Look at my bottle score!

atomeyes · Post by **atomeyes** » Thu Jan 12, 2012 10:33 am

One of my patients just gave me 100 of his old beer bottles that he used for home brewing.

these are the sweetest stubbies i've ever seen!

phirleh · Post by **phirleh** » Thu Jan 12, 2012 10:40 am

Nice...but are they clean?
I was in a Value Village last year and say a 12 of the original 70's stubbies in the little carboard suitcase, should have picked it up, but I think the thrill would have died down cleaning out 30 year old gunk in the bottles.

atomeyes · Post by **atomeyes** » Thu Jan 12, 2012 1:10 pm

phirleh wrote:Nice...but are they clean?
I was in a Value Village last year and say a 12 of the original 70's stubbies in the little carboard suitcase, should have picked it up, but I think the thrill would have died down cleaning out 30 year old gunk in the bottles.

some still had his homebrew in them.
i looked at a few. no yeasties or gunk - just some dust.
i want to sanitize them in the dishwasher, but they may lose the label, so i may be stuck with a slow-process individual internal soak and scrub.

grub · Post by **grub** » Thu Jan 12, 2012 2:13 pm

easiest way to remove labels is just to soak them in hot water - no chemicals, no nothing. leave 'em overnight. i've got a hard plastic scraper and a scotchbrite pad for any stubborn ones. european labels in particular fall right off within minutes. it'll also soften up any gunk that may be inside. my usual routine is to soak then rinse inside and out with a bottle washer. i've got a spare rubbermaid bin that holds approx 2 cases of bottles.

i've done chemicals and other stuff, but found no noticeable improvement in their ability to remove labels and far more work in rinsing the chemicals back out/off after.

markaberrant · Post by **markaberrant** » Thu Jan 12, 2012 4:12 pm

There are tons of those Heidelberg bottles floating around here in SK. A few guys in a our homebrew club have huge stashes of them, and I see them at most of the antique stores. Some are still full!

phat matt · Post by **phat matt** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 4:14 pm

cool looking bottle. sort of reminds me of a mickeys bottle with a longer neck. My aunt recently gifted me some of my uncles old homebrew bottles. Got 2 cases of the og stubby with the super short neck. Problem is i use a wing capper and need to invest in a new one to use these bottles.

atomeyes · Post by **atomeyes** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 5:47 pm

used 3 of the bottles to rack a brew.
panicked when i was crimping the cap on.
the neck is thinner than current bottles, so initially, the caps wouldn't stay on.
you have to really crimp that sucker down all the way to secure the cap.

and washing was fun - one bottle had a nice colony in the bottom. the rest were fine. just dusty

JeffPorter · Post by **JeffPorter** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 8:22 pm

atomeyes wrote:used 3 of the bottles to rack a brew.
panicked when i was crimping the cap on.
the neck is thinner than current bottles, so initially, the caps wouldn't stay on.
you have to really crimp that sucker down all the way to secure the cap.

and washing was fun - one bottle had a nice colony in the bottom. the rest were fine. just dusty

Had I known I was going to start homebrewing, I would have kept all those scotch-irish bottles...

phirleh · Post by **phirleh** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 11:16 pm

JeffPorter wrote:
Had I known I was going to start homebrewing, I would have kept all those scotch-irish bottles...

Before I started brewing, I kept 7 cases of the old Grand River bottles plus a few Scotch Irish stubbies...I love those bottles.

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 12:29 am

phirleh wrote:
JeffPorter wrote:
Had I known I was going to start homebrewing, I would have kept all those scotch-irish bottles...
Before I started brewing, I kept 7 cases of the old Grand River bottles plus a few Scotch Irish stubbies...I love those bottles.

LOL... I'm down to about 6 cases of GR bottles. I seem to give too many of those away. I still have tons of stubbies & German .5L bottles. Those are my go-to (actually a couple cases of St. Peter's when I'm doing British brews a well).

Once the labels are off, bottling isn't bad. After cleaning (and sometimes sanitizing with chemical), I run them through the dish washer (no soap) using the sterilization cycle... then fill them directly from there.

Maybe I'm a weirdo, but bottling completes the 'job' and still gives me a strange sense of satisfaction.

JeffPorter · Post by **JeffPorter** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 8:08 am

Derek wrote:
phirleh wrote:
JeffPorter wrote:
Had I known I was going to start homebrewing, I would have kept all those scotch-irish bottles...
Before I started brewing, I kept 7 cases of the old Grand River bottles plus a few Scotch Irish stubbies...I love those bottles.
LOL... I'm down to about 6 cases of GR bottles. I seem to give too many of those away. I still have tons of stubbies & German .5L bottles. Those are my go-to (actually a couple cases of St. Peter's when I'm doing British brews a well).

Once the labels are off, bottling isn't bad. After cleaning (and sometimes sanitizing with chemical), I run them through the dish washer (no soap) using the sterilization cycle... then fill them directly from there.

I kind of aggree...I feel pretty good about bottling...it feels like a real "hands on" thing to do, and my "non-beery" friends and relatives are kind of blown away that I can put cap on a bottle.

Now, if I can get my beer to taste good...*

*(I'm going to scale it back next with a festa brew deal...I really need to get the basics down...)

Maybe I'm a weirdo, but bottling completes the 'job' and still gives me a strange sense of satisfaction.

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 4:02 pm

The Joys of Bottling:
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org./ ... ing-really