What do you guys prefer for bottles?

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I'll put my vote in for the 16 oz. Grolsch flip-tops. Once they're cleaned up, they make for easy bottling and the right size drinking for my tastes.
 
I get mine from the nearby party store. They got TONS of import and microbrew beers there, and they let me scrounge in the back for any returnables I want. I only pay deposit. Oh, plus the bottles I've emptied myself.

I like the Guiness bottles that have the plastic label, because they peel right off, and the bottle is kind of curvy. I've had a bit of Hoegaarden lately, and like those bottes for their shape too.

I mostly only use 12 oz brown bottles, but I do have a few 22s, so if I make a beer that I think I'll want to drink a lot of in one sitting, I'll use some of those.
 
If you want a source for bottles, get over to a competition sometime. Dead soldiers from entries often get stuck over in a corner for anyone who will carry them away.


TL
 
EdWort said:
I love 32 oz. Tecate or Carte Blanca bottles. Ya wanna talk about fast bottling. You only need 20 of these for 5 gallons.

Tecate32oz.jpg
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Ed, I've had problems with the caps not fitting my Tecate/Sol/Carte Blanca caguama bottles. They seem to have a slightly smaller lip. My capper always gives me trouble trying to cap them and, in my experience, about half of the bottles that size are flat due to air leaks at the cap. I don't have problems with other recycled bottles or the one I buy at AHS.

Do you use a different cap size? Do they even make a smaller cap size?
 
Back on topic -

I only use brown bottles and like them as big as I can find. That's why I've tried to use the 32oz bottles.

The major drawback to those bottles (and Anchor's) is that there is no ridge at the transition from the barrel to the neck of the bottles. Having that ridge makes it much easier to limit the sediment that pours out. I have 6 Bellhaven bottles that have a really narrow neck and pronounced ridge to trap sediment.
 
I started with 12oz brown crown cap bottles. Next I went to 750ml green Champagne bottles. I currently use 2 liter plastic soda (pop) bottles, & I keep them out of the light. I haven't used the 2 5Gal cornies, yet. After the move...
 
I use 12 oz brown bottles, whatever my neighbor drinks & I steal out of his recycling.

Unfortunately, he seems to really like New Belgium beers - and I dislike their bottle shape, and the little printed glass ring around the neck. In fact, I dislike all bottles with printed crap on them, like sam adams, for example. I hope, over time, to get enough smooth and simple bottles that the decorated ones can get recycled.

I'm probably to the scale where I should be kegging (I've got over 300 bottles, and in a couple of days they'll all be full...) but I don't want to invest the money or space to keg. Maybe when I buy a house and can build out my brewery & bar...

I like the smaller bottles (rather than 22oz) because I prefer to drink a little. Usually one beer at a time is enough for me, then if I want another, it's no big deal to open another one. They also work well for giving beer away, which I like to do.

Yeah, bigger bottles would make bottling go faster, but no worries.

Oh, and I'd really really like to find a source for stubby bottles, like red stripe, but without the printing on them!
 
homebrewer_99 said:
I have about 23 cases of brown German 1/2 liter bottles (20 to a case). About 6 cases are flippies.

I sold about 100 Grolsch bottles and gave the buyer 8 cases of 12 oz bottles free.

I have a couple extra 12 oz lying around that I'll probably get rid of after they are emptied.

I also have 23 cornies...;)
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Where did you get those German .5L bottles? Those are my preference but I can't find any place to buy them. I am drinking Weinstephaners as fast as I can to build up a stockpile but that can take a while.

Thanks,

Ron
 
My hippie friends bring me lots of bottles. They drink mostly New Belgium, but they get bottles from all of their friends, too. I have a pretty big assortment of different brands and styles. I try to keep like bottles in the same six pack holder. I do at least one 22 oz. bomber for each brew, and box them up for aging.
 
sigmund said:
I'll put my vote in for the 16 oz. Grolsch flip-tops. Once they're cleaned up, they make for easy bottling and the right size drinking for my tastes.
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+1 here. I usually do not bottle anymore - 5 gal corny. I have decided to take up bottling a portion for longer term storage and sampling to friends.
 
I do at least one 22 oz. bomber for each brew, and box them up for aging.
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Great Idea! This is on my list of things to do with future batches.

I have Sam Adams bottles, but am starting to replace some with Lagunitas bottles in case I decide to enter a competition. The Lagunitas bottles are stubby, and fit into a small cooler or box better than longnecks.
 
I use 1 liter amber bottles for most brews.

When I'm bottling smaller ones, I just reuse Smithwick's bottles.

Both blue and green bottles allow damaging light through, but amber/red/orange bottles do not. Apfelvein in Grolsh bottles, beer in brown. :)
 
tranceamerica said:
you mean you guys don't just drink it straight out of the carboy!?! :mug:
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I enjoy the classy feeling of screw top, liter bottles. Fun for sharing, easy to bottle.
 
Champagne Bottles & brown 12 onces i use.
i rigged up a dish washer i got off of craigs list & a hose from a sanitary tub(lundry tub) to take off the label. I call it the HILLBILLY label remover. plus they come out pretty clean when they are done. almost all glue off
 
Anyone reuse Miller or Coors screw top plastic bottles?

These come in 16 oz at my local store and I want to bring some beers camping, PET bottle online are kinda pricey but these look like the same thing....
 
I use normal 12oz brown Sierra Nevada bottles, but that's mostly because all my friends drink SN...lots of extra bottles around. However, I'm starting to save up 22 and 24oz brown bottles because it would make bottling day much quicker. The only problem is finding a good way to carry those big bottles around to friends houses, bbqs, etc.
 
Sadly I know very few people who live near me who drink beer from non-screw top bottles. Just way too much Bud and Miller influence among my friends and family. My first batch I brewed was bottled using the 30 740ml PET bottles that came with my kit. Seemed to work well. But I am just not a fan of the PET bottles for my beer. So for my second batch I resorted to buying the cheapest brown non-twist off bottles of beer I could find.

I settled on Smithwicks (Guiness product). When it came to bottling my second batch the Smithwicks worked great. In fact, I very much enjoyed the whole bottling process and look forward to my next batch, though the next batch will be using new bottles picked up from a LHBS.
 
Eves said:
Sadly I know very few people who live near me who drink beer from non-screw top bottles. Just way too much Bud and Miller influence among my friends and family. My first batch I brewed was bottled using the 30 740ml PET bottles that came with my kit. Seemed to work well. But I am just not a fan of the PET bottles for my beer. So for my second batch I resorted to buying the cheapest brown non-twist off bottles of beer I could find.

I settled on Smithwicks (Guiness product). When it came to bottling my second batch the Smithwicks worked great. In fact, I very much enjoyed the whole bottling process and look forward to my next batch, though the next batch will be using new bottles picked up from a LHBS.
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Cooper's kit eh?

Be careful with the bottles from your LHBS - I think some members here have had issues with the glass being too thin.
 
Yep, Coopers kit.

And I've read some of the stories about LHBS bottles possibly being thin. However, there are also lots of people that get by with them just fine. Hopefully I am one of the lucky ones who's LHBS stocks good bottles.
 
the best part about my mr beer kit has been the bottles. I have been able to reuse them at least twice if not three times and they hold about 22 oz and are plastic so no shattering!!!
 
I have about 10 cases of used Sam Adams bottles.

I find the Guiness bottle to not seal good with normal caps.

I like SA's :tank:
 
I bottle mostly with 12 oz sam adams and new belgium bottles. I do have a case of widmer bros. floating around as well....
 
My first bottling day went well but all I had was 12 oz Sam Adam's and the like. I did not enjoy filling nor capping all of them (and I was a gallon short in my bottling bucket!). I'm going to try to accumulate at least 5-10 larger (22oz or more) ones so I can cut my bottling time in half if possible. Anyone have any cheap(er) beers/wines that would suffice? I'm not a wine drinker and so don't even know if they come in caps?
 
You definitely don't want wine bottles for beer. They aren't designed to hold pressure. Beer bottles are fine, though. I use some Grolsch bottles with the ez caps and like them- they are 16 ounces so a nice size. I have a few 22 ounce bottles, too.
 
Good point...as you can see I didn't even think they have no pressure. I guess champagne would work, but I don't drink that @#%$! :) And I'd like to just stick with the caps. I'll have to find some larger bottles.....hmm...they sell any 40's that are cap'd (non-screw)?
 
When my dad first started homebrew he had cases of Shlitz bar bottles that had the pop tops.

You can get cases of PBR with pop tops too maybe these come in cheap 22s as well.
 
Sierra Nevada 12oz are ideal for me. Short enough to stay upright anywhere in my fridge, plus I can close the top on any box I throw them into.

Not to mention that Sierra Nevada makes some damn fine beer. Enjoying the summerfest a lot (although $8.50 a sixer!) since there are not any good locally produced pilsners near me.
 
You can use brown or green, but if you can, go brown. If you use green, just keep them away from flourecent light. Flourecents emit the harmful UV rays that are detrimental to your little yeasties, however, incandecent bulbs won't skunk up the beer in the green bottles.
 
Actually, UV is dangerous to the hop flavor, not the yeast. UV turns hop oils into the same chemical that comes out of a skunks butt.
 
I like to bottle in a variety of bottles. Grolsch are good for drinking at home since they're a nice big single serving but if you just want to taste you can split one, but I don't think they travel well (bump the stopper too hard and I think the pressure can be released). 12oz longnecks are easy to come by so I don't mind giving them away. I love using interestingly shaped bottles like St. Peter's Old-Style Porter, but they do present a storage challenge sometimes. When I get a cappable champagne bottle I put something strong in it and tuck it away for the long haul. I think I might try out some 2-liter plastic soda bottles.
 
I use both brown and green. Brown I generally use for ales and wheats, and green for lagers. That helps me figure out which is which is in the refrigerator without having to make labels. But, since I never seem to have enough of one or the other color bottle to complete a batch, I've taken to marking "A", "L" and "W" on the caps with permanent marker just to be sure.

As far as green bottles, I use 12 oz Grolsch bottles (capped) and Pilsener Urquell, the latter of which has labels that come off really easy, a bottle with little decoration, and is great to drink.
 
Brew Dude said:
I prefer the standard brown, 12 ounce bottles. I wouldn't go for the green or clear bottles because they do not protect against UV which can skunk the beer. I believe it skunks the beer because it reacts with the hop particles/sediment and causes off flavors to occur.

I use regular bottle caps as well and I haven't had any serious issues.
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Not that it matters, but I just read an article in Brew Your Own that stated it's not just the UV light that skunks the beer. It's the other spectrums as well as the UV.

First post. Love this site.
Dan
 
kedash said:
Not that it matters, but I just read an article in Brew Your Own that stated it's not just the UV light that skunks the beer. It's the other spectrums as well as the UV.

First post. Love this site.
Dan
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I used to use an ordinary 60W incandescent light bulb to keep things at 70 but I've been debating if that's a good idea. Stopped now but still I never tasted any skunkedness.
 
I have about 6 cases of Sam Adams bottles I use primarily. I just started building up a collection of flip top grolsch bottles. I dont think you can fully appreciate them until you see one in person. The glass is nice and thick. The beer isnt great, but it works as a good "lawnmower beer."

I have 7 or 8 champagne bottles that look capable but i think they take the bigger size cap so i'll have to get a new bell for my capper.
 
respect to oscar hammerstein, but these are a few of my favorite things.......

  • a 64oz flip top - these are firggin' great when you know you have a party coming up. saves a ton of bottling time and make for a sweet presentation.
  • a 24oz sierra bottle (the southern hemisphere harvest - was delicious; planning to drink the rest of her cousins in the 12 pack in back). i love these bombers for bottling. the way i see it is that i never just drink one beer, especially a home brew. unless of course it's breakfast time or something :rockin: i usually use 22oz, but slowly saving up a collection of these 24's
  • and finally a 12oz dogfishhead 60min ipa. my most recent favorite session beer. the one in the pic is now in my belly

cheers!

CIMG6499.jpg
 

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