Can I reuse the bottles that I have bought say from Sam Adam's as home brew bottles. The only downfall that I see is that most home-brewers who use bottles use 20oz. bottles and therefore need far fewer to get their 5-10 gallons of home-brew bottled. Thoughts?

When I was still bottling my beer, I had my brother save all of his Sammy Adams bottles for me and used them and Sierra Nevada bottles almost exclusively. They work great! Just make sure to clean them right after you finish drinking the beer, else you'll start to grow some pretty aggressive mold in them. Then, just sanitize them as needed and bottle away!

I mainly reuse the 330ml bottles (most of them originating from the Matilda Bay Brewery) it takes about 60 of them to bottle a batch. I find its a really good way to pace myself while getting through one of my creations, my friends who use kegs and the 800ml bottles tend to get through a batch in a few weeks, where as I still have some beers I did a year ago on the shelf. Heed Guitarlord's advice on rinsing them out soon after drinking them though! I left a crate of empty bottles I'd forgotten to rinse outside in the laundry once and they got horribly mouldy,

You can buy bottles without beer in them?!?!!?

curlyfat wrote:You can buy bottles without beer in them?!?!!?

I know. Seems like a waste.

I bought some bottles without beer in them once - it was an emergency and i couldn't drink enough full ones empty in time for bottleing. The bottles however weren't much cheaper than a cheap slab of beer anyway, so it isn't an ideal expense to add to the costs of homebrewing.

Joseph wrote:I bought some bottles without beer in them once - it was an emergency and i couldn't drink enough full ones empty in time for bottleing.

BLASPHEMY!

Joseph wrote:The bottles however weren't much cheaper than a cheap slab of beer anyway, so it isn't an ideal expense to add to the costs of homebrewing.

I tend to agree, except that most of the cheap beer bottles are of the screw top variety and shouldn't really be used for homebrew. Of course, most homebrewers like good craft beer, and those bottles more often than not are reusable.

GuitarLord5000 wrote:

curlyfat wrote:You can buy bottles without beer in them?!?!!?

I know. Seems like a waste.

I figure why spend money twice? If I'm buying good beer from Sam Adams and the like and those are nice looking bottles why throw them away if I can use them when I start homebrewing this summer! I'd really like to just keg my beer but I'm not quite there money wise. Some day.

GuitarLord5000 wrote:... I tend to agree, except that most of the cheap beer bottles are of the screw top variety and shouldn't really be used for homebrew ...

?!? Why shouldn't they be used ?!? I've allways used screw tops (in conjunction with non-screw tops) and have never had a problem with them. Though I do have a very good quality bench capper. I do think I remember someone saying something about them being difficult for the double handled cappers and hammer cappers to tackle.

The lid of screw top bottles are much thinner than pop top types, and are much easier to break. I've broken the top of one screw top bottle with a hand capper. I've never yet broken a pop top bottle. Of course, my bottling experience is limited, as I quickly progressed to kegging.
Also, the screw tops supposedly are more difficult to get a proper seal. At least with a hand capper. Your bench capper probably works better, though. And of course, YMMV.

Hi: In Vermont ( and other NE states), you can get used bottles at the reclamation center for $.05 each. I get the 22 oz. size since it's easier to bottle 30 vs 50+. I found that the reclamation centers are helpful and will save out the bottles, and will allow me to be fussy when I reject those with embossed labels, odd shapes, or overly moldy insides.

I soak the bottles in a 30 gallon garbage pail of strong Clorox sanitizer and wash and rinse until clean. I scrape the labels with a drywall knife blade and then scrub with a Scotchbrite. I then soak them in a second sterilizing barrel. I then run these bottles through the dishwasher just before bottling.

I took me longer to discuss the process than to do it.

30 bottles = .05 X 30 = $1.50 and I get the boxes too!
I occasionally augment my supply with consumed and rinsed commercial purchases, but I'm getting to the point that I like my brew better, and it's cheaper.

Once I've gone through the initial process, I recycle my bottles and it's very easy and quick. Paul

Wow, what an informative post. Thanx for the info! And welcome to the forum.

Cheers,
Dave