Saturday, May 16, 2009

RE-BEER, Earth-friendly brew re-uses old bottles

Imagine a tasty microbrew that is made using natural ingredients, green strategies, and energy-efficient equipment. Now imagine the marketing and branding that could distinguish this frothy beverage...

The call-sign of the brewery is to clean out and reuse a motley mix of old beer bottles, regardless of their shape, size, or color. If you're a large brewery that can buy back their old bottles from cleaners/recyclers/sorters, there is some incremental cost there. But if you took any ole' bottle you could get, cleaned it up, and dropped your beer into it...you could save a lot of money, do a lot of good for the environment, and create a catchy niche in the consumer's mind.

You could print one simple, recognizable label (from recycled materials) and slap it on the endearing assortment of decanters.



CATEGORY: Entertainment / Business Idea
IDEATION: May 13, 2009

7 comments:

  1. Hi friend, peace...
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  2. I just saw the copyright data at the bottom of the page...guess I'll return the 5000 bottles I have been saving for my new beer company. You beat me to another one! jm

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  3. I dig this idea, I just think it would be hard to get it a reputation of a "quality" beer. I think it's the label that is throwing it off. Simple and easily recognizable is totally good, but I'd feel uneasy drinking from a bottle that reminds me of my recycling bin -- y'know?

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  4. haha - nice Jeff!
    gretchen - good call about the potential "cheapness" factor of the brand. it would have to be elegantly and carefully posed.

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  5. This would work in Portland, no doubt. My friends who brew already reuse beer bottles and you can buy new caps for super cheap (not sure if there might be a way to reuse those). A well-designed label and some grassroots branding would get it off to a strong start for a niche market.

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  6. Jake says:
    It kills me that my work server won't allow me to comment on your posts.

    Re: RE-BEER, depending on how they were filled, the bottles would probably have to be sorted into same-shape categories so they could be handled and filled uniformly. You would either need separate bottling lines for each type of bottle, or (more likely) you would have a single adjustable line that could accommodate bottles of all shapes. If you wanted that motley look for marketing purposes, you would essentially have to sort the bottles, fill the bottles, then remix them.

    I like this idea. It gives each bottle some history and character. "Oh, look, this amber is in a New Belgium bottle." "Yeah last week I had two New Belgium bottles in a wheat six-pack." A little write-up on the labels could explain how the bottles are cleaned and sanitized/pasteurized, making them safer than a typical plastic water bottle.

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  7. I knew Jake would like this.

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