2nd brew is ready to bottle but.....not enough bottles. .. The new brewers nightmare!! bah...
Rang 2 recycling joints .. One wanted a 'donation' and it was a fair drive and the other left me on hold for ages.. Local council wasn't interested in helping my cause either..
I dropped in to my local reception centre and drove away with 12 doz long necks for.. FREE !
Other new brewers might wanna give it a try if your short on long necks.
Over here in the west there are frequent adds in the local papers for batches of these bottles for sale , the going rate is a dollar each .
Whilst on the subject of bottles , the hoons throwing bottles from their cars particuarly at week ends has turned quite a few areas into a sea of broken glass with many cuts caused to kids and pets.
Is this a problem in other states, and what about a ban on glass for these alcholic drinks , why not use those PET type ?.
What on Gods Earth is a Hoon anyway? We used to have a big issue with this sort of thing to but we jacked up the fine and made it illegal to drink wobbly pops in a car. The fines are extreme, loss of liscence for a year, huge fine, big ass insurence hike when you get your liscence back, even prison is an option.
I am one of the few that managed to beat the rap on one of these charges and even then it still cost me 4,000 dollars in lawyers fees. I had 4 pops that night over three hours so the total cost was extreme, about 1000 dollars a beer. My missus didn't talk to me for a month and I lost my liscence for three months just on the principle of the matter. Made for the shitiest Christmas I have ever had. Now I am the poster child for Drinking and Driving, I will buy 48 beers and a crton of smokes just to make sure I don't run out.
Even after being found inocent it still stings ya. It is a good incentive.
The other thing to is we use a lot of cans in beaches. You can't take bottles in.
I've found that certain stretches of road (obviously one tallie from the bottlo) are a gold mine of bottles, often the bottle pegged from the car will not break, and I pick them up wash them and put them to good use.
Also I find a walk around the local parks Saturday or Sunday morning will turn up a few tallies.
Sure they are screw top not roll top these days, and the CUB (VB, Carlton Draught etc) are all 800 not 750, but at least I can get the brews bottled.
Also there are a lot of suckers out there who think Crown Lager is great, If you know anyone like that, ask them for the empties. The crown stubby is still a roll top and quite good for home brew use.
Is there any reason why roll tops would be better than twist tops? I use both and have no probs with either. I almost prefer the twist tops 'cos then I don't need a bottle opener........
Cheers
Matty
I know u think u understand what u thought I said, but I don't think u realise that what u heard is not what I meant.........
I only use the old 750ml Pickaxe, Victorian Bottle Co-operative and XXXX bottles. They were made to last as they had to be returned, washed and refilled. They also have crown "roll-top" seals.
Many people reckon that crown-seal bottles form a more reliable seal than the twist-top variety. If you've got a bench capper, though, it shouldn't be a problem. Another reason for people preferring bottles with crown seals is that they tend to be sturdier than the thin twist-top bottles.
As for finding bottles by the side of the road, I was driving down the freeway to see Geoff last year and took an exit to let the dog out for a minute. There in long grass by the side of the road were two old Victorian Bottle Co-operative bottles. God knows how long they'd been there. They took a bit of washing to get the mud out of the inside, but are now filled with homebrew.
Oh the joys of ingenuity and enterprise.
I usually walk the 3.1 kms to work from Petersham to the Tempe side of Marrickville so there are long necks strewn around at various times.I got pissed off toting a brief case and now use a backpack for the sambos(sandwiches Dogger Dan) which is very useful if I spot the odd long neck.
Any building site entrance is a treasure trove and parks are probably better.
Of course the other way is to buy a few long necks a week and explain to the missus that it saves money in the long run.You home brew which is cheap but requires some initial outlay to get set up.Much the same as when they buy stuff on special(clothes or shoes) and rationalise that it has a positive impact on the family budget.
We have a number of small restaurants nearby and they are a good source of Crown Lager bottles if you want to use the 375 mls.
How about a Darwin Stubbie?????I reckon 3 or 4 of them would suffice to quench a thirst!!!!!!!!!!
Hey Dogger , I would love to see those extreme penaltys in force here as well, but after reading some of these replies, and how some of our comrades use it as a source of bottles, I reckon I would have a argument on my hands.
dab/
A few years back I had a contact in the recycling trade. One mention of how good Darwin Stubbies were for homebrew, and could he keep an eye out.... I now have about 22 stashed in various places.
Dogger Dan, the Darwin Stubby is a 2 ltr brown glass roll top beer bottle.
Down side of the DS is it takes at least 24 hours and a bag of ice to make it cold, so you have to be ahead of the game.
There's something wrong about bottling beer in PET bottles... but in a pinch I have bottled the last litre or so of a brew (which is the dregs anyway) in a PET bottle.
Not real good to mature beer in though, as it leaks after a while.
Thanks again for putting it into perspective, spoon feed me for about 2 more weeks and we will have it right.
I have bottled in PET but life expetency is short (mind you beer is always on the endangered species list here)
If you have to make the beer go the distance, stick in the glass, normally I try and do that with lagers, ales are best up within two weeks so they are not as fussy where you stick them
I still use the PET bottles that came with the Coopers kit but reckon that glass is best.Like Dogger Dan I can't leave the buggers long enough to mature for ages anyway.I put down a cider in the 2 litre PET empty coke bottles and they will be fine.I still reckon the 375 ml bottles are best if you drink straight from the bottle.No arsing about worrying about good head as you never see it anyway and likewise for cloudiness.
My daughters boyfriend and I take turns about brewing so we share the mundanity of bottling so the little devils are fine.
I have tried a variety of bottles. I still use the 600 ml coke bottles and have only ever had one go bad. I normally only bottle about 10 plastic bottles and drink these first as like is mentioned I don't think they would last 6 months in the bottle. I then leave the rest of the brew which has been bottled in a mixture of stubbies and longnkecks for a later date and move onto the next lot of pet bottles in line. I have lost a few of the coopers 700 ml pet bottles that have split but never a 600 ml coke bottle.
A good thing about bottling in the 600 ml coke bottles is that you can take these to parties or give them away to friends and not be worried about losing your bottles. I only every use the same plastic bottle twice before tossing it
I've just teed up a good source of long necks. I was talking to a guy who owns a caravan park and between the residents and the holiday makers, a shite load of beer gets consumed at the old van parks. They put all their glass bottles aside for recycling, but don't get any money for it unless it is crushed up ($40 a tonne) so it's not worth their while. He reckons in no time at all I'll have more bottles than what I'll know what to do with.
I'll know what to do with them though....fill em' with beer
.. The new brewers nightmare!! bah...
