Getting Beer Bottles

[chiefman]

Hey what do most of you do when you need to aquire beer bottles to use for bottling ?

Any comments on using PET or plastic bottles ?

 

[chiller]

Hey what do most of you do when you need to aquire beer bottles to use for bottling ?

Any comments on using PET or plastic bottles ?

[post="46437"][/post]​

If you intend to bottle long term you can buy very good quality crown seal bottle. Contact the local german club or whatever in your area and you will find a ready supply of good bottles.

PET bottles are excellent for storage up to about 4 - 5 months.

So for quick turnaround PET is ideal.

Steve

 

[Plastic Man]

start a beer club at work - and get them all to give you the empties!!!

Our "beer club" has grown from 12 people last xmas to 24 people the xmas just passed. Its like a cancer that keeps on growing.

We pick 12 beers. Most are Mountain Goat, Grand Ridge, type beers. We buy 4 cartons of each beer. (48 cartons). We then split the cases up so each person gets two cases of beer and 4 beers of each type. The last order was over $3K so you get to negotiate a decent discount - normally 15 - 20% on retail. Plus the beer is ordered in in bulk so it should be pretty fresh.

Great way to buy and try some of the boutique beers cheaply, (or relatively cheap), and also a great source of bottles.

The other option I've thought of on some occassiosn, (but never actually done) is to raid the bins at the Australian pub down the rocks. They do a great selection of aussie micro brews - so would have a pile of crown seal stubbies on a normal sat morning after the fri night session ?? Enjoy a pint of Sharers while your searching.......

 

[Jovial_Monk]

PET bottles suck.

If recyclers etc fail you, any decent HBS can supply 640ml robust brown glass crown seal bottles for $1/Btl or less

Jovial Monk

 

[chiefman]

Can you get a hand Bottle capper that Twists the Crown seals on for twist tops ?

HMM maybe i should invent one

 

[Backlane Brewery]

Without wishing to appear rude to our new friend Chiefman, these are exactly the sort of questions discussed in the fallout from Batz' post last week on the different needs of forum members.

Kudos to those who have responded thus far, but I think this exchange is demonstrating yet again how useful a FAQ section on the site would be.

 

[RichLum]

I asked my local pub to save any crown top bottles (Crown, Stienlager, Becks etc).
I came back the next day and they had a whole crate for me.

If you are on good terms with the local bar staff most shouldn't mind putting a crate in the corner for you

Rich

 

[Gulf Brewery]

Can you get a hand Bottle capper that Twists the Crown seals on for twist tops ?

Chiefman

You need a bench capper for twist top bottles, the hand cappers break the necks on too many of the twist tops.

Look for bottles wit crown seals, there are plenty about still. Also, look for Grolsch bottles (restaurants and the like) as they are a good re-usable bottle.

PET bottles are fine for short term storage (even Coopers sell them for homebrew). The only thing to watch with clear bottles is to keep them in the dark as they can get lightstruck in 20 minutes.

Cheers
Pedro

 

[Samwise Gamgee]

Hey Cheif,

Go to the www.countrybrewer.com.au forum and in the classifies section there are details for a Japanese restaurant in Crows Nest that has 800+ odd 633ml crown seal bottles.

They have not been cleaned tho. They are quite strong, chunky bottles though especially compared to if you started to collect CUB type bottles.

gotta love these new emoticons!

 

[spicks]

I picked up a carton of Grolsch bottles from Safeway (Woolworths). $78 for 20 bottles was pricey of course, but they have their own resealable lids. And they're 437ml or something like that. I liked the beer too.

They are hard to come across though, especially in cartons.