and I'll try to purchase some in bottles and bring them back, so I'm looking forward to some new stuff.

 

I keep about a dozen bottles on the back of the stove, and rotate them out all the time. Not necessarily rare..just favorites beers or awesome labels--fresh sticky nugs, smuttynose finest kind IPA and Caldera IPA are all in that category

 

I keep, wash, sanitize, and refill with home-brewed awesomeness.

 

I used to just to keep track, but that got cumbersome (and a pain to move). Now I keep rare ones, or bottles from new breweries.

Otherwise I keep all capped bottles for homebrew

 

I use to save bottles and then my wife decided otherwise and removed the labels and framed them a couple years ago. I have a freezer bag bulging full of labels at the moment that I need to frame one day.

 

I keep a few that are limited or special/unique to me and have a hard time throwing any away…so I have convinced myself to save caps instead as they take less space.

 

i have a glass top coffee table full of labels. I have started to frame some matching loose labels myself. Framed a few Bourbon County variants recently, looks nice hanging on the wall.

 

I have mine in about a 18" x 48" frame (similar to a wall vertical mirror I guess) and they work well.

 

I used to only keep bottles that were rare, if I really loved the beer, or the label was awesome. Then it grew to about 40 in two months and decided I would never be able to distinguish all of those so I just tossed them all and don't do it anymore. I stick strickly to growlers now.

 

i have a few memorable bottles saved, but i try to keep it pretty limited 10-15. when i'm brewing i save bottles obviously. i had kept a number of labels and caps over the years but now we mostly just save lineup pics on our computer.

 

I have been keeping all the bottles that are relatively nice, but I'm running out of space, so I guess it's time to start recycling them. I'll keep the rare/especially good ones, though. They're on top of the cabinets in my kitchen.