Obtaining bottles

[IDK]

Trying to grow my stash of 500 ml bottles at the moment ready to start brewing.

Rapidly realised that there’s little price difference between a (empty) beer bottle and a bottle of beer (either the bottle or the liquid is free depending on your perspective).

I noticed Aldi have Banks’s Amber Bitter in 500ml bottles for 89p at the moment. Not my favourite beer but perfectly drinkable.

Any other tips on quick/cheap ways to grow a bottle stash?

 

[Agentgonzo]

Trying to grow my stash of 500 ml bottles at the moment ready to start brewing.

Rapidly realised that there’s little price difference between a (empty) beer bottle and a bottle of beer (either the bottle or the liquid is free depending on your perspective).

I noticed Aldi have Banks’s Amber Bitter in 500ml bottles for 89p at the moment. Not my favourite beer but perfectly drinkable.

Any other tips on quick/cheap ways to grow a bottle stash?

Not all bottles are the same . Commercial/supermarket beers tend to be made from thinner glass than those made for home brew. So if bottle conditioning, you are more at risk of a bottle exploding with a second hand one from a supermarket than one from a homebrew store.

I use both. Most of mine are homebrew bottles, but I also reuse ones from the supermarket to give away to friends so I don't have to ask for the bottles back. Though I've had issues with over carbonation of late, and had 2 bottles explode during the summer heat wave. Both of them were reused bottles from the supermarket. The (much larger number of) homebrew bottles were fine.

 

[Haversham]

Some people suggest asking your local pub. I presume they'd be happy to offload a few. If they pay a deposit on the bottles you'd have to compensate them I guess, but it shouldn't be much. Personally, I'm adding a few bottles of bitter each time I do a weekly supermarket shop. Most of them have a '4 bottles for £6' sort of offer. Given my current planned rate of brewing/drinking (and the fact that I already have 60 swing top bottles brought over from Germany in the summer), this should meet my needs.

 

[Haversham]

Not all bottles are the same . Commercial/supermarket beers tend to be made from thinner glass than those made for home brew. So if bottle conditioning, you are more at risk of a bottle exploding with a second hand one from a supermarket than one from a homebrew store.

Oh, that's interesting to know. Thanks.

 

[IDK]

Not all bottles are the same . Commercial/supermarket beers tend to be made from thinner glass than those made for home brew. So if bottle conditioning, you are more at risk of a bottle exploding with a second hand one from a supermarket than one from a homebrew store.

I use both. Most of mine are homebrew bottles, but I also reuse ones from the supermarket to give away to friends so I don't have to ask for the bottles back. Though I've had issues with over carbonation of late, and had 2 bottles explode during the summer heat wave. Both of them were reused bottles from the supermarket. The (much larger number of) homebrew bottles were fine.

Interesting, I’m still gathering knowledge ahead of my first brew here . Excuse the naivety.

I’d assumed exploding bottles referred to caps failing under pressure but it seems like you’re saying the glass can go too.

What about bottle conditioned commercial beers (e.g. Proper Job). Do they come in a stronger bottle or is the bottle conditioning better controlled to allow the use thinner bottles?

 

[Agentgonzo]

Nothing wrong with naivity - I'm still learning things every day!

The caps are actually stronger than the bottles. A bottle bomb/exploding bottle is actually the glass breaking. Fortunately mine were in the garage so no damage done. They can be dangerous, but I think (but an hi no means certain) that it breaks at a weak point rather than going off like a hand grenade. (If anyone has experience to the contrary, please say!)

I think that commercially made bottle conditioned beer is far more controlled than you average homebrew, so they can afford to safely use thinner bottles than we can - their beer of far more predictable.

I don't actually know whether stuff like proper job is thinner than other commercial beers. I've never thought of that . It'll be easy enough to tell by weighing the bottles though

 

[Rwilts]

Appreciate that it's personal preference but after a few years I got rid of all my recycled glass bottles and now only use PET bottles and about 30 swing top Grolsch bottles.( Plus four corny kegs but that's a different discussion). I got fed up of capping bottles, having some necks break during the process and the all round weight of glass. I have about 56 Cooper's PET bottles in rotation and have just taken delivery of a further 100 no name homebrew brown PET bottles for the next couple of batches.One of the benefits is knowing when it's carbonated, so even if you go down the glass route always worth putting a single PET bottle with the batch so you can give it a squeeze after a couple of weeks .

 

[Nottsbeer]

I tend to collect bottles from the local houses when people put their glass out for collection, or as noted above, from a local restaurant. The last time I collected wine bottles the local Italian were very happy to let me take whatever I wanted. Naturally take care for broken bottles and your fingers!! You will find different beer bottles have different style necks, which may cause issues depending on your capper.

 

[Agentgonzo]

always worth putting a single PET bottle with the batch so you can give it a squeeze after a couple of weeks .

+1 to this. I do it every brew now. If you also use a clear one (I use cleaned soft drinks bottles my stepson brings home from college, you can also judge colour/clarity as it conditions.

Plus, you can squeeze all the air out of the headspace and reduce oxidation.

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

Timothy Taylor, Black Sheep and York Brewery bottles are really good, sturdy and thick walled. I have switched over to those for the few beers like strong/KK ales and Imp stouts etc that I will continue to bottle.
So now you have a good excuse to drink a bunch of Landlord and Yorkshire Terrier...

 

[Begbie]

I would look on your local Facebook Marketplace freecycle pages too. I managed to source 24x330ml swing tops to my collection of glass bottles. Someone close by really likes Flensburger! I've also been reusing commercial beer bottles and some friends keep theirs for me.

I started out with PET bottles and probably have about 75 of them, but I moved over to glass bottles a while ago because, well, I just like the look and feel of them to pass to friends and family. I also think that some of mines have tasted better in glass.

 

[BasementArtie]

Trying to grow my stash of 500 ml bottles at the moment ready to start brewing.

Rapidly realised that there’s little price difference between a (empty) beer bottle and a bottle of beer (either the bottle or the liquid is free depending on your perspective).

I noticed Aldi have Banks’s Amber Bitter in 500ml bottles for 89p at the moment. Not my favourite beer but perfectly drinkable.

Any other tips on quick/cheap ways to grow a bottle stash?

So I like to buy Grolsch swing tops the 440ml green bottles however green glass is a problem of its own. I agree with you that the price of beer (including the bottles) and price of buying bottle aren't any different. I also agree with the other person who said the variety of bottle i.e thickness of glass changes depending on the beer you're buying.

I've written a rule of thumb to help with the pressure, safety and weight of bottles but it's by no means concrete just something I use when considering the limits of bottles Bottling CO² Vol limit theory

I would suggest drinking a few different cheap bottled beers and weighing the empties, then grow your stash with the heaviest sturdiest bottles you can but hopefully the beer you're drinking to get there is decent enough.

 

[Agentgonzo]

This is what fragments of an exploding bottle look like.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Looks like road kill for that Badger.

 

[sifty]

A local brewery sponsors my old footy club so the bar keeps their bottles for me. Saves them getting rid and I have a source of good 500ml botts...

First wash is a faff having to get the labels off, but after that it's great having heaps I can give away/take to parties.

I'd say most places would happily put some aside if you asked...

 

[Polcho]

Handy to know about the bottles being thinner. I’ve been collecting since last year. I’ll weigh some to find out.

If anybody has an example of a ‘good’ bottle, could you weigh it and post the result please.

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

I'm lucky in that our recycling center has an open skip full of bottles and I just help myself using a rake to fish them out.
Easiest to get the labels off, by far, are Rekorderlig but they are very thin walled.
I've had a few fail under pressure and they blow the bottom out.
Black Sheep bottles seem really good and have peel off plastic labels too.
Luckily my mate drinks it and keeps me the bottles.
I also have a hundred or so Grolsch which are really hefty.

 

[Agentgonzo]

If anybody has an example of a ‘good’ bottle, could you weigh it and post the result please

From my stock:

330ml homebrew bottle: 251g
500ml homebrew (swing top with cap and cage removed) bottle: 380g
Imperial pint homebrew bottle: 446g
A different 500ml homebrew bottle: 318g
Franziskaner 500ml bottle: 272g
Sharpe Atlantic pale ale 500ml bottle: 318g

My main stock is the top 3 items above. The "other" bottle is what a friend uses

Interestingly, 251/330x500=380. So my 330ml bottles and my 500ml swing tops seem to be the same thickness of glass.

 

[BasementArtie]

If anybody has an example of a ‘good’ bottle, could you weigh it and post the result please.

Orval beligan bottle 4.5-5 Vol Co² weighs 354g/330ml.

Westmalle Triple 4 Vol.CO², bottle is ~317g/300ml

My 750ml Belgian flip without cage weighs 533g.

La Chouffe, St Feuillien, Duvel etc all use the same bottles, I've weighed them and range from 281 to 288g.

St Bernardus, Gouden Carolus, Delirium (other than the grey flecked paint) use the same bottles as Rochefort judging by shape and weight. 241-246g and likely from what I can find Carb to 3.5vols.

The new 450ml swing top green Grolsch bottle without cage 383 and my home-brew-shop swing top bottles 500ml (454g).

 

[Agentgonzo]

my home-brew-shop swing top bottles 500ml (454g).

Without cage I assume?