Empty Beer Bottles

I wish I could brew as fast as I drink.... That being said, I only bottle in 22 oz size and I only use painted labels. After scraping, soaking, and generally getting annoyed at glue-on labels, I now just keep a stable of painted labels. That way I just need to clean and sanitize. Need help emptying any? Hit me up!

 

i used to strip labels off old bottles, but i found out a guy i work with is a member of a rugby club here, and they have sponsorship from one of the local craft breweries, and by sponsorship i mean they get a ton of the brewery's bottling line rejects (under/over filled, label went on crooked, etc.), and these guys have them at the bar in their clubhouse, or will trade you a box of 60 for a $20 "donation" to the club, so now i just get no label beers at .33 a piece and never have to worry about scraping labels, double win!

 

purchase a 12 pack of your favorite beer (dark bottle), drink, rinse, store, repeat.

 

I asked friends to save their non-twist off bottles for me when I started brewing. I figured that I would get about a case a week from all of them combined. After two weeks from 8 friends, I had 200 bottles. After about 2 months, I told them to hold off collecting for me....I had about 800 bottles. Come to find out, my friends were asking co-workers, relatives and other frinds to save them for me. It has been a great pipeline whenever I need bottles.

 

I also recycle the bottles from what I drink. Only bottles I'm making custom labels for get the oxy soak to remove commercial labels. The rest get rinsed thrice, sprayed with starsan, and capped with foil until its time to fill.

 

I will add Bell's to the list as well.

 

If you have access to Straub beer, they make cases of returnable pints which are nice and also come in a real sturdy case. With the $4 deposit, a case is about $30, and it's a good beer.

Also, although they are Very expensive, the big Dogfish head bottles are the best. I try to collect as many larger bottles as I can.

 

Gone are the days when the paper labels would fall cleanly off within minutes of putting them into an ice-filled cooler. Worst case, you'd have to scrape off the last bit of Elmer's glue with your thumbnail. And those were the thick, refillable bottles for which we paid 2 cents deposit, not the thin, single-use, recyclable bottles we're seeing today.

 

Yup, and, of course, that's why they came off so easy - since the brewery itself would be the one that had to remove those labels, multiple times.

Back when a lot of bars still had "wet" coolers, or kept their ready-to-serve bottled beer in iced water or crushed ice in sinks behind the bar, the labels frequently came off before the bottle was opened. Which is why breweries spent the money for decorated crowns with a prominent brand and logo - so the customer could be assured they were getting the brand they requested and paid for. And brewers reminded customers to check the caps in their ads.

 

Just wanted to add, each brew I do I still use 1 or 2 of the 32oz plastic bottles that came with my Mr. Beer kit that got me started. I have found it is helpful to gauge the carbonation without having to open one up. Just squeeze it!

 

I recommend stubbies, just because they pack better, if you need to stack 6-packs in a chest freezer or closet. I use mostly Firestone-Walker bottles (the labels come off easily), but Anchor bottles are really nice.

 

I've noticed problems with my bottle capper with Anchor bottles. The capper gets kinda stuck on the neck and I feel like I'm about to either break the bottle or the capper. It sucks because I always drink Anchor and have tons of their bottles. I still use them but I find bottling goes more smoothly with more traditionally shaped bottles.

 

Yeah, they can be tricky. Try screwing the bell in (or out). I've found that helps. I have a bench capper as well as one of the regular ones, and the bench capper is obviously easier. I have the same problem with Lagunitas bottles as well.

If you go with a bench capper, it's also a lot easier to just get one size bottle and stick with it, so you don't have to adjust it during a session.

 

i ditched all my stubby bottles for this same reason