Beautiful Bottle Crates

In my opinion, one of the best aspects of home brewing – aside from the drinking the yummy results of your work, of course – is that you collect beautiful bottles to store things in. It makes me quite happy to open the fridge or step into the pantry and see sleek flip-top bottles in amber, cobalt, and clear glass holding beer, wine, or kombucha. So much more lovely and satisfying to the soul than plastic jugs!

With our primary workspace upstairs in the kitchen, and our main storage space downstairs in the basement, we need to be able to move bottles efficiently – whether full or empty. For a while we were using old cardboard 12-pack boxes, wine boxes, or plastic filing crates. They worked, but weren’t great.

Then I was on Pinterest and saw a photo of a wooden crate someone had made themselves… and I knew we needed some. I broached the subject to my handsome and talented Prince, and he agreed to think about it. We were busy, though, and the project sat on the back burner a while.

In the last couple months, while we were back and forth from the Toy Store (aka Lowes) getting supplies for other projects, my Prince found some wood he thought would do nicely. Then he disappeared into the basement. The babies sat at my feet upstairs, supervising my activities, but would periodically cock their heads and perk up their ears, staring curiously at the floor as the sounds of woodworking spiraled up from under our feet.

When he re-emerged, my Prince was holding a custom-made, custom-sized crate for our shiny bottles! It is both beautiful and rock solid – perfectly for carting bottles around and for storing them in style as their contents ages. He’s made a few more since then, each appropriately sized for a different style of bottle. I am very fortunate to have a husband who is creative and talented enough to design and create such awesome things for us!