[Sadgit]

Does anyone know where I can find about 5 of these? I already have 2 and they are filled with one brew. I have seen someone selling them on ebay for a tenner each which I think is a rip off. The local pubs get bottles in shrink wrap now and not crates.

How do you store your beer bottles after a brew?

Cheers
Mark

[David.]

Got all mine from skips where pubs were being refurbished, but I tend to use them for transporting plants (in pots) to the plot so I can stack them up in the back of the car.

[Sadgit]

Wish we had some pubs being refurbed as I just cannot find any anywhere.

[Penfold]

Hello Sadgit...

Empty bottles are not only depressing (cos they're empty) but need all the hassel of cleaning etc, refilling and capping etc (but at least you can empty them again

I tried keeping the bottles (both before and after consumtion in a big old wine rack but a couple of dozen bottles takes up some room.  Have you looked at a pressure barrel, they hold loads and as you top it off with CO2 it keeps for ages (not that time is often a factor that needs managing....)

Cheers.

[Sadgit]

yeah I had a barrel before but prefer the handiness of bottles. Yep they are a total pain in the butt to sanitize etc but I don't have space for several barrels, but do for loads of bottles, IF I have something to put them in i.e. under the stairs

[Plottered]

what about milk bottle crates....see your local milkman.

[Knoblauch]

In Germany they actually REUSE beer bottles instead of the gross waste of resources that seems to make sense over here, thus beer crates are ubiquitous, typically people buy a crate of beer, fill it up with the empties, and take it back for the deposit, and they have machines in the supermarkets which will 'read' what sort of bottles or full crates you are returning and issue a ticket for the appropriate Pfand (refund).  As I have family in Germany I am regrettably forced to fly there via Ryanair quite often so I will look into whether it's a viable option to bring as many as possible back as hold luggage (it would depend on the bulk obviously), or even post them from Germany, and report back.

[Sadgit]

wow thanks for that... funny the 2 I currently have are from Germany

[Knoblauch]

More info on German crates:

Can be bought from supermarkets for E1.50, they don't mind you taking a crate with just a couple of bottles in.  Generic size seems to be around 40x30x30cm.  I strapped 4 together with parcel tape and it was well within Ryanair baggage weight and size - came to just 8.5kg - and could probably take at least 2 more, or some smaller 330ml ones (these were for half-litre bottles), if you had someone to meet you at the airport.  16-20 bottles per crate, so if you had all slim bottles 2 would contain a 40-gal brew.

So total cost was £16 or £4 each - £10 for adding a checked bag and £6 for the actual crates, though you should only have hand-luggage besides this.

[Sadgit]

that is very cunning. I must look at this if I ever get back to Germany or Holland