How can I reuse or recycle stone/clay beer bottles?
We’ve had an email from John B:
I was recently bought some beer which came in stone/clay bottles. Having now drunk all the beer I am looking for something to do with the bottles. I wanted to reuse them for home brew but I am unable to get the corks back in as my corking machine only works with wine bottles.
The only thing I can think of is to break them up for crocks in plant pots but this seems like a waste of all their bottliness. Any suggestions?
Could you push the corks in the bottles yourself? As i think home brew is a very good idea. But if you have no other way or re-using these wonderful bottles, then you could always just pop 2 sainsburys and recycle them that way as this will help the enviroment!!
I use wine bottles for candle holders. Melt the bottle of thin taper candles and “glue” them into the bottle neck. As you light them and the melt, the dribbling wax will keep them glued in.
nice and quick candle holders :)
They’d make good vases for just a few stems – heavy bases and low centres of gravity so wonderfully stable in houses full of rampaging kids/cats. :)
Aside from that, if you could find some stoppers/corks that are approximately the right size, you could use them in situations where the liquid doesn’t need to be kept as air-tight as homebrew – perhaps keep seeds in them or homemade liquid soap?
-louisa
If I remember correctly, if you can dehydrate the corks, they will shrink. you can put them in then and moisten them until they expand to fill the hole.
you coould always carfull break the tops off and place them in a garden as decorations , or once broken off you could plant things in them as beginner planters !
fill them with pebbles and make them into door stops
break off the bottom and use it as a spottle for spotting
When my friend buys desserts that are sold in clay pots – she flogs them on eBay as “mood pots” – for £1, but still not throing it away. The buyer pays the P&P. You can try the same – take a good picture of the bottle, make up a name & flog it!
These are cool. where can i get one. I like stoneware. I have a small collection of mini whiskey jugs. These would be fun to collect too.