Swing-top Bottle Acquistion

[BruceKey]

I don't keg, I don't have refrigeration.

I bottle. I like to bottle with swing-tops because
1) They are 16oz not 12oz
2) I don't have to cap them

Swing-top bottles are about $2 from the brew shop (empty).

I would rather buy them with beer in them.

1) I hate Grolsch
2) I heard green bottles are bad (n'kay)

Q's
1) What beer can I buy in a brown swing-top bottle
2) Where?

[dparsons]

||
Grolsch.

[wild]

Fischer Amber Beer
Ellezelloise's Hercule Stout
and there are many others depending on where you can shop.

Good luck,
Wild

[jesskidden]

I see a number of "swing top" bottles, mostly from German and Belgian brewers, brown glass, in 500ml and 330ml sizes, on the shelves in NJ, but, as you note, "which" is dependent on "where" you are.

Of course, green bottles are only "bad" when you expose your beer to light (sunlight and florescent light are the worse- but I still get annoyed when the 'frig light comes on- I'd get a red refrigerator light if I still brewed :D ) and, since you're not going to be storing your beer on retail shelving for weeks/months at a time, I wouldn't worry about light-struck beer if you're against capping. I used to bottle barleywines and imperial stouts in small, clear 7 ounce longneck bottles that Matts Premium came in. Since I controlled them, I never worried about it.

I suppose the fact that Grolsch switching to green bottles (in my homebrewing days several decades ago they were brown) means the Heineken drinkers have more market power than homebrewers ;) but I still see the brown bottles around at flea markets, etc.- I guess because they were the type of thing that even non-brewers thought were too nice to just throw-out/recycle. (I bought 2 cases of them for a friend's son for $3 last summer.)

Of course, if you're going to hit up flea markets for bottles, you might as well pick up a capper, too- they go for several bucks (I don't even brew anymore but still look at 'em on the flea market table-- "Know what that is?" says the old guy. "Uh, yeah...") often they come with a partially used box of rusty cork-lined caps, too! (I wouldn't use 'em, but they do look nice on your antique bottles.) And then you can bottle in (depending on capper design) ANY size bottle. I still have several cases of steinie quart bottles- 20 of 'em bottled one batch- and also had a few half gallons and imperial quarts, as well.

[belsonc]

Like everyone's saying, a lot of German and Belgian beers come in these kind of bottles - one of my personal favorites is Schwelmer Hefe, but that's just me. :-)

[chazwicke]

Are the Schwelmer bottles smaller than 12 oz?

[PsychoBrew]

Why not just purchase EZ cap bottles - I think the last 16s that I purchased at my LBS cost about $18 for 12. That was over 2 years ago though.

http://www.ezcap.net/

You can get 16 and 32oz bottles in Brown or clear.

It does not matter what color your bottles are as long as you keep them in the dark for aging and only pull them out for chilling and serving.

[belsonc]

Schwelmer bottles are half a liter (aka 1 pint, .9oz). :-)