Any preference for commercial beer bottles to save to bottle your homebrew in ? Which ones are strong enough to handle bottle conditioning ? Any easier to cap ? Any labels come off easier than others ?

Just a personal preference, but I like the shorties better than the longnecks, such as Guinness or SNPA. If I truly had my choice I would go with swing tops but it's hard to find brown swing tops as opposed to green...

Sam adams is pretty much the best bang for the buck. AB american ale maybe pop top too in 12pack, but sammmys 12s are pretty damn good. Almost all other 12er bottles are twist.

The 14oz(?) german hefe bottles are thick and I have reused the ones I have for over 20 batches, 22oz bottles, Belgian stubbies (Duvel) and 330cl, and I usually buy a couple cases of new 12oz bottles when my bottle ready batches overlap.

Yeah, Sam Adams have been my best ones too. Labels peel off easy, etc. I think Jim knows that...as why the stamped glass. Smart man..

PET bottles.

I do have 4 cases of the Coors plastic bottles in storage, but I haven't really used them to any extent...

Just for the record I have 5 cases of German, thick glass, swing tops with the plastic shipping cases, and the 4 cases of PET. I really don't bottle that much, 99% of what I make goes into kegs.

swing tops or stubbies are what I like. stubbies have a lower centre of gravity, so when your capping, their not going to fall over.

I've found that I get a really smooth pour out of Anchor Steam bottles. Something about the shape eliminates the "glug-glug" you get from normal longneck shapes, which helps the yeast stay at home.

I have found that Sam Adams work well, the labels come off with pretty easy with hot water.

If you can get your hands on some New Glarus...I have found their labels the easiest (by far) to take off. Plus, its a tasty treat .

Does anyone use the dark green 750ml champagne bottles (29mm cap)? I use a mix of these and 330ml stubbies, and haven't had much of a difference. I generally condition and store completely out of the light though.

Grolsch for ease of bottling and a good look. Sam Adams for capping. I liked Harp bottles because the label came off extremely easy, but I found a high percent of caps did not seal properly with Harp bottles.

i like samuel smith bottles too, they are pretty sturdy

I had the same experience with Harp bottles, and Bass bottles as well. Maybe the mouth is a slightly different size.

I like the new Baltika 500mL bottles. Those are my favorite.
I also like the Moylan's 22oz a lot.
I use a lot of Schlafly bottles, because I buy that stuff by the case whenever something comes out that I like (mainly the kolsch).

I soak the labels off with oxyclean.
Two brands that use a different adhesive that doesn't come off so easily are Southampton and O'so.

I used the dark green (Martinelli's Cider) bottles for my cider but stick with 22oz brown bottles when I bottle beer in bigger bottles.


I too really like the Anchor Steam bottles. I was given about 10 cases a while back and finally gave them away for wedding packaging. I wish I had kep tthem but then I do so little bottling these days.

Best bottles to use for homebrewing is the any that you can get your hands on. I purchased my first 48 bottles and the remaining 300+ are collected from any source I can get. I had an opportunity when I was getting into it to get a ton of Corona bottles. I know clear bottles aren't desireable and honestly they're harder to cap, but when I get enough where I start thinking about tossing some, those will be the first to go.

If I had my choice of what all 300+ would be, it'd definately be the Grolsch swingtop bottles. Otherwise a lot of the rest are Sam Adams, Bells, and Founders bottles.

I too like the swing top - 15 or 22 oz is a plus. Bottles with mo "neck" labels are a plus.

i like swing tops. faygo rootbeer bottles, because the label comes off easy.

i also drink a lot of dogfish head, and i find those bottles good too.

I use swing tops in 500ml, 1 liter and 2 liter. I have a few cases of green swing tops, they stay in the basement out of the light until it's time to drink them. I usually cap two or three six-packs of 12 oz long necks to use as gifts and use what ever I can find for them.

I prefer bells bottes. I'm pretty lucky leaving here in GR. I can walk to the corner liquor store and buy their returnables for 10 cents each. I usually find 10 or so complete cases of bells there.

Cornies!

What about screw top bottles? Can they be used?

Coronas can be really dangerous. the second or third time around, I started ripping the necks right off a few with a hand capper. Sam adams definitely the best. kegging now, so I tossed all the corona bottles I had. they are definitely the most fragile

weihenstephaner bottles from germany. lables peel off easy. Germany made almost all the bottles identical for easy re-use. They work well

I prefer the guiness bottles, they give great taste and look.

The trick is to get needle nose pliers to pull out the widget

Schneider weisse/ weihenstephaner / weltenburger bottles are really nice too.

Mike- I built a widget remover: about 6" of wire coat hanger, at one end a ~1/4" hook made with said needle nose pliers. Empty bottle of contents, turn upside down insert widget remover and pull out widget.

I've used screw top wine bottles, and they hold the carb. The only gusher I've ever had was from one of them.
Screw top beer bottles tend to crack at the threads. I throw them away.

I was thinking screw top soda bottles. IBC rootbeer and and Orange Crush.

I like the Deschutes bottles (Bend, OR) simply because I like the embossed hops (and no name) on the glass. Beyond that, I look for just about any non-twist-off craft brew that doesn't have a name stamped on the bottle.

I save all of my Great Lake Dort Bottles....

There's about 10 Cases of them

Either 22 oz Sopporro-fewer bottles to wash or Red Label which fit efficiently in a frig