I always have lots of white vinegar on hand, and plenty of herbs in the garden to use. But I never seem to have enough bottles for my homemade vinegar. I wind up giving away some of my bottles to friends who are interested in making herb vinegars with me.
So, in winter and spring, I begin "collecting" bottles that I think will work well for storing and pouring vinegar.
This bottle, here, is a coffee flavoring syrup bottle. I finished off the hazelnut syrup from this bottle, for my coffee this spring. I like this bottle, as it has a plastic cap, which won't corrode from exposure to the vinegar. (BTW, it does need more rosemary. I'll be adding more as my plants grow this summer.)
Here's another bottle, from sparkling apple cider. The name brand of sparkling apple cider that I see on sale during the holidays, uses a green bottle. But this particular brand uses a clear one, which I prefer for vinegars.
I just gave away a smaller 16-oz bottle. It had contained commercial white-wine vinegar. That bottle was a good size for the vinegars that I only make in smaller quantities, like sweet blueberry vinegar.
When I had a couple of friends over to make chive blossom vinegar, recently, one friend asked me where I got my bottles. I explained that while she could buy bottles at World Market or a thrift store, she could also look around her kitchen for bottles about to go to the recyclers. A lot of beverages, sauces and condiments still come in glass bottles. Some of these bottles have a shape that looks right for storing/pouring the vinegar. While others have a look that I like for storing homemade salad dressings.
For storing homemade vinaigrettes:
This is a brandy bottle, from making brandied cherries 2 summers ago. It looks just right for my homemade vinaigrette, don't you think? when one of my daughters came into the kitchen one day, she thought I had bought bottled salad dressing, that is until she noticed there was no label. I could store homemade dressings in canning jars (and I do from time to time), but I do like how dressings pour so easily and neatly from a bottle with a narrow neck.
Occasionally, I have a bottle that's missing a cap. Bottles that I buy second-hand often come without caps or stoppers. A couple of years ago, I bought a small bag of corks at Cost Plus, for about $2. The bag had about a dozen cork stoppers. Craft supply stores also carry cork stoppers. Or, you could save one (or ask a friend for one of theirs) from a used-up bottle of wine.
The other option to buying cork stoppers for bottle lacking a cap, is a plastic cap from any other bottle. If it's a screw-top bottle that you need a cap for, check other bottle caps about to be tossed, to find one that fits. Those green sparkling apple cider bottles that I mentioned above, come bottled with a metal cap that you use a bottle opener on, not reusable, but they also have a plastic pop on, pop off cap, for resealing the bottle. These plastic caps work well on many repurposed bottles from the kitchen.
