Regular bottles of beer looking very humble beside the ceramic one

This is v2 ceramic beer bottle in a common-sized 6-pack case. Of course, our case will have our logo and artwork. I paid $19 for it. They threw in the bottles of beer for free! That is a ceramic bottle that has bumped out the ordinary glass one and is showing off its size and superior character. But it is a tight fit in this case - it appears to be 4mm too large in diameter. I am sworn not to have another beer until it is served in a proper ceramic bottle like this. So if you live in my home town and want those six unneeded bottles, let me know.

Related Pictures

The bottle is more important than the beer!

What is depicted here doesn't happen with ceramic beer bottles. They do the talking. They talk about how we should be manufacturing our own stuff locally. They remind us that we make beer here so we should also make the bottles. They tell us we should take pride in things we can manufacture ourselves. That we should use local raw materials rather than importing them. Glass bottles are just a container, ceramic bottles elevate beer, they bring sustainability and style to beer drinking. Ceramic bottles bring local craftsmen to your beer experience - potters can make them. Ordinary glass will always be just ordinary glass, but ceramic bottles bring a world of aesthetic possibilities to this basic part of our culture.

This GA6-B glaze is better than beer bottle glass

Ceramic glazes are actually just glass. But they are not like bottle glass. The latter is formulated to work well in forming machines (harden quickly), melt and stiffen quickly, have low melt viscosity and resist milkiness and crystallization on solidification. The chemistries to accomplish this have adequate resistance to leaching and adequate durability for a single or few uses. A stoneware glaze melt needs to be much more viscous (to stay put on vertical surfaces). And, it must have a much lower thermal expansion (to match common clay bodies). And, it must resist crystallization more much (since it cools slowly). Fortunately, meeting these needs brings along big benefits: Greater durability, hardness and resistance to leaching. Common target formulas express typical oxide formulas of glazes. Stoneware glazes and bottle glass share a common trait: They have about the same amount of SiO₂. But the similarity ends there, stoneware glazes have:

-High Al₂O₃. Three to five times more! It is the key oxide to producing durable glass. And it stiffens the melt (that disqualifies high levels from bottle glass).
-The same fluxes (CaO, MgO, K₂O, Na₂O). But they distribute very differently (half the CaO, half to one third the KNaO, much more MgO). Other fluxes like SrO, Li₂O are also common.
-Low KNaO (which they call R2O). In glazes it produces crazing, 5% is a typical maximum. But bottle glass can have double or triple that (the high thermal expansion is not an issue and its cheap source materials supply lots of melting power).
-B₂O₃ melter. It is expensive but can be justified because the glaze is just a thin layer. Glazes at the low end of the stoneware range have 5% or more boron.

The ceramic bottles shown here are made from a dark burning stoneware, the glaze is GA6-B. On the left is the same glaze on a porcelain mug. For the above reasons this glaze is more durable and leach resistant that regular bottle glass.

Links

URLs	https://bottles.beer Say goodbye to ordinary glass and elevate beer with ceramic bottles.
Projects	Beer Bottle Master Mold via 3D Printing A project that took several years of failures and blind allies and is finally coming together - so much simpler than expected!

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