Forget the beer for a second — let's talk about the very cool, very well-designed beer labels that adorn many of our favorite beers. Sometimes it seems like breweries put as much work into creating a beautiful label as they do into the beer itself! Do you ever save these bottles for their labels?
The next question, of course, is what do you actually do with the bottles that you keep? I like the idea of displaying them on narrow shelves, like these Ribba shelves from IKEA, where you might otherwise have a large piece of artwork. The larger bottles can also be used as a vase for a single long-stemmed flower. If your'e crafty, you could try your hand at cutting off the tops of the bottles, sanding down the edge, and using them as cups, utensil jars, or votive candle holders.
→ Make Your Own Beer Glasses: How to Cut Glass Like Walter White from Hyper Vocal
Do you save beer bottles? How do you display them?
Related: What is the Best Way to Remove Labels from Wine Bottles?
(Image: Flickr member MrB-MMX licensed under Creative Commons)
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
Perfect Summer Cocktail Recipe: Honey Bourbon Lemonade
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Elizabeth Apron fro...
100 DIY Ideas for the 3-Day Weekend
Danielle's Charming, Classic Walk-Up
I don't save labels, but I do save different-shaped bottles. They're nice to have in my home brewing batch.
Yes! I do save bottles; my boyfriend and I usually celebrate holidays or anniversary dinners with a champagne-size bottle of beer. They tend to be small batches, and thus have really cool labels. Our growing collection currently fills a couple of cubes in our 5 x 5 Ikea LACK shelf. Works for us!
I do keep some of the small batch bottles I drink regardless of labeling. I have also started a Growler collection from the various breweries (mostly local micros), that I have been to around the US.
I used to soak them off and put them in a photo album when they were dry. Too many to keep going. Saving the bottles, yikes that takes up some serious space.
No, but I just have to say YAY for the British beer pic :) Spitfire = yum. Reminds me of a windy a rainy seaside holiday in Kent that was absolute bliss.
My kitchen is decorated with cool/unique/rare beer bottles! I put them on top of my cabinets...they are quite the conversation piece!
I have a Root Beet collection. I save a bottle of every different kind of Root Beer I can find.
I currently have about 75. The more you find the trickier it is to find new ones.
They used to be ranked from best to worst but once I got over 40 I switched to a 5 star system.
I made a custom shelf similar to the Ikea Ribba because it was a little to narrow for some of the wider bottles.
The shelf wraps around the top of the kitchen wall, just below the ceiling.
All the time. I put candles in the empty bottles, or use them as vases for one or two flowers.
I make beer bottle oil lamps.
I used to have those shelves with beer bottles, yes! 3 full ones, plus about twice that much on top of my kitchen cabinet. Really beautiful labels and fun to sort them in different ways, 'curate' my favorite ones in the most prominent spot. Was fun to look around and remember the nights each were drank, with whom, etc. Eventually I moved, and moved on, and gave them to a home brewer who wanted the empties.
We reuse them to bottle homebrew. But then when we want to give away beer to friends, we risk losing some of the cooler bottles! Oh well!
There's this buddha shaped beer bottle I saved. I now use it as an oil dispenser. Makes me smile every single time I reach over to use it! :)