I bottle. Eventually I'd like to keg, but now I bottle. Bottles and bottle maintenance are a pain in the ass, that's why folks who brew for awhile seem to invariably move to kegs. So here's a couple bits I've learned about bottles that you may find helpful.
You can buy clean, new, unlabeled bottles. This approach is expensive, so you'll probably end up collecting from the commercial beer you consume. While you're stockpiling bottles your purchasing of beer becomes influenced by the bottles the beer comes in. I go for brown domestic craft-brew bottles with the longer shank under the lip (because I use an emily bottle capper and the shorter shank underneath most import bottles won't work). Green bottles from Beck's and St. Pauli Girl work too (longer, American style shank).
Some brands of commercial beer use terrible adhesive on their labels, making cleaning a pain. You'll find these, but for the most part a soak in warm water will loosen up the label enough to peal it off. Sam Adams seems to use adhesive that comes apart nicely after a soak.
After soaking for ten minutes or so I use a plastic scraper to get the bulk of the label off.
One the label is off you'll be left with some adhesive stuck on the bottle. Use the scratchy, scouring side of a regular kitchen sponge to get that adhesive off... it should come off pretty easily.
Once that's done and the bottle is clean give the inside one last rinse and then stick the bottle on your bottle tree. You do have a bottle tree don't you?
The bottle tree is a worthwhile investment if you plan to use bottles more than occasionally. I use it when doing my initial bottle cleaning as well as during the bottling of a batch that's done fermenting. When using for bottling, be sure to give the bottle tree a nice soak in some bleach water before putting your sanitized bottles on it.
Once the bottles have been de-labeled and dried put them up for storage. Be sure to pull them out and sanitize them before bottling beer.
Happy bottling... now to get a keg setup!
