Bottle woes.

Over a month ago, I contacted my local wine shop where I bought bottles before and asked for 96 bottles to do my NHC round 1 entries.  The Canadian contest has to be there by April 5.
They told me that they could get them but that the bottle place was closed for a week to update their computer system.  So I waited a week and went in the shop and they said “Oh yes, we’ll get them for you”.

(Bet you can see where this is headed).

I called late last week and I was told that the girl who does the ordering was out.  I called Monday and was told that they were on order and would arrive today.  Then, at 4:30 today I got a call that they didn’t arrive and no explanation as to why.  But, regardless I have 12 beers ready to bottle on Sunday to ship Monday and no bottles and no where to get any (busy all day tomorrow and I can’t get out of it even if I found some).  PO’d doesn’t even begin to explain my mood this evening.

So, good luck to you all.  I guess I won’t be entering the NHC Round 1 this year.  I only have two beer bottled but I really wanted to shoot for the “Rookie of the Year” award that is only open to first time participants in the Canadian contest.  So, I want to send more than 2.  Guess I’ll be ready for next year and I’ve got a year to find a reliable supplier.

Buy full ones, empty them, retask them.

I have NEVER bought bottles for bottling my homebrew.  Nearly everything I bottle goes in Sierra Nevada or Dogfish Head bottles.  Extra bonus points for bomber bottles (although they are to big for competition).

Yeah what’s the cheapest beer you can get? If you have Costco up there, they have their own brand of beer sold here for $17 per 24, not much more than empty bottles.

I once got a case of empties that were returned for the deposit at my local store for the price of the deposit.
You could try that at a store or bar.

I do this as much as I can but I needed about 65 bottles and I certainly didn’t have that many.

As for the cheapest beer we have up here…good one.  Clearly you’ve never bought beer in Canada ;)  Problem I have is, very very few of the breweries up here use pry-top bottles.  The only ones that do are our few craft breweries and you’re looking at 50+ dollars for 24.  So, I don’t buy much.

Whenever I’m in the States, I always bring back a case of DFH partly because I like the beer but also for the bottles.

I’m not really comfortable with the idea of buying back empties that I didn’t drink.  Sort of grosses me out thinking about what I’m washing out of the bottles…ew!

Well that sucks!  >:(

I try to pick up empties at the finish of local homebrew competitions.  I usually get three or four cases and wash them out with a jet bottle washer and hot water as soon as possible.

These days I only buy pry-offs and I also avoid brands that have difficult to remove labels- especially foiled bottles.

Too bad about the LHBS not stepping up. I’m sure it was just one of those things that wasn’t meant to be at that point in time.

Soaking in an oxyclean solution removes bottle labels nicely (and any fuzzies that may have grown inside the bottle too).

Shorts in Michigan is by far the worst I’ve encountered.  I think they’re stuck on with some sort of mutant toad slime, then varnished, welded and laminated before getting baked on.  I’ve tried soaking them in Oxyclean, TSP, bleach and a mild phosphoric acid bath - not concurrently - hoping that maybe pH was the trick.  Not coming off.

How many bottles does the Canadian comp require? In the US, it’s only one for the first round. Or are you shooting for the Ninkasi and the rookie award.

another beer is Mad Anthony, the labels are impossible to remove without scrubbing each one with a metal brush or steel scrubbing pad, its ridiculous.

add Blue Mountain and Weyerbacher to that list.  Takes a small thermonuclear device to get those labels off

Here’s a list I’ve been compiling in a thread on the Northern Brewer forums. Might be appropriate here to some extent:

[quote]By the way, thanks for starting a post about whose labels are easy/hard to peel. I’ve been looking for a list like this. Here’s what we have so far:

Easy to peel: Samuel Smith, Red Hook, Sierra Nevada, Samuel Adams, New Belgium (warning - possible cracks), Bell’s, Guinness Draught (11.2oz bottle), Three Floyds, Goose Island, Schells, Deschutes, and I’ll add Bass Ale, Ommegang and Saranac here

Hard to peel: Brooklyn, Summit, Founders, Firestone, Shorts, Mad Anthony, Blue Mountain, Weyerbacher and I’ll add Dark Horse and Harpoon
[/quote]

A lot (if not all) Rogue beers are silkscreened, so are H.U.B. Beers, and the new belgium lips of faith . They are impossible to remove the labels  >:(

I need 2 for the first round and 3 additional for 2nd round.  So, I was gonna do a 6 pack of everything I was going to enter (some of them are already have little left).  I figured I could drink the bottled ones that don’t move on but if I don’t have them bottled now, there’s a really good chance I wouldn’t have enough left of some.  I have very little willpower when I’ve had a few…

Back to the OP…

DO you have anything else bottled?

If so, drink a couple, or pour then in a 2 litter soda bottle, and re-use.