The carboy, which has been in the brew cellars of the Morrison Brewery (between Tickle Me Elmo and a humidifier) made it's trek to the kitchen a few moments ago, where it will spend it's last 18 hours before being drained of it's precious nectar.
Before it's journey started, my friend Frank returned from Mexico without warning, and a celebration ensued at my brother's house. Courtesy of that celebration, I had two cases of 12 oz beer bottles on hand. I decided to go hunting for larger containers, possibly with swing tops, to offload some of the bottling work. The show that initially planted the seed in my mind for trying my hand at home brewing was an episode of Good Eats called Amber Waves. Host Alton Brown's bottle of choice was a cobalt blue 22 oz. swing top bottle. The larger bottle size is a more appropriate beer size, and the swing tops were re-useable, minus the occasional rubber washer replacement.
More Beer was where the kit came from, so I figured I'd pick some up there. As it turns out, they had 24 oz long necks at a very reasonable price, but no swing tops. Hoptech had some collectibles out, but nothting for sale. Both purveyors echoed that they are getting too expensive to carry.
So I thought I'd give the old www a shot. I found many examples, most in the $40+/case range. The best deal I found was these http://www.home-brew.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=EMP3373&Product_Code=16ozbluflex12&Category_Code=BBTLS for $31.95 for a case of 12. 16oz bottles, cobalt blue. Craigs list wasn't much better.
The other challenge I had was paying for what others considered trash. You finish a beer, you roll down the window and chuck the bottle in the median as you drive by (just kidding folks). The thought of paying for that gave me a lot of trouble. Wouldn't it be better to just buy it filled with something, say, like beer, and drink that something, and then re-use the bottle?
The first obvious choice was Groelsch. BevMo had a 4-pack for $6.99 on their website. When I hit the store, I couldn't find it on the shelf. The guy at the counter saw it in inventory, but couldn't locate it either. Then the beer guru comes out and says that Groelsch was purchased by Miller a few months ago, and ever since, supplies have stopped. Supposedly they will work their way into Miller's distribution channels, but if swing tops are getting pricey everywhere else...
So I picked up 4 22 oz. Amber Ales with swing tops at $3.99 a pop (pun intended) and cut my losses there. It was Fisher, and for a French beer it was pretty good. The beer had a head that hung on to the inside of the glass as you drank it, similar to an English pub beer.
A co-worker keyed me on to these fancy sparkling lemondades. The bottles were 33.8 0z and clear, but had that swing top. I will have to store these in paper bags to shield them from the light. I only got two of those, as they were still $4 each.
Later, as I was addressing an urgent request from my 4-year old for some apple cider, I noticed the cap on the Martinelli's was a crown cap. The bottle was 25.4 oz, not too far from the ideal 22 oz. size, and with the label off, more or less looks like a wine bottle or fancy beer bottle. Costco had a 4-pack on sale for about $8, so I got a couple of those to add to my collection.
So at the moment, my rag-tag collection of odd beer bottles is soaking in a bleach solution, in preparation for their big moment tomorrow afternoon....
