The merits of beer have been heralded from the plays of Shakespeare to the roofs of frat houses. Almost all of us have sipped a cold one at least once (or several thousand) times in our lives. Have you ever given a thought, however, to that bottle in your hands? In a time when we're becoming more clever in creating dual-purpose functions from the most obscure of items, the beer bottle has found a new afterlife: assisting in the creation of hot water.
Sure, this probably isn't very new. With the right materials to capture heat, almost anyone can create their own hot water. This is the first time, however, that I've seen a beer bottle solar collector used so effectively. If necessity in the mother of invention, then Ma Yanjun from China's Shaanxi province is proof that a little motherly love can push you in the right direction. Yanjun came up with the idea of stringing together a collection of green beer bottles to heat water after his Mother became less than comfortable with their previous setup. From the article,
