What to do with empty six packs?
November 7, 2011 5:38 PM   Subscribe

I have empty six packs of 17 different varieties of a particular brand of beer. What should I do with them?

I've accumulated them over the last few years of living in my current apartment. I'm moving this month, and am doubtful that I'll have room in the new place for 102 empty beer bottles.

Should I keep them (whether by storing in a closet, combining in a decorative way, or some such), sell them (whether eBay, Craigslist, etc.), or recycle them?

If it helps, the six packs are of various flavors of Shiner beer. I have pics & can post them if need be. I got started on this back in 2007 when I took a tour of the Spoetzel Brewery (makers of Shiner) & they said a lot of the specialty bottles were collectors items.

I welcome your input & suggestions.
posted by AMSBoethius to Home & Garden (11 answers total)
 
Recycle them, who needs all that stuff?
posted by oceanjesse at 5:42 PM on November 7, 2011 [6 favorites]


Best answer: If it matters to you, and it seems to, I'd keep one of each and make some kind sculpture/art piece out of them -- something to do with light shining through them.

Call it "seventeen varieties of shine"
posted by philip-random at 5:45 PM on November 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


Post 'em on Ebay and see if anybody is willing to pay for them?
posted by easily confused at 5:50 PM on November 7, 2011


Seconding E-bay. People (like myself) collect beer bottles, E-bay has all sorts of listings for them. They're worth more if there's still beer in them, but you should be able to get something for sets. You could even split them up into five different sets and keep one for yourself like Philip-random suggests.

If you do keep them, I suggest displaying them somewhere that they can be back lit. It's a nice effect.
posted by Gygesringtone at 5:56 PM on November 7, 2011


If you can't sell them, put them up on Freecycle. Home brewers could use the bottles, as long as they're brown glass.
posted by MaryDellamorte at 7:37 PM on November 7, 2011


The bottles are only valuable to a homebrewer if they are pop tops and not twist off caps. It is hard as hell to seal twisties without a special machine. Also, they should be clean as mold is really bad for brewing.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 8:40 PM on November 7, 2011


I didn't even think about the twist off thing and I think all Shiner bottles are twist off, so scrap that idea.
posted by MaryDellamorte at 9:19 PM on November 7, 2011


You could make a beer bottle chandelier.
posted by surenoproblem at 11:30 PM on November 7, 2011


...or a Christmas tree!
posted by superfish at 2:52 AM on November 8, 2011


Bottle tree!!! Neat, folk history, I'm making one now. Keep the 'haints' away!!
posted by pearlybob at 4:25 AM on November 8, 2011


If it's of any interest, in many larger cities there are a few glass-workers and artisans who will make 22oz bottles into drinking glasses, relatively inexpensively. Maybe you could recycle half, and turn the rest into a new dish set.
posted by thewolfandewe at 7:25 PM on December 8, 2011


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