get bottles for beer

If you are new to brewing, you will most likely bottle it when the fermentation has stopped. A typical 5 gallon batch of beer will require about 50 of the 12 oz beer bottles, give or take a few. So you know you need them, but where the hell do you get 50 bottles of beer that you brew? Buying them online can be expensive due to the heavy weight of the glass bottles, which will mean high shipping costs. Do you have to go door to door asking people for their used beer bottles?

Every beginning home brewer has wondered where to get bottles of beer. At first, 50 bottles may seem like a lot, especially since you can’t really use the twist-off type. Let us give you some tips on how to get beer bottles based on our experiences. Below we will only list a few brief points.

1. Drink beer and then make beer. This method is as simple as it sounds and is the most fun way to get beer bottles. If you’re going to make your own beer, you’ll most likely drink beer. By buying beer in bottles with pop-tops you can reuse your empty bottles. You will need to drink 8-9 six packs to get the bottles you need. If you’re brewing with malt extracts, you’ll have at least 2 weeks after pitching your yeast before you need all your bottles ready. If you don’t already have bottles, this method alone may not be best for you. Drinking 9 six packs for 2 weeks is expensive and really not a healthy move.
2. be a beer bum. You can usually request the empty bottles that would otherwise be thrown away or recycled by friends and family. Just spread the word that you will be taking your used bottles and you may have more bottles of beer than you ever wanted in a short amount of time. He’s just hoping to do some cleaning.
3. Leave a note. If you’re new to an area and haven’t made many friends yet, or don’t know many people who drink bottled beer, you might consider leaving a note at your local recycling center. It’s a good idea to check with the person who oversees the recycling center, and if they already accept glass, you may get calls within an hour of posting a note. The note should be simple and clearly state that you brew and require empty pop-top bottles.
4. Make deals to get bottles of beer. If you know one or two people who work with people who enjoy craft beer, you can easily get a lot of bottles by spreading the word that you’ll trade some homebrew for empty bottles. You’ll need to calculate the exchange rate, but most people would consider one bottle of homebrew for every 6-pack of empty bottles to be a fair exchange.
5. Network with like-minded people. Do a quick search online for home brewing clubs in your area. You can also talk to the manager or owner of a nearby brewery supply store to get in touch with other people who brew their own beer. Brewers tend to hoard more bottles than they really need and may be happy to part with a few. Also, homebrewing tends to be a progressive hobby. Many home brewers will transition to other means of storing their beer, such as small kegs or larger bottles for the beer they brew. When a brewer moves on to the keg, they will usually have a fair amount of bottles just taking up space.
6. Who serves you beer? If you’re going to a restaurant or bar that serves bottled beer, why not order a few? If you are served a frosted glass, flip-top bottle, you can usually take the empty bottle(s) home with you. Such places could also collect some empty six-packs that you can use while you hang out there. Let your waiter or bartender know that you would be grateful for a few bottles, and let them know this in a way that implies that their tip will reflect your gratitude. A few dollars extra for 12 or more bottles is a great deal.
7. It’s what’s inside that counts. Who’s going to see your beer bottles? Do you care what impression the bottle might make? Consider these questions for a few moments and decide to really go cheap by using empty 2-liter coke or soda bottles. Maybe this is just ghetto for you, but the 2-liter bottles can easily take the pressure of your carbonated beer and make the bottling process a breeze. Don’t expect to reuse these bottles and caps more than once or twice, but this is a very inexpensive way to get beer bottles.
8. Pay for comfort. The last option we’ll mention is simply buying the bottles you need. This is convenient because you will not have to clean tobacco, saliva or cigarette butts from the bottles. The best way to maximize convenience when shopping for bottles on a budget is to buy the reusable plastic bottles that come with a plastic screw cap, like the 2-liter soda. These are lightweight, so they’ll be inexpensive to ship, and don’t require the use of a capper or the expense of single-use caps. These can be found in 1-liter sizes and can typically be reused a dozen times if properly cleaned and sanitized. If your budget allows, you can also buy 1-liter bottles with the grolsch-type cap mechanism. These are a little pricey at first, but you’ll love the comfort and style they offer.

That’s the list we’ve compiled. At least one of the options listed above will help you get the bottles you need. If you’re after some of these options, you shouldn’t have a problem getting enough bottles for a couple batches of beer. Just be sure to let people know when you don’t need more bottles or you’ll find yourself with more bottles than you could possibly fill.