# Reuse sam adams bottles?



## Anduril (Jun 4, 2015)

Is it a bad idea to save bottles from bought beer, to use for homebrew? Are they suitable to recap? Or should I buy new heavier bottles from a supplier?
Thanks


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## Nyxchik (Aug 14, 2012)

Sam Adams bottles are our favorites to use for bottling mead. Labels come off easily and they are easy to recap. Never had issues with the weight of the glass. Beer may be a different story but works well for us.
~nyx


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

I use any bottle that I can recap, even the twist off bottles.

Along that line, I buy (3) 2-liter bottles of pop (on sale, they are "buy 10 for $10, get the 11th one free. That's $ .90/bottle) and I can get (16) 12-oz. pops from it. That's $ .17/pop for those that are frugal, like me.


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## beenaround (Mar 2, 2015)

my mothers cousin (long time ago) owned a soda pop factory, before Pepsi and coke were around.

Fast forward to the 1980's and the place all but closed he was approached by the city of Toledo, ohio to bottle water for them they were calling Holy Toledo Water. They wanted him to run old beer bottles through his washer, fill and label them. He said no way and the reason was you can't reuse old beer bottles, they will never work. Something happens which causes whatever you put in them to create a slug at the bottom, just beer bottles. He also told them if he ran them through his washers the health department would close the plant, laws against it. 

The city then said what if we provide the bottles you just fill them, he agreed but gave the same warning, they didn't listen. 6 months later all the bottles had slim in the bottom of them resembling sewage.

I don't know from anything when it comes to that stuff except for that story.

The city tried to come back and blame him even though he'd warned them. They stiffed him for the 245 dollars it cost him ta boot.


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## spivey3 (Dec 22, 2014)

You can definitely use them! I wouldn't suggest capping the twist off bottles as they may not form a seal that is tight enough to ensure product longevity or carbonation. 

After every beer I usually give to bottle a quick rinse and then store them until bottling day. Obviously you need to wash and sanitize them again. I'd advise that you toss any bottles with chunky stuff stuck on the bottom, it's just not worth it.


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## catinhat (Aug 26, 2010)

You can definitely re-use glass beer bottles - the ones with the twist-off tops are more challenging to seal, though. I'm not sure what the tops on Sam Adams are like. 

Bottles with a strong 'shoulder', where the bottle widens out from the neck, will do a better job catching any 'dregs' (I'm not sure if that's what you call them if you get something in beer, sorry), than ones with a smoother, more gradual shoulder, but as far as bottling is concerned, re-use of glass beer bottles is a definite frugal way to get it done.


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

I wouldn't... I had a friend who lost an eye to a bottle that exploded.. 

When you are bottling with live yeast, some times pressure can build too much... 

I used to brew and bottle with a friend, that the only bottles we'd use were the returnable bottles... They are much heavier... 

All it takes is one weak seam or a bad chip to weaken a bottle enough to explode.


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## SueMc (Jan 10, 2010)

We reuse any beer bottle that is NOT a twist top. I only reuse wine bottles that had a cork in them. The necks of bottles that can be opened without an opener are supposedly weaker.


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## Buckeye_brian (Jan 14, 2014)

If it isn't a twist top...I use them. I have 4x's more used bottles from Laganitas, Sierra Nevada, Rogue, Christian Moerlein, (enter craft beer brewery of choice here) than I do new bought bottles.


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## davimi (Jul 12, 2011)

Sam Adams bottles are used all the time by home brewers (myself included). They are great bottles to reuse.


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## Anduril (Jun 4, 2015)

Thanks for all the info. They have to be amber glass not clear right, so corona bottles would not be usable. That is correct right?


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## spivey3 (Dec 22, 2014)

Technically you could use clear bottles, but light has an adverse effect on the beer so I wouldn't. Why any brewery uses clear or green bottles is baffling.


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## sniper69 (Sep 23, 2007)

Although I have a bunch of the 22 oz bottles for capping, the bottles I have used in the past that I really like are the Grolsh fliptop bottles.


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## kdalton324 (Jun 20, 2015)

Nyxchik said:


> Sam Adams bottles are our favorites to use for bottling mead. Labels come off easily and they are easy to recap. Never had issues with the weight of the glass. Beer may be a different story but works well for us.
> ~nyx


I always use sam adams bottles for beer. Their nice because of the dark glass you can put any kind of beer in them. To this day I have never had one break or have any negative effects on the beer.


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## SoCalChickChick (Apr 20, 2015)

As others have said, definitely you can reuse most any pry-top beer bottle. Just be sure to rinse them after use and clean and sanitize before refilling. I'd avoid the twist tops. They are definitely not as strong and though YMMV, they can be really difficult to get a reliable seal.

I generally avoid most European and British beer bottles. Though most are pry-top, they are generally not as strong in the neck. They work, but you have to handle with care. 

As for clear and green bottles, you can use them but you sure want to shield them from light. It does seem silly that some of the commercial produces still use them but for some...looks/image of the product is more important than what's inside. Also, if the producer is using various stabilized hop extracts vs. traditional hopping methods, the hop compounds are actually stable. _(See the explanation here towards the very end of the article. http://www.professorbeer.com/articles/skunked_beer.html)_


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## SoCalChickChick (Apr 20, 2015)

Oh, and as for the bottles exploding there's a lot of reasons for this. With good brewing practices, it won't be an issue. I believe the top 3 are generally:

1. The beer wasn't finished fermenting. Always take a starting gravity and a final gravity and know what your target gravity should be. Otherwise, you're just guessing. And airlock activity isn't a good indicator that beer is done fermenting. Sometimes the lids we think are airtight aren't really so. And sometimes the fermentation process has slowed to the point where you just won't see any airlock activity...unless you want to sit and watch it for the next hour or so.  However, there is still enough residual sugar left to be fermented that when you have that plus priming sugar...over-carbonation occurs and yes - sometimes bottle bombs.

2. Not putting in the right amount of priming sugar. No need to guess. There are so many good resources on line to calculate the right amount that it's silly not to. Northern Brewer has one that lists 10+ priming agents. i.e. sugar, DME, honey, etc.

3. Infected beer... If you don't have great cleaning and sanitizing practices, at some point you're gonna get infected beer. Generally, beers infected with wild yeast or certain bacterias may not be noticeable at bottling time, but as the beer sits and "conditions", those wild things take over and convert all the residual sugars that the beer yeast left. That makes more CO2 than planned and sure enough...over-carbonation and the dreaded bottle bomb.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

suitcase_sally said:


> I use any bottle that I can recap, even the twist off bottles.
> 
> Along that line, I buy (3) 2-liter bottles of pop (on sale, they are "buy 10 for $10, get the 11th one free. That's $ .90/bottle) and I can get (16) 12-oz. pops from it. That's $ .17/pop for those that are frugal, like me.


Yep, just like you, all a friend of mine ever used to bottle his homebrew was empty 2-liter pop bottles.


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