If you find the idea of making your own beer intriguing, be warned, you will not satiate that craving with a single brew kit.  The minute your first wort goes into your fermenting vessel, you’ll be itching for more!  My advice would be to get your feet wet with a complete, 1 stage brew ingredient kit, as I did.  This will allow you to get a feel for the process of brewing and will have minimal risk of failure (as long as you’re sanitary!).

Once that batch is fermenting and you’ve studied up and understand what your next steps are, feel free to begin planning your next adventure.  You have my blessing.

#1  Save Money on Bottles

After paying nearly $30 for the bottles I’d need for my first batch, I decided to find a more economical route.  After all, if (when) I brew more than one batch at a time, I’ll need more bottles.  It’s also safe to assume some bottles won’t be returned or will break.

What was my trick?  I put on layers of my best filthy ripped clothes, a dirty knit hat, fingerless gloves, found a shopping cart, and walked around the city picking bottles up out of ditches and trashcans.

Actually, I just went to the local redemption center and asked them if I could buy some bottles from them.  They agreed to let me take whatever I wanted for $0.15 per bottle… roughly 1/4 of what I paid for the new bottles (you can ask at your local liquor store too or just save your empties).

UPDATE (June 2013) – As of the end of February I now have nearly 75 Grolsch Bottles and 10 cases of brown bottles all cleaned and de-labeled.  This was a combination of saving my own empties and what I was able to find at the redemption center.

UPDATE (December 2013) – I’ve pretty much stopped using the Grolsch bottles (green glass is not great at light filtering). I was able to cut a win/win/win deal with my local homebrew supply store. They gave me about $0.75 store credit per Grolsch bottle. In turn, they sold them for a decent profit, but still at a savings to their customers vs. purchasing new swing-top bottles at $2-$4 each.

Total cost savings is somewhere in the $250-$300 range (plus store credit)… not bad for a half hour here and there over 2 months.

 

#2  Bottles From The Redemption Center Are Gross!

Great, so I found a way to save money on bottles… Moldy bottles with a little bit of a stranger’s backwash in each one.  Now I have to make these something I want in my mouth.

Here’s how I cleaned & sanitized them:

1. Submerge bottles in deep basin sink filled with hot water.
2. Put about 1 scoop up to the “1” line of Oxy Clean per 3-4 gallons of water in the sink.*
3. Allow bottles to soak for 30-40 minutes.
4. Easily peel labels off and wipe off glue/residue with (soap-free) stainless steel scrubber pad.
5. Use bottle brush to scrub out inside of bottles.  I bent mine in the middle so I could easily spin it with my finger and hang it over the edge of the sink.
6. Rinse thoroughly (I bought a bottle washer similar to this one).

 

Finally they went into the dishwasher (no detergent) on High Temp Wash and Sanitizing Rinse… a great shortcut if you have a dishwasher with these options.

 

 

 

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#3 Drink Grolsch

Grolsch bottles are freakin’ awesome.  They have that nifty, flip top thing, they’re fancy looking and they’re perfect for bottling a pint (just shy, actually) of home brew.  Fliptop bottles sell for $1-$2 each or you can get them for $2.50 filled with not-terrible beer.  I’ve opted for the latter.  It’s all I’ve bought for the last week and my collection is coming along nicely.

Edit – Green glass is not ideal.  It allows too much light to get into the bottle.  If you use green glass be sure to store your bottles out of the light.  I now only use Grolsch bottles for quick transport of kegged beer.

 

#4 Use Water Jugs As Carboys

Yep – those water cooler jugs can be re-purposed for making beer.  There is some debate on this topic, but the general consensus is that this is a safe, cheap alternative to expensive glass carboys.  The catch is you need to be sure you’re using a safe plastic.  Look at the bottom of the jug and figure out what type of plastic it’s made of (the number inside the recycling triangle thing).

Here is a link explaining the different types of plastics and which are considered safe www.wikihow.com/Identify-Food-Grade-Buckets

I grabbed a 5 gallon Nestle water jug (#1) for $5.99 + $5 deposit.  I’ll use the water to make a batch of beer, so I basically get a carboy for $5.  Your local brew supply store should have stoppers that will fit.

Edit:  I’ve heard a lot of more mixed reviews on this.  Even some links to baby boys being born with “teenie weenies” because of their pregnant mothers’ exposure to BPAs.  This terrifying thought combined with the fact plastic scratches easier (thus better harboring bacteria), has me steered me away from recycled water bottles.  That said – those numbers are on the bottles so you can determine what is safe for reuse & consumption.  If you’re on a budget, I really doubt you have too much to worry about with plastic jugs.

 
The above tips can potentially save you time, frustration and hundreds of dollars.  In exchange I only ask that you bookmark and share this blog!

 

Next Article:  Bottling Time

 

 

 

 

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