Buying more brew gear

[frustratedearthmother]

We didn’t pay a dime for them. He went to a bar where they were tossing them out and got them free. Doesn’t hurt to ask!

 

[CrealCritter]

The six swivel tops I picked up yesterday are quarts (US 32 oz) plus the needed head space. The US made ones are getting harder to come by. Plus the newer ones are very thin glass in comparison to the older ones. I suspect most bottles are made in China now. I've see a lot of 11oz bottles in 6 packs at stores. My guess is those are metric bottles and require a metric size cap and bell for your capper in order to recap them, so I don't bother with metric bottles and twist cap bottles aren't even wort messing with trying to recap.

 

[CrealCritter]

My first husband brewed beer a few times...but I think he bought a canned mix that he put in water and boiled …. I don't really remember - it was decades ago. But, it was good! He used these kind of bottles:

View attachment 10991

(photo credit to Amazon)

I don't know if they're good or bad - but they seemed to work. We occasionally replaced the gaskets I think.

I've still got a bunch of them in the garage when I get ready to try my hand at brewing.

They still make those tinned kits. They are the easiest to brew. Already pre-hopped, all you do is add water, table sugar and yeast. Yeast even comes with the kit. They are sold in a lot of places and the prices are all over the board, shop around if you want to try some.

https://www.muntonshomebrew.com/home-beer-kits/muntons-beer-kits/

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That may be how I start. I fully intend to - I love beer! Don't drink much of it these days, but enjoy a cold bottle on a hot day - with bar-b-que or mudbugs! Let me get myself retired and I'll be following in your footsteps!

 

[CrealCritter]

This should keep me in bottles for a little while. There are a few cases of old ones from the 70's also. Best $25.00 I've spent in a while, it's gonna be fun peeling labels and cleaning them all. But it beats $12.00 a case plus tax & shipping for new ones all day long. Now I just need to find a spot to stack them up.

 

[CrealCritter]

Getting ready to bottle Oktoberfest that's been lagering 6 weeks. Figured I would de-label and clean 2 1/2 cases of the beer bottles I picked up Monday. All of the bottles are what they called bar deposit bottles back in the 50's through the 80's. These are the ones that got delivered to bars or taverns to be picked up and refilled by beer companies and redelivered over and over again. They are a lot thicker bottles than if you bought the same bottled beer at the liquor store, because they are meant to be refilled many times over.

I was really surprised to find a Ball beer bottle. I had no idea Ball made beer bottles but apparently they did at one time.

I searched the internet and only thing I could find is this at the link below. Mine is a lot different than the one pictured there though. Mine shows its age and seems like it was in circulation a long time. Obvious by the worn bottom.
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/155980-beer-bottle-ball-in-cursive-on-bottom

I thought it was a pretty cool bottle, so I set it aside for my wife, who likes to collect old Ball canning jar stuff. I bet she'll turn it into something useful around the kitchen.