Bottles...Where to buy??

[tubetek]

Howdy BrewBudz-
Several friends and I have formed a casual brewing club here in the mountains. Does anyone know where we could purchase beer bottles in quantity, like from a glass distributor? The local LiquorBarn / HBS has
12oz ambers for $8.00/24 and 22oz for $7.50/12; they usually only have a case or two in stock and are unwilling/unable to share their supplier's name with us. We're
brewing Christmas gifts so we need to find some SOON! Any help greatly appreciated.
TT

[brewmonkey]

.30 cents a bottle is not a bad price. A glass distributer is going to have a minimum order which will certainly be more expensive even if the bottles are cheaper.

If they are buying in small quantities chances are your HBS is getting them from Crosby & Baker, but they do not sell directly to the public.

[YamahaXS]

http://www.containerandpackaging.com/plastic-food-containers.htm

12 oz at 40cents and 33 cents:
http://www.containerandpackaging.com/item.asp?item=G363

22 oz at 70 cents and 57 cents:
http://www.containerandpackaging.com/item.asp?item=G360

[brewmonkey]

Originally posted by YamahaXS
http://www.containerandpackaging.com/plastic-food-containers.htm

12 oz at 40cents and 33 cents:
http://www.containerandpackaging.com/item.asp?item=G363

22 oz at 70 cents and 57 cents:
http://www.containerandpackaging.com/item.asp?item=G360

Uhhhm, thats more expensive then he is paying now....

[michaewa]

I was in contact with a company called Ryco who is a wholesaler.

Here is an excerpt of an email I got from Matt Marshall (mmarshall@ryco.com)

-->
I stock them in my Denver warehouse. The current price on the 12-ounce in bulk is $0.12081/each, and in a kraft box with divider is $0.14585/each. As for the 22-ounce, I have them in a kraft box with divider for $0.3115/each.

These prices are quoted F.O.B. Denver, CO.
-->

I never followed up on this, as I assumed that shipping and the fact I would likely have to buy 60 cases or more would eat up any savings.

I now just go to a recycling center that separates out glass bottles.

Good luck.

[wortchillergoal]

Th eownwe of my LHBS tells me that bottles at good pricing are hard to come by. He is constantly trying to fine a new source.

Here is were I get lucky. One of my hockey buddys works for a major bottle plant for the big brewers. I had a spedcila 125th Bud bottle before Bud had them. I know but never turn down a well meant gift. He also gets me never used,virign bottles.

[sallad]

a lot of bars get their yellow fizz beer in returnable bottles. you might be able to get friendly with a bartender and buy a few cases on the cheap from him. and just because it *used* to have miller lite in it, doesn't mean its a bad bottle! in fact, these returnable bottles seem thicker, heavier, and darker than things like sam adams bottles.

fortunately for me, my father is a recovering miller lite drinker (i'm teaching him about good beer), but he still buys miller lite from time to time. he'll get the returnable bottles and let me keep them!

[toneyc]

Yup, get friendly with your local bartender. Share a homebrew with him and you'd be suprised what they can come up with. One guy here was saving back the grolsh bottles. He couldn't really think of anything to do with them so he gave me a couple of cases. And when I have to buy commercial beer, I always try to buy something in a bottle I can use later. And friends are great for bottle searches, too. After I started kegging, I've given away case after case of bottles, because I still tend to hang on to bottles that can be used later.

:)
Toney.

[wortchillergoal]

Are you guys in states with no bottle deposit? I have purchased bottles from redempetion centers at a dime a bottle, before I met my hockey buddy. The onbly problem with those is you can get some really nasty bottles cleaning wise.

[bierboy]

Returnable macro-swill bottles. You can clean them with Oxyclean. A soak overnight cleans all of the gack inside the bottle and gets all of the labels off.

[yonkersbrewer]

Let everyone you know that drinks beer that you will trade a six of your best homebrew for a case of returnable bottles. I do it with a work buddy that I would be giving some beer to anyway. I get a case of Brooklyn Brewing bottles and he gets some of my best brown ale.

The other trade that I look forward to is with my friend who makes homemade Portugese sausage. We trade a case of beer for a couple of pounds of sausage every fall - each one makes the other taste better.

[sweetwater]

In Wisconsin I can get an empty case of returnables for $1.20 at any beer store. Wouldn't cost much for a large collection. Simply soak the lables off and clean them and their good as new. If you need perfect bottles, return the rough ones when you get other cases of empties, eventually you'll have all new bottles.

[barley ben]

Other than 12-16oz swing tops, I drank my collection of empties. It was fun!!!

[tubetek]

Howdy All-
Thanks for all the input; Guess we'll be
collecting empties the old-fashioned way 'till we can convince ourselves (wives) that we "really need" a pallet of bottles...
(perhape a Stainless Conical first)
TT

[mortong]

I just scored EIGHT cases from Oktoberfest last night! We won something in an auction and went to pick it up today. The empty bottles were still sitting neatly in their cases, ready to be thrown away.

There were easily 50 cases total (all neatly repackaged), and they were happy that someone was willing to do some of the cleanup work for them.

It'll take a while to clean them all, but now I can be indiscriminate about my beer buying - screw-off or pop-top, I can get what I want when I don't have any HB ready. =)

Geoff

[anarchos]

hey guys i just had an idea (i've never done this before) but why don't you just stand outside of the beer store (or i guess wherever you americans take back your bottles) and offer people $3 for a case of 24 bottles? i bet a lot of people would go for it when they'd only get $2.40 in the store (here in canada it's $0.10 a bottle)....i know if someone offered me more money for empties i'd jump on the chance for sure (hell i'd just give them away if i knew it was for a homebrewer :) )

[brewmonkey]

Not all states have a return laws and the ones that do have different value for the returns for the type of container.