Fermenting Adventures: How to Recycle Grolsch Swing Top Bottles for Home Brewing
As a glassblower and a brewer, I geek out about bottles especially these flip top ones. They have resealable top that make it so they can be opened and closed easily without a tool and reused without replacing the cap so long as they are washed. Literally all the bottles I use for my second ferment are recycled bottles. We found a few (temporary) local sources of beverages that came in them and bought them up. For the beer, we had our english friend take care of the insides and give us the bottles.
The green ones were a rare find when I was at a friends and I noticed he happened to have a empty four pack of these bottles sitting basically in the trash outside his house. I squealed and brought them home, knowing they were authentic Grolsch. What's that mean? I originally thought the Grolsch brewery invented the swing top but it seems they just were one of the first to adopt it for widespread use, popularizing it. So as far as most home brewers of just about anything are concerned these are grolsch style bottles and you can find them on amazon with that search term.
It was invented by Charles de Quillfeldt in the US in the late 1800s and soon after was seemingly adopted by Grolsch although I couldn't find a source for that.
So how does one recycle these bottles? I used a strong solution of oxyclean and water to soak off the labels. Done right, they slide off after a half hour of soaking. Then I clean them making sure there's no residue. If there's persistant residue, I add some rice and soap and shake the shit out of it until it's clean. Or I find things to scratch at it with, whatever it takes.
Once they're clean they can be used. I'm keeping the green bottles as home bottles so I filled the rest of them today with some of our favorite flavors. It's a glassblowers delight because I love both the bottle and the color, and a fermenter's delight because they were there in my face and easier to clean that I expected.
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This is really cool :)
Never knew bottles could be recycled, great post, i love this
Any bottle can but these don't require a bottling machine which makes them a favorite for the home brewer.
I think it's always pretty neat to learn something new about something you had never thought about. It goes to show you, there's a wealth of information on any topic if you're willing to go there.
I'll probably be on the look out for one of these Grolsch mother fuckers too.
Thanks for the interesting read, dude.
I buy cases of them at Total Wine when I need to re-up my supply, then I can get some alcohol and a forever bottle to use. It is nearly impossible to destroy one of the Grolsch swing tops, and I have tried. I use them for my beer, wine, random ferments, and my homemade kahluas. They even make killer milk bottles. I love my half gallon swing top growlers as well but they are primarily for beer.
Random people over time have given me various brown glass swing tops and I cherish them far more than the green Grolsch branded. Seems to be more of a regional thing than anything though as the green seem rare for you. I really should be stopping at more yard sales to find bins and boxes full of them.
Thanks for making me smile.
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