Beer Bottles for Competitions

[Tom Wrinkles]

How concerned are the judges that the beer bottles are to have no markings on them? I have a lot of bottles that I have cleaned the labels off of and they have little dots of raised glass around the bottom. Are these okay to enter? I read the rules and regulations http://www.brewerscup.org/rules.pdf for the Indiana Brewers Cup. It seems after reading that I will have to find or buy other bottles.

[sirgiovanni]

Does the raised glass look like specific brewery markings or literally just dots?

[Tom Wrinkles]

It looks like straight line morse code written in braille. I would post a pic but I cant figure it out. The bottle is a Heavy Seas beer from Clipper City Brewery.

[Dutch]

The dots on the bottom carry a code to the manufacturer as well as the mould cavity number.

[john mills]

I saw plenty of bottles at the state fair with moulded in names. I'm not aware of any deductions for it.
I wouldn't worry about the dots.
I think the intent is to get John Dippel to remove at least 3 labels a year.

[BREWsmith]

I saw plenty of bottles at the state fair with moulded in names. I'm not aware of any deductions for it.
I wouldn't worry about the dots.
I think the intent is to get John Dippel to remove at least 3 labels a year.

[JohnD]

That is asking a lot!!

[Michael Erwin]

Most competitions explicitly state their policy on raised lettering. It varies. Even in the case of the AHA National, I saw no deductions for raised lettering last year at the regional judging in Indianapolis.

For several months last year I was actively collecting 12oz bottles from any source I could find (free). I was trying to keep up my bottling with my brewing schedule, and was doing pretty well, until I finally decided to move to kegs.

The upshot of that is, I have several cases of 12oz bottles, enough to last me through several years of the competitions I enter (very few, especially when they're as expensive as the brewer's cup!).

If anyone ever needs bottles, let me know. I'll give them to you. Most of my bottles are clear of markings, all have been de-labeled. Some are marked, like Sam Adams and New Belgian and Michelob.