I’m a home brew noobie & I just can’t justify spending $12 for bottles then $15 just to ship them.
I tried using bottles from a craft store ($.50 ea.) but i hate gifting out my brew in vintage milk bottles.
I do my drinking at the bar so i don’t have any bottles laying around.
So where do you guys buy or acquire your bottles from & how much do you spend; if anything?
I bought bottles at Sams Club. $27 a case. Had to go through the work of emptying them, they were filled with New Glarus Spotted Cow.
Will the bar you drink at save pry off bottles for you?
Wow that’s actually a good idea, ill give a bar or 2 a call. ill offer them 20 cents a bottle since recycle in Massachusetts is 10 cents!
ΔΔΔ. This. Win-win. Would have been better if it was moon man but spotted cow will do…
Sams doesn’t have Moon Man or Two Women in cases.
I see. I wish Dan would decide to distribute to all Sams. Would make me a very happy man. 
I’m saving the bottles from what I drink and thought about asking the local bars if they would save some bottles until I have a stock.
Mr. Octabird
American Made!
I’ve never bought a bottle in my life, but If I had to, I’d turn to my LBHS before I considered having them shipped to me.
Are you above dumpster diving?
Are you against drinking at home? Where do you plan on drinking your home brew? My advice is to make the ultimate sacrifice, buy some good beer with pry off bottles, enjoy the contents, rinse and reuse. Of course they’ll need to be sanitized first. Having new bottles shipped from somewhere is the same price as bottles filled with yummy beer. And if you’re worried about not accumulating empties fast enough, throw a party. You’ll be surprised how quickly one can accumulate bottles. And how many friends will be willing to help out!
:cheers:
[quote=“mmBeer”]Are you against drinking at home? Where do you plan on drinking your home brew? My advice is to make the ultimate sacrifice, buy some good beer with pry off bottles, enjoy the contents, rinse and reuse. Of course they’ll need to be sanitized first. Having new bottles shipped from somewhere is the same price as bottles filled with yummy beer. And if you’re worried about not accumulating empties fast enough, throw a party. You’ll be surprised how quickly one can accumulate bottles. And how many friends will be willing to help out!
:cheers: [/quote]
+100 to this!
I now have a special trash can which is really a TREASURE can for parties. All empty bottles go in there and during clean up time I pull the bottles and run them through the dishwasher on high heat and sani-rinse. It doesn’t completely sanitize them (from what I read my dishwasher likely doesn’t get hot enough), but it cleans any stuff stuck on them good enough so I can inspect and sanitize with StarSan later.
Check craigslist or freecycle. I scored over 75 swing top bottles of various sizes for free.
Also saved any I bought and washed.
[quote=“Kgetch”]Check craigslist or freecycle. I scored over 75 swing top bottles of various sizes for free.
Also saved any I bought and washed.[/quote]
Kgetch was one post ahead of me with my same advice. You MIGHT get lucky and find someone on craigslist looking to dump them for cheap or free.
When I first started by chance I checked craigslist and sure enough there was someone moving and it just was too much to pack up 4 cases of bottles. Was giving them away for free. He was surprised anyone even saw it and emailed him.
wasn’t the biggest haul, but at $15/box it was about $60 of bottles. I did bring him 2 six packs of various good beers as a payment despite him saying they were free, so it did cost me about $18 or so but still worth it
When I suddenly need an influx of bottles, I just throw a party and provide beer with appropriate bottles. It’s a fun AND helpful, plus a good reason to see friends
