bottling in .5L German bottles

I think that .5L weizen bottles are a perfect bottling container.

they are a little over 16oz, so you cap about 1/3rd fewer bottles on bottling day
I find that .5L is a good amount to drink when you don't really want two 12oz but want more than one
labels just fall off after a short soak. A rag or water blast removes the snot-like label glue
the glass is reasonably heavy and intended for multiple reuses in the original market
the bottles are straight-sided so they stack closely and efficiently
they are brown
they do not have branding on them

storing and moving .5L bottles

Storing and moving the bottles is somewhat problematic. Germans move the .5L bottles around in a plastic rack that holds 10L (ie. 20 x .5L). The internal latticework keeps the bottles from bumping and jostling each other. The crates stack easily as high as you care to lift them. I brought three of them home with me when I processed out of the army.

Since these racks are not easily acquired in the States , I needed another method. After some experimentation I found something that worked, and used free materials. I take normal cardboard boxes from a case of American beer and cut the top flaps off with a razorknife. This allows the taller bottles to stick out the top. I put in as many bottles as will fit (18-20). Then I invert a beer flat over the top. The beer is completely covered and you have a nice surface to stack another case on; in this pic you can see the cases in the back are stacked 6-high stably.

$Id: halfliter.orb,v 1.6 2008/12/16 04:19:59 mouse Exp $

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