Australia: Coopers Brewery introduced new “longneck” glass bottles for home brewers

Coopers Brewery announced on March 8 it has reintroduced strengthened refillable 750 ml “longneck” bottles to replace the single trip bottles that have been used since 1997.

Coopers Managing Director, Dr Tim Cooper, said the existing one-way 750 ml glass bottles used by Coopers had become dated and a new modern look had been sought. “Over the past few years we have had constant requests from home brewers, home tomato sauce makers and others for more robust brown glass bottles that could be used to store home made products,” he said.

“All our bottles had been designed for single use only and were not suitable for reuse and refilling by home brewers. “We decided to take the opportunity to make some subtle changes and strengthen the 750 ml bottles so they could be reused by our home brewers.”

Dr Cooper said the new bottles were about 20 per cent heavier and slightly taller than the original long neck bottle and had the Coopers logo embossed on the side. Coopers home brew kits are presently sold with 30 brown PET plastic bottles and screw caps.

“The PET bottles have proven very popular with home brewers and will keep home brews carbonated for about two years. However, some still prefer to use glass bottles,” he said.

“A number of home brewers have told me that they are still using the old “Pickaxe” brand bottles they obtained before the introduction of the one-way bottle system in the 1990s, when breweries used to recover, clean and refill their bottles.”

Only Coopers Pale Ale, Sparkling Ale and Stout are sold in longneck bottles as well as in 375 ml stubbies. Coopers introduced new style 375 ml bottles for its entire range in 2003.

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