What do you use for bottling?

[Hutch]

For all you bottlers, what do you use and where do you get it from?

Is there anyone using champagne closures on wine bottles or anything else fancy?

[bart]

Haha great idea getting the kids to clean them for a bit of pocket money... kinda makes me want to have kids... luckily instead I have kegs... much lower maintenance ;)

I really like the Saporro 750ml Bottles... they have a nice textured thing for grip (comes in handy after you've had a couple) and they say 'BEER' on them. You can get them from local Japanese restaurants.

[denimglen]

"It's interesting how bottle shape, size and ease of label removal can sometime influence the beers that you buy.  Even though they look great, I avoid Renaissance bottles because they always 'gulp' when pouring and stir up the yeast."

 

Agreed, sometimes the bottle type has been the deciding factor when choosing between two beers on the shelf haha.  Renaissance bottles labels are a prick to remove also, and I prefer plain un-'embossed' glass.

 

Don't bottle much nowadays but when I do I go for the Epic/Yeastie Boys when bottling 330s, Emmerson and 8Wired/Epic when going 500s.  Sturdy bottles, labels usually come off OK, nice shape, no embossing.

 

I've also done a few bottles of sour beers in Champagne style bottles with crown caps.  I got the oversized caps and different 'head' for the capper from Brewer's Coop.

[Mark]

I've just bottled a Belgian ale using champagne closures and a mixture of La Trappe, Duvel and Chimay bottles. The hardest part was getting the corks not all the way in - I used a floor mounted corker with a variable length pushing mechanism and a bit of elbow grease and technique to wrench the bottle out when corked. It's not something I'd want to do all the time without out a proper champagne corker! The results look impressive though. My LHBS also sells 750ml brown Grolsch-style bottles which are excellent, very easy to bottle with and impressive looking.

[Dan]

haha - I must be the laziest bottler in the world - I don't even bother to remove the labels. The way I look at it, the beer goes on the inside, so I only have to clean/sanitise the inside of the bottles!

As Mark pointed out, there 750ml brown glass flip-top style bottles available at my LHBS - $25 a doz, which I rekon is pretty reasonable.

[Chris Banks]

In my experience the gum labels soak off in napisan or equiv.

Epic/8wired/Emmersons a little heat from a hot air gun and they peel right off glue and all - the amount of heat is critical to much and the adhesive stays on the glass to little and it tears the label.

My fav bottle is Emmersons,Greenman,Wigram style

[mattd2]

Might grab the wifes hair dryer to see if that's grunty enough (it definately shouln't be too grunty)!

[John H]

I usually use hot water from the kettle poured into the bottle with gum blued labels and left for a few minutes. I use a stanley knife bladeand it peels off easily - so much so that you can stick it to the beer fridge if you are quick.

[Dave W]

I do wish that us Kiwi's could follow the German example and have a decent bottle recycling program (bottle deposit scheme) the German bottles I use as they are designed to be used over and over to aid this the labels come off real easy with just cold water.... water soluble glues I think?

The other upside is that as the bottles as meant to be used over and over rather than just melted down, the bottles are stronger/heavier and less prone to accidental breakage.

[Sam Anderson]

Using Green Man, Emersons, Croucher and Epic for my five-hundreds (in that order mainly ! haha).

Crate bottles are much easier though as the labels are designed to come off as part of their re-use function. Have been given crates by friends, who think they are kind of funny to have in the garage for ten years and not be used... i laugh and gratefully accept! 

Epics are a pain in the wrinkle though. Best technique ive found for them is fill up with warm-hot water, then separate the shiney paper off, leaving the backing on with the glue, then steep in water - it seems to rub off okay after i leave them for a few mins or so.