Reusable Wine Bottles

[Raptor99]

I saw this in the news this morning: Oregon winemakers will sell reusable bottles to reduce waste next year

Who would have guessed that you can wash out and re-use wine bottles? We are ahead of the game here.

 

[jswordy]

I saw this in the news this morning: Oregon winemakers will sell reusable bottles to reduce waste next year

Who would have guessed that you can wash out and re-use wine bottles? We are ahead of the game here.

Nah. Down South, most states have laws requiring bars to smash all bottles after they are empty, so used bottle sales have been the thing for years and years. They make them smash them to prevent pouring low-class stuff in a high-class bottle. So free wine bottles are very hard to find in the states with this law. Can lose a liquor license by giving them away. People sell them here all the time on Craigslist.

 

[Ted Brumleve]

It really is amazing how many used bottles you can amass by telling just 5 friends to save their empties for you.

 

[Sailor323]

I a couple of thousand bottles (most of them are full at this time) that I got from restaurants in Kentucky. Admittedly, those restaurants were customers of mine. Regardless, it doesn't hurt to ask, especially if you frequent a particular restaurant often and they know you.

 

[Shurt1073]

I purchased bottles my first year of wine making but the past few years its been pretty easy to obtain them from family / friends. For the first time ever, I have about 8-9 wines in carboys, and a need for 240 bottles but I realized not all the wines will be bottled at once. I like splitting a six gallon carboy giving me 15 bottles to drink while the rest bulk ages another 3-4 months. I've also noticed we are always recirculating bottles. Isn't this just a great hobby!

 

[wineview]

I’ve been reusing bottles for years and years. A thought occurred to me as I was bottling a batch not to long ago. Do wine bottles have a certain life? Considering the beating they take. Pressure from the corker, soaking in cleaning solutions, sanitizing and so forth. Or…..is glass indestructible.

 

[ChuckD]

Who would have guessed that you can wash out and re-use wine bottles? We are ahead of the game here.

You mean like this?


It’s bottling time! 11 gallons tonight and 5 tomorrow

 

[Ohio Bob]

I’ve been reusing bottles for years and years. A thought occurred to me as I was bottling a batch not to long ago. Do wine bottles have a certain life? Considering the beating they take. Pressure from the corker, soaking in cleaning solutions, sanitizing and so forth. Or…..is glass indestructible.

For the purpose that it’s used for, glass wine bottles should have a longer life than you or I.

 

[wineview]

Oh….. that’s good news. I’ll be 102 next month.

 

[JustinTG]

My case might be an anomaly but we've had some trouble reusing retail wine bottles. When we were corking, some brands of bottles would break; some would shatter completely and for some others, the corker would go right through the bottom of the bottle. I'm not sure if it's because we were doing something wrong, the corks weren't the right size or some bottles (none were screw top) just can't stand the pressure of a floor corker.

That said, this year we plan to buy bottles with the right cork and reuse those in future years, which I'm happy to hear should be fine.

 

[joeswine]

I’ve been reusing bottles for years and years. A thought occurred to me as I was bottling a batch not to long ago. Do wine bottles have a certain life? Considering the beating they take. Pressure from the corker, soaking in cleaning solutions, sanitizing and so forth. Or…..is glass indestructible.

As long as they are not used beyond their design I don’t see why not ?

 

[winemaker81]

My case might be an anomaly but we've had some trouble reusing retail wine bottles. When we were corking, some brands of bottles would break; some would shatter completely and for some others, the corker would go right through the bottom of the bottle. I'm not sure if it's because we were doing something wrong, the corks weren't the right size or some bottles (none were screw top) just can't stand the pressure of a floor corker.

That said, this year we plan to buy bottles with the right cork and reuse those in future years, which I'm happy to hear should be fine.

Emphasis mine. Corks go in the top and are supposed to stop flush with the mouth of the bottle. I cannot visualize what you're saying.

Some of my bottles are 30+ years old and have been re-used at least a dozen times, and they are fine. I've had some chipped at the mouth from corkscrew, but only 1 problem when corking, and that was serious user error.

 

[wineview]

I recently had a bottle with a chip on the top from a cork screw. I decided to use it. When I pushed the cork in with my Italian floor corker, the top of the bottle broke off and left wine on the floor and glass chards that could be used in Medieval warfare.

 

[Jim Welch]

When I got into home brewing in the early 80s I delabelled hundreds of beer bottles. When I got into wine making around 2015 I vividly remembered that ordeal, was in much better financial shape and decided to just bite the bullet and buy wine bottles. With that said I do reuse my wine bottles. I have/had 1200 wine bottles I’ve purchased since then
I was the shop welder in a maintenance shop for a long time and when I would be asked how long a particular weld repair would last I would cockily say my welds are guaranteed until they break! When asked if I’d weld something for free if the weld broke I’d say no, of course not. The guarantee expires if and when it breaks!
With that said, I can confidently state a bottle can be reused until grass no longer grows, rivers don’t run and the sun and stars aren’t overhead, or until it breaks/cracks, whichever comes first.

Bottles can last a very long time but some will fail

 

[JustinTG]

Emphasis mine. Corks go in the top and are supposed to stop flush with the mouth of the bottle. I cannot visualize what you're saying.

Some of my bottles are 30+ years old and have been re-used at least a dozen times, and they are fine. I've had some chipped at the mouth from corkscrew, but only 1 problem when corking, and that was serious user error.

Sorry that was ambiguous. We use a floor corker in which there is a platform for the bottle to rest that has a smaller diameter than some bottles. When we push the cork into the bottle from the top, the pressure causes the platform to go through the bottom of the bottle.

That only happened a handful of times. It was more likely that a bottle cracked at the shoulder. I think it was due to wrong size corks, but since we had a hodgepodge of used bottles, we didn't know exactly the size cork to use.

 

[winemaker81]

Sorry that was ambiguous. We use a floor corker in which there is a platform for the bottle to rest that has a smaller diameter than some bottles. When we push the cork into the bottle from the top, the pressure causes the platform to go through the bottom of the bottle.

That only happened a handful of times. It was more likely that a bottle cracked at the shoulder. I think it was due to wrong size corks, but since we had a hodgepodge of used bottles, we didn't know exactly the size cork to use.

Your floor corker is outside of my experience. The Italian corker I own and the Portuguese corkers I'm familiar with have a spring loaded platform that adjusts to bottle size, and can handle the widest Champagne bottles I've seen.

 

[JustinTG]

Your floor corker is outside of my experience. The Italian corker I own and the Portuguese corkers I'm familiar with have a spring loaded platform that adjusts to bottle size, and can handle the widest Champagne bottles I've seen.

Got ya. I'm still guessing it's user error, but can't figure it out. However, when we bought new bottles with the right corks, the issue went away.

 

[wineview]

Sometimes I use number 8 x1.75 or 9x1.75. I never take into consideration the opening in the bottle. As far as I know a good corker should push any size cork into any wine bottle.
Can you elaborate on what you mean by “wrong size of corks”.

 

[JustinTG]

Since the corks worked for some reused commercial wine bottles and not for other, my guess was that some of the bottles required a size 8 cork, while we were using a size 9. That may have been the cause of the extra stress on the bottle, but that is very much a guess.

 

[winemaker81]

Got ya. I'm still guessing it's user error, but can't figure it out. However, when we bought new bottles with the right corks, the issue went away.

My experience matches @wineview. My corker can put any cork into any bottle. I use #9 x 1.5" and have no problems. Some double-lever and hand corkers have problems with #9 corks, but IME not floor corkers.

Please post a picture of your corker. The following is mine: