"99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall"

Another activity of mine, brewing beer, caused me to try to create wooden crates to replace the cardboard boxes the 22 oz beer bottles come in. We had been invited to The Brew Kettle in Strongsville, OH to join with a couple of friends, Jeff, John, and Tim, to brew beer on the premises. The first visit we brewed "Oktoberfest" and I brought home 2 cases in the cardboard boxes. By the time the bottling is done, the cardboard gets a little flimsy due to the moisture and I was fearful that one of the box bottoms would burst open.

In preparation for our next brewing when we bottled "Kolsch", I made two carriers out of white oak. Each would hold twelve 22 0z. bottles. The dimensions are roughly 10 1/2 inches wide by 12 inches high by 14 1/2 inches deep. I inset the side and bottom slats but I cut the spacing tolerances too close on the carriers and they would not hold the bottles in the cardboard box.

So I made two more carriers to take to our next brewing of "Belgian White Ale". As we were bottling I ended up giving one of the carriers to Jeff and one to Tim who joined me for the bottling. Taking a friend's suggestion, I used the cardboard dividers from the original cardboard boxes to separate the bottles in my smaller wood carriers. Two gifts for good friends, a lot of good beer, and two carriers for myself - not a bad deal.