Beer bottles have been around for over 600 years and have a pretty interesting history.
It is widely believed that brewers were experimenting with storing beer in glass bottles as early as the 16th century. However, commercial bottling didn’t appear until the second half of the 17th century, so most early bottling was done by domestic brewers. People faced early difficulty with bottling beer because the hand-blown glass of the time couldn’t take the strain of the CO2 pressure.
Over the course of the 17th century, bottled beer became increasingly popular, but only among wealthy consumers. Bottles themselves were expensive and each one had to be filled and corked by hand, so most bottles were reserved for the export market.
This changed when, in 1847, Joseph Magown of the United States invented iron bottle molds. This mold cut costs and sped up bottle production, leading to an increase in general supply and popularity. A new invention in 1879, by Henry Barrett, an Englishman, further improved the bottling process with the creation of a screw top bottle, replacing corks.
Beer bottles as a method for consumption continued to grow throughout the first world war. Soon after, in 1934, Harry Ennever of Harrington Park, NJ patented a new ornamental square bottle design. Mr. Ennever would go on to patent two other bottle forms in his life.
