[Teen76]

Could someone advise me as to whether I could reuse old wine bottles (not especially bought ones for homebrew) when making my own wine?

I had heard if you use old beer bottles for homebrew they can explode if you're unlucky.  I wondered if the same was true with wine bottles.

If anything it's a good excuse to buy two more bottles of wine just to get the full six  

[Sadgit]

100% yes you can. I used to when I made wine and I only use old beer bottles for my homebrew beer.. Why buy them? when you can get them for free...

They can explode if you transfer the beer if it isn't fully fermented or you add waaay too much sugar in the bottles to give it fizz. Must admit some of my latest beer batch are a tad too fizzy.. live and learn.

We have about 20 wine bottles to recycle at the moment and that is just from Christmas till now and we were away for a week as well.... think I need to cut back a little  :oops:  :oops:  :oops:  :oops:

[Teen76]

Thanks Sadgit,

My New Year's resolution was to learn how to save money by making or getting my own stuff for free.  So far this seems to be one of them.  I will let my partner know about the beer bottles because he makes the beer.

I've never made wine and if I do it will be fresh produce from my allotment that goes in the wine.  I was thinking rhubarb or raspberries as I have both.  I'm partial to my strawberries so they will possibly just go straight in my mouth  

Thanks for the information it is always gratefully appreciated.

[SpudtheBinx]

Yes definitely reuse! Rhubarb makes a good wine, I made a gallon in 2008 and this year I plan to make 5 gallons I have heard raspberries should be used sparingly in a wine as they have a very strong flavour but this is not said from experience. I am thinking about using raspberries in a port style drink made primarily from elderberries untill my vines start cropping!

[Sadgit]

the beer bottles need to be the type you can re-cap and you can get a capping "machine" for about a fiver on e-bay with 100-200 bottle caps.

I just need more bottles so I can make my next batch. I even went looking in people bins on bottle recycling day up here and after 2-3 bins I felt like a total scroat at 6am hunting through bins.. so stopped

[Teen76]

I've heard people wait at bottle banks for people to dump off their bottles and just ask them if they can have them.

Good if its at a supermarket car park but not so good if its at a place where it isn't used much.

Thanks for your input by the way.  Its great for me as someone who has never tried this valuable art.

[Clampit]

I just asked our local pubs and clubs. They were more than willing to hand over their empties.

[Salmo]

Be careful getting bottles from recycle bins etc. You never know what they have had in them.

[SpudtheBinx]

Good job they are cleaned and sterilised before we put wine in them then