Black Bottles?

[v2comp]

anyone know whos makes black beer bottles?

[rudge75]

MK Ceramics (Germany) comes to mind, if you don't mind paying $3 + per bottle. I think these are the same guys Rogue uses to put out their XS series.

[S.Foster]

Black Bottles

Funny that you should ask about black bottles. I am sourcing this item as well. Owens-Illinois produces them from time to time. I am waiting to get pricing on them now.

[v2comp]

it seems wierd to me that making an opaque glass bottle would be more difficult than making them crystal clear.

[jesskidden]

Owens-Illinois' marketing manager Scott Magnus discusses their black glass bottle (with photo) in an interview in MBA's Oct. 15th issue, and mentions it's a two-step process and thus more expensive.

O-I made a US style stubby black bottle for Lone Star back in the late 1960's.

Texas Brewer Will Use New "Black Bottle"

[v2comp]

Owens-Illinois' marketing manager Scott Magnus discusses their black glass bottle (with photo) in an interview in MBA's Oct. 15th issue, and mentions it's a two-step process and thus more expensive.

O-I made a US style stubby black bottle for Lone Star back in the late 1960's.

Texas Brewer Will Use New "Black Bottle"

thanks, interesting read, loved the hand hold patent for the crate too!

[Natrat]

I'd consider full body shrink sleeves. You can get them in matte colors, and if it's a small run, you can rig up a couple of heat guns to shrink them...unless you have a pasteurization tunnel, or lots of steam (I love having lots of steam...)

Just an idea. Doesn't look as upscale as ceramic coated glass, though...

[S.Foster]

Paint the bottles.....(hmm, lets see 27,556 cases annually x 24 bottles per case = 661,344) not likely.
NATRAT might be onto something with his idea.

[legidley]

Aluminum bottles

Exal out of Youngstown, Ohio supplies aluminum bottles which could be labeled from the factory to be completely black with any logo you need. When I was quoted about 6 or 8 months ago, it was somewhere in the range of $0.40 per 12oz bottle if I remember correctly. I believe they can take the same crowns as glass. Minimum quantity per label was 50k bottles. Doesn't work out very well for new micros especially if you want to do a small run of seasonals under 50k bottles. If you're planning on doing 661,344 bottles per year spilt among about 5 or 6 products, it sounds like aluminum bottles might be a good fit.

If you use the aluminum bottles for your primary lineup, you could switch over to glass for seasonals and limited release. Most bottling equipment won't put up with such versatility. I would reccomend for this purpose a PPM filler out of (I believe) Merced, California. I hear the changeover time between vastly different bottle types could be as quick as 30 minutes. I seem to remember the larger PPM machines being spec'd at 60 bpm (I could be wrong). This rate is about perfect for your projected output. Another benefit to many (specifically small) micros is the PPM's small footprint.

Another option would be to get all 661,344 aluminum bottles from exal all simply black, then label on top of that. I would be hesitant to do this because a major selling point for aluminum is that it is recycleable. A label would defeat the purpose. The plus side is that you could probably get any used bottling equipment to run everything (versatility isn't an issue).

Good luck. With as many micros on the shelves as what we have now, it's important to stand out. Sounds like you're thinking on the right track.

Lee Gidley,
Rust Belt Brewing Company
Youngstown, Ohio

[kai]

This thread caught my eye as I have seen an ad or two for O-I pushing black glass here down under. Apparently it's about the 'premium feel'. Sounds a lot better than green, I guess.