Eco-friendly beer bottle house design determined by variety

June 7, 4:26 PMBeer ExaminerCharlie Papazian

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Jenna Mack begins sorting and cleaning thousands of beer bottles for her
eco-friendly home in West Virginia.   Eco home photos courtesy of Jenna
Mack.

Jenna Mack is no ordinary event planner.  On May 30 she connected with Savor: An American Craft Beer and Food Experience. Savor was held at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC.  She went home with about 7,000 empty beer bottles.

She is not your ordinary recycler.  She is building her home from used beer bottles. After her latest haul she discovered beer diversity of the third kind. “I had no idea how many different sizes of beer there are in the world.  Originally, my thought was I would have all 12oz bottles.  I now have an amazing variety and will be redesigning the cabin based on the sizes I received.”

Buddhist Monks in Thailand recently built a temple out of more than 1million recycled beer bottles, taking 25 years to finish.  Jenna has a shorter horizon, though her plans are ambitious. 

The glass bottle house is part of a larger plan to build multiple eco-cabins in Evans, West Virginia.  She hopes to complete the first house in no less than one year.  It’s a part time project since as Washington, DC event planner, her job ramps up with the event season. 

The first cabin, she reports, “is in the works now.” 

Her plan is to build an eco-friendly cabin from reused beer (and possibly a few other types) bottles.  The main structure will be 16’x 20’ and constructed of amber bottles with cobalt accents.  Approximately 8’ from the main structure will be a restroom constructed of multi-color bottles.  Both structures will be solar powered.  The entire project will take 12,000 to 18,000 bottles. 

How does one build a beer bottle house?  Here are Jenna’s 8 steps. 

1. Collect the bottles
2. Clean the bottles – important for clarity of the glass and adhesion to the mortar.
3. Build the foundation and frame - nothing is more important than stability when building a glass house
4. Build the roof – A shed style steel roof ideal for rainwater harvesting. 
5. Stack the bottles –four rows in a day and then setting; slow and time consuming
6. Install the bathroom. 
7. Install solar panels, water systems
8. Decorate and landscaping

Photo right: Taking delivery of Savor used beer bottles

Here are my 8 step beer perspectives on Jenna beer bottle house

1. Jenna doesn’t mention the enjoyment of beer during the process.  This will help with step one…
2. and contribute to step two. 
3. With anything as important as establishing a foundation, enjoying a beer helps one’s perspective in making the right decisions and reflecting on the future.
4.  Step four is critical in that water must also be collected in order to make homebrewed beer.  Additional bottles should be stored for capturing water processed into homebrew. 
5. If you are going to live the better part of your life surrounded with stacked empty beer bottles, you better have a few beers to offer anyone who drops by.
6. The bathroom, critical for any dwelling, should surely have a skylight with beer bottle accents both behind the toilet (for men) and facing away from the toilet for contemplative moments and appreciation from whence the house cometh.
7. Solar panels and water systems are quite obviously the core of the energy and water requirements for the eco-friendly homebrewery. 
8. An occasional beer while planning, decorating and landscaping is inspirational, I know.  Just don’t overdue it.

Recycling beer bottles will never be the same.
 

Photo left: Hazards of planning a glass beer bottle home when having a few too many.  Photo by Charlie Papaazian