Although we don’t know how truthful the story is, the invention of bottled beer supposedly came about in Hertfordshire, around 448 years ago. Dr Alexander Nowell, a priest at the time and keen fisherman, went fishing and took a bottle of his home brew with him. However, Nowell went home without his ale and left it behind on the riverbank. A few days later, Nowell returned to find his bottle of home brew, but upon opening it, it made a loud bang.
The loud bang was due to further fermentation that had occurred in the bottle, causing a build up of carbon dioxide. Previous to this, beer and ale had been quite flat, so this new carbonated version of bottled ale would have been quite a discovery at the time. Although it would be nice if this story were true, there isn’t any evidence of beer being bottled on a commercial scale until the late 1600s.
Fast forward to the present, where we now have a huge range of bottled beer, ale and cider to choose from – not only global and national brands, but craft beer and locally brewed ale too. An increasing number of people are also having a go at brewing their own beer at home. With beer being big business these days, the industry gets through a fair few beer bottles and, when it comes to bottling your own beer, it’s important to get the right bottle.
The best beer bottles for your brew
Many well-known branded beers are sold in 330ml bottles, with 500ml bottles often used for speciality and craft beers or larger servings. Some beer companies also offer a smaller 275ml bottle. The good news is that we stock all of these sizes of beer bottle, complete with gold crown caps, with no minimum order requirements. This means you can buy a few bottles for your home brew or pallet loads of bottles for your brewery.
You can choose from our following industry standard glass beer bottles: