The time you were bottling and ran out of beer bottles...
- Thread starter deeve007
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Never happened to me. I read up on how many I needed and collected even more before my first batch was done. Kept collecting bottles until I had at least 500 bottles. Recycled all the Sam Adams ones because of the embossed logo, about 250 of them, now have somewhere around 250 bottles. I only have half a batch bottled right now so I have about 225 empty bottles.
I haven't managed it yet, but I got close a few times haha. I remember somehow overshooting a couple early batches, and ending up with 5-6 bottles extra from what I planned. On those occasions, I made up my mind that I'd be forced to drink down a couple of flat, warm beers at the end of the session.
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deeve007
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Not really an option since I'm not living where I am long term, nor the space to have anything like that many bottles...
And less than a litre more than I had expected (after removing some fruit that was fermented with it), so not off by too much...
Not really an option since I'm not living where I am long term, nor the space to have anything like that many bottles...
And less than a litre more than I had expected (after removing some fruit that was fermented with it), so not off by too much...
You don't need that many unless you brew a lot. When I started, I did. At one point I had 12 different beers bottled, so average half left, and average 52 bottles per 5 gallon batch (some volume differences), I had at the peak about 315 bottles filled.
Just make sure that while the beer is fermenting, you collect enough to bottle it all. You should be able to find a place to store about 12 extra bottles.
You giggle at this but those bottles work. A good friend of mine used two liter soda bottles to "bulk" bottle his beer for years. He claimed he drank it before it went flat and stored just fine. He said he'd buy the cheapest store-brand soda he could find and dump the soft drink, clean/sanitize, and repurpose the bottle. At ~$0.50/bottle you can't argue with the price.
Oops!
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deeve007
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I had read someone else using soda bottles in the group, hence while I knew I was cutting it fine with my bottle count I wasn't overly concerned about being short one or two. Obviously gotta make sure you keep them in the dark not being dark bottles (though I keep them in the dark normally anyway).
The main reason for being short is that some friends of mine I gave some beer to have been lazy returning their bottles, which was part of the deal when giving them a free taste... I'll be chasing them up before my next brew!
Where do you find sodas for only $0.50 a bottle??????
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deeve007
Well-Known Member
Probably some generic store brand soda, no?
Not a bad thing ending up with a couple in PET soda bottles. Those will tell you when it's carbed--the bottles will be rigid.
