How do you find cheap bottles?

[Grunaki]

Just wondering if anyone has 'the ultimate bottle solution' as I feel like this is going to be the major hangup with my brewing process and I'm sure there's got to be a simple way around it.

I've heard lots of suggestions about re-using Pop bottles, which seems like a good idea, but I've seen people on here mention that the plastic isn't that thick and lets the gas escape over time, and the Mrs is all "No! Those bottles are only designed to be used once! They will degrade and make you sick!" - Which I personally think is ********, but she gets a bee in her bonnet about such things and won't be budged. (And the recycling label on them is '1', which is PET and is the same as the plastic beer bottles you can buy in.)

The brew stores I've been to seem to have their bottles at really inflated prices.

For example, you can get a case of 12 500ml Grolsch-style bottles for $29.99+tax.

(Tax is an extra 12% on top in Manitoba - 5% Goods & Services Tax (Canada-wide) and 7% Provincial Sales Tax (going up to 8% in July)).

10 450ml bottles of Grolsch is $29.90+tax (which sounds preferable? )

You can also buy new PET bottles for $19.99 for 24 500ml bottles or $19.99 for 12 1 Litre bottles. (Plus tax, obviously, and the caps are extra).

I feel like I should be able to get empty glass bottles really cheap from somewhere - especially as the container deposit per bottle is only 10 cents when you get it from the store.. I've always taken my beer cases back in the past as the refund added up quite quickly, but I'm going to hang on to them from now on..

One of my main aims in brewing my own, however, is to avoid paying out the inflated prices for beer that have been crawling up for years and years now.. If I can get hold of about 300 500ml or 1 litre glass bottles from somewhere, I would be sorted as I'd have enough in rotation from what I drank to what I brewed to keep the cycle going indefinitely (I've been brewing up about once a week since I started this process).

Any ingenious ideas welcome. :thumb:

 

[Sandimas]

Dunno what it's like in Canada, but we're fairly big on recycling here in the UK so I've just scrounged empties off all my mates in return for a few filled back up with homebrew. Scrounged a few from my daughter's school events too - offered to clear up so I can keep all the bottles.

Must have about 200 bottles here now, either filled or waiting to be filled - never paid for any of them, and only had 1 or 2 go weak and break.

 

[calumscott]

I'm proud to say that my entire stock of a good few hundred bottles were all drunk by (or with) me.

It's by far the best way, drink lots of decent ale and not only do you get a great bottle stock but you learn loads about the beers you're going to make.

Well, that's how I justify it anyway... :lol:

 

[boozy_shoes]

I don't know what it's like in Canada, but over here in Britain the beer industry seems to be quite wasteful when it comes to bottles. There is no such system as the 10c refund and so glass bottles seem to be seen as a use once thing. This benefits us home brewers in that we can go to bars or pubs and ask for empties and usually they oblige and will give us them for free as it will stop their glass bins getting full (which i think they have to pay for). We also don't have friends that will not donate bottles as they can get 10c for them. Most of my bottles are from commercial beers I have previously drunk and keep re-filling and crown capping with my own and a few are what non brewing friends have given me for the same purpose and out out if politeness I will give them a couple of my beers to say thanks.

 

[Grumpy Jack]

I bought a small number when I first started out, but after that, all of them have either been consumed by me or by friends who put them aside for me - so many in fact that I have turned down lots and am now able to refine my requirements... like getting rid of those whose labels are difficult to wash off. :-)

 

[Monte Cristo]

Why not call on friends and buy their empty bottles for the 10c deposit, saves them the trip to the shop and gets you a shed load of cheap bottles (assuming you have lots of friends of course).

 

[Scott]

As others have mentioned, we dispose of copious amounts of glass bottles in pubs. They go to recycle but most landlords don't mind people helping themselves!

My local Weatherspoons leaves there glass bins on the side of the road, so makes life easier for me..

:

 

[Grunaki]

Why not call on friends and buy their empty bottles for the 10c deposit, saves them the trip to the shop and gets you a shed load of cheap bottles (assuming you have lots of friends of course).

Yeah, I have quite a few friends, but don't know if they drink that much these days.. Good idea though, I'll message them on Facebook.

 

[gl0ckage]

I work for wetherspoons and I've got 200 bottles in a month of collecting 1 day a week. They are all the same type bottles. Brother cider bottles, brown no markings over them, look like the ones you buy from bottle shops.

We throw possibly 1000 bottles away every Saturday, go to a big pub chain and try scrounge some or Atleast pay 10c.

My first day collecting, I've now rid myself of the green ones.

 

[fbsf]

My local pub (Marstons) doesn't want to know. Unless I was prepared to take all of the bottles in one go (i.e. so she didn't have to pay any money for recycling), the manager said it wouldn't be worth bothering for her.

I have told her that I could understand and I'd pass on word of her friendly and community spirited nature to all my friends

It's the Hollow Tree in Bradley Stoke in case anyone was interested.

On a different note, my local Aldi has brown bottles 12 for £12, and as a bonus they come pre-filled with Banks' bitter...

I get mine from friends and family - it takes a little while to build up stock, but as they ultimately end up benefitting when it comes to BBQ/party times, they normally come up trumps!

 

[winelight]

Well, I am a Bristolian, and will remember not to visit that pub next time I return.

There is a bar where I live and they are very helpful but quite understandably aren't going to do extra work on my behalf, so it's up to me to go through the recycling bins myself. (I don't suggest anyone else try this, as the necks of any broken bottles have an inclination to aim for your wrists when you reach your hands in.)

 

[LeithR]

While out on my daily cycle this morning I noticed the Council pick up lorry collecting the re-cycled glass from in front of peoples houses. I stopped and asked if they ever got any swing top bottles - yes lots - came the reply drop by the local recycling centre in a day or two and pick them up.

Can't wait for the weekend - result. :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

 

[Megaross]

I know the landlord and staff of my local really well (not sure if thats a good or a bad thing :lol: ), I just say before I'm going home that I'm going to pop out to the bottle bin and nab some stuff for my homebrew. They don't mind at all.

Usually get a nice bag full of bottles to bring home with me. My trouble is storage, wish I could have some crates to go with them.

Lots of other pubs I could go to and do that, well worth doing.

 

[gl0ckage]

I steal my boxes from river Island, ask in store if they could donate their delivery boxes. Sturdy as hell and interlocks for stacking I've now got 4.

 

[Monte Cristo]

My remedy to a bottle shortage was to let the great British public do the work for me.
As the local council has decided to quietly stop collecting the bottles (bless them thinking we wouldn't notice) The local bottle bins are busier than ever, so i placed my own little container next to the brown glass bin with a note saying 'homebrewer needs 500ml bottles'. Low and behold two days later the great beer swigging public had come up trumps the container was virtually buried in bottles - had a little sort through and chucked the suspect ones, then home for a thorough wash and delabel.
.
Regarding beer crates you could always place an ad on http://uk.freecycle.org and get some for free!

 

[awl23]

I work nights next to a pub so as its starts to get light I fill a carrier bag up with a few, take them home and give them a good wash.

Cant believe some of the prices you see for empty bottles

 

[orlando]

My first day collecting, I've now rid myself of the green ones.

Good as these are nowhere near as good as the brown ones. The light entering the green ones can affect the beer almost as much as clear ones.

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

I've let it be known amongst friends and family that I want any empty champagne and cork-stoppered wine bottles. I missed the midwinter booze binge, but since my brother is getting married in October I may be able to get a load of champagne bottles then, and if I'm lucky some wine bottles too. Right now the only real shortage I have is for clear glass wine bottles. I have none, and need six.

 

[Rwilts]

A friend in work is a member of a women's rugby team. Three weeks after I had 200 kopperberg bottles :

 

[PremierCru]

The other week we stayed in a youth hostel in the Lake District. I asked the warden and he let me have 40 empty Jennings bottles from the bar that would otherwise just have gone to recycling :thumb: