Is it safe to re-use commercial beer bottles (non-screw) or should you always use returnable type?
Yes, it’s safe to re-use the commercial bottles. That’s where 95% of my bottles come from.
Thanks,
I’m new and I had read about possible bombs because the non-returnables were thinner gauge glass. I guess if you have bombs you have other problems anyway.
Around here, all commercial bottles are returnable.
The thinnest non-screwoff bottles I’ve run across are from Michelob Amber Bock - noticeably thinner than regular craft beer non-screwoffs. That said, I have bottled in them with no problems but, if you want to be ultra safe, just stay away from bottles from the big boys.
I save all of my commercial bottles for bottling. I’m not going to pay $11.00/cs for empty bottles.
I recently heard Jamil on the Brewing Network talk about how he only uses brand new bottles for competition, because you can’t be sure that used bottles are absolutely clean.
This made absolutely no sense to me. He wouldn’t buy a new carboy for every batch. . .what’s different about cleaning a bottle??
If you clean it thoroughly and use a good sanitizer, I don’t see any problem
I would agree and even go so far as to say that I’d be more concerned with brand news ones. Who knows what sorts of chemicals are leftover from the manufacturing process.
++1
JZ said this?! Surely it’s some sort of anal-retentivity thing… ;D
Yeah. It was on the “competition brewing” show from about a year ago where he and Gordon Strong were the featured guests.
I think several on the show agreed with him and said they also use new bottles. Maybe there’s a good reason, but I just fail to see how cleaning and sanitizing a beer bottle is any different than cleaning and sanitizing a carboy.
If he has the money to buy new bottles all the time, more power to him. I stick with reusing mine and commercial bottles. I have to be more careful where I spend my money.
I also bake my bottles to sanitize them. Since I’m using heat even dirt, if there were any left in the bottles by accident, gets sanitized.
Kai
Glass bottles
Non-pourous
Heat resistant
You should see some of the junk I’ve jet washed out of bottles…NEW ONES!!! Never
I don’t have any issues with reusing old commercial bottles as long as they are properly cleaded and sanitized. It’s a waste of money IMHO.
+1 I bought two cases of new bottles once, when I hadn’t collected enough commercial empties when I started brewing again after a hiatus. I don’t even know if I have too many of them left. I give a lot of beer away and I rarely get the bottles back.
Yep, JZ says new bottles only for competition and long term storage. His theory is that after beer stays in a bottle for months or possibley years, it’s pretty tough to clean. And the fact that good bottles are brown, and you can’t really visually inspect to make sure they are clean.
And for competition, I only use new bottles. However, for sharing out of my corny’s on a regualr basis, I have about ten cases of the flip tops bottles from Fischer Amber, and I re-use them all the time… And the beergun from Blichman is an awesome product.
I see the point JZ’s making. However, clean the bottles promptly and don’t let mold grow in the base of the bottle. Voila! Problem solved!
Worse comes to worse some PBW would do the trick.
Recycling commerical bottles is the way to go. Even the commercial brewers used to do it where I grew up in WI. All of the local brewers/beers used to come in cases of “returnables” that would go back to the brewery get cleaned, sanitized, and refilled (Leinenkugel, Huber, Point, Potosi, Rhienlander). Purchasing new glass bottles is much less fun than purchasing craft beer, drinking it, and then having a bottle to recycle.
Well as a natural progression of thought concerning this thread: what should a new bottle cost per type and size?
The LHBS sells 22’s for a dollar apiece :o
12’s seem to be around 13/case.
I’d personally pay double that, and get new belgium in those bottles as a case qty of new Belgium around here is $26.
There are cheaper beers, but they are THICK good quality bottles.
Any better analysis that someone has?
commercial beer bottles are good… I have around 3 cases of Hoegaarnden, about one case of Paulaner 500ml bottles, a few fliptops like Bernaard from Czech Republic (good beer)… this is what I use… believe me… it is a good initial investment… and if you accidentally break one… you can always buy a good beer and re-use the bottle.
Cheers !!!