# Newbie Alert: Crown Seals - Screw Top Bottles



## turbodonkey (30/8/09)

hi first time poster, be nice!

i have read everywhere that you can use crown seals on screw top glass bottles provided you use a bench capper.

well i have a bench capper and have been saving bottles of ginger beer and apple cider for 6 months now.

it came to bottling day, and i filled 30 odd bottles along with my sugar drops.

then it came to capping them. the instructions say that once capped, i'm to shake the bottle vigorously.

well I did that, and do you think I could stop beer from coming out any of my seals? i just simply couldnt get a single water tight seal on any of my screw top bottles. even before i shook the bottle i just tipped it upside down, and beer would trickle out 

what have i done wrong? everywhere I read says this is a no brainer!?

the saddest part is that i decided to do this at 8pm on Sunday, i have 30 bottles sitting here with no lides on them waiting for an answer, otherwise i might have to chuck it all in, buy bottles and start again 

i was looking forward to tasting my first brew


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## Barramundi (30/8/09)

can you post a picture of the type of bottles youve used 
i have a sneaking suspicion i know what youve done , but cant be sure till i see the bottle

by the way add your location in your profile so others know where you are at...


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## Leigh (30/8/09)

When I first used a bench capper I had a similar problem, caused by not pushing on the lever hard enough.

Bench cappers have a "double" action. They are easy to push, then get hard (to trick you into thinking the job is done), then get easy again (you'll know what I'm talking about if you have done it right). If you haven't pushed past the hard bit, then you haven't sealed the bottle. The crown seals should look identical to a shop-bought bottle...if the caps are still marginally "flared" at the base, then you haven't pulled hard enough and they haven't sealed.


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## Rodolphe01 (30/8/09)

I have used twist top bottles with a bench capper, i.e. commercial beer bottles like vb etc. By screw top, I am thinking you have used glass soft drink bottles that have an aluminium cap like a regular coke bottle for example, in which case won't get capped with a crown seal.


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## Barramundi (30/8/09)

Rudi 101 said:


> I have used twist top bottles with a bench capper, i.e. commercial beer bottles like vb etc. By screw top, I am thinking you have used glass soft drink bottles that have an aluminium cap like a regular coke bottle for example, in which case won't get capped with a crown seal.




thats exactly what i was thinkin he has used ... in which case they can usually be capped with the caps that are used on the pet bottles ...


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## loikar (30/8/09)

turbodonkey said:


> the saddest part is that i decided to do this at 8pm on Sunday, i have 30 bottles sitting here with no lides on them waiting for an answer, otherwise i might have to chuck it all in, buy bottles and start again
> 
> i was looking forward to tasting my first brew



Don't stress it.
Cap all your bottles and put a sheet or two of gladwrap over the top, just for paranoias sake.

Head out to ya supermarket and get a couple of boxes of the coopers PET bottles tomorrow.
When you get home, your drops have hopefully dissolved.
Pour your beer back into your bottling bucket or fermenter *gently* as in *don't airate it.*

bottle it again into the PET bottles, these should already be clean and sanitised out of the box, screw the caps on, have a smoke and a pancake.

HTH

BF

edit: schpeling


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## pdilley (30/8/09)

As an emergency measure you can always go get home brand soda or fizzy water and dump it down the drain and put your beer in there to carb up. Big plastic bottle and won't look pretty but will do in a pinch.

Edit: BF got there 1st. Brew PETs are same thing though if you don't plan on using the plastic again and again cheaper option if you go with a few big soda bottles to dump and then reuse.


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## gone brewing (30/8/09)

BeerFingers said:


> Don't stress it.
> Cap all your bottles and put a sheet or two of gladwrap over the top, just for paranoias sake.
> 
> Head out to ya supermarket and get a couple of boxes of the coopers PET bottles tomorrow.
> ...



Yeah, that's what I would do too. Don't stress too much, it's something you can fix.

Just wondering why you need to shake the bottle vigorously (although in this case it is good that you did as you found a problem with the seal). I cap my bottle then invert it once or twice but I don't see the need to shake it. Is that to get the oxygen to the yeast?


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## Spartan 117 (30/8/09)

Make sure the capper is set to the right hight, maybe nock it down a notch and try again. Also the problem could be in the caps, I've heard from the LHBS that an italian company that sell caps here aren't as soft as the aussie made ones and as a result dont make as good a seal.

Good Luck 

Aaron


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## Sammus (30/8/09)

kind of what others said. I wouldn't be pouring all your hard work back into a bucket to redo, but just get some of the PET lids if you have in fact bottle in softdrink style screw top bottles (as opposed to twist top style). they should screw on and seal ok.


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## turbodonkey (30/8/09)

Barramundi said:


> can you post a picture of the type of bottles youve used
> i have a sneaking suspicion i know what youve done , but cant be sure till i see the bottle






Rudi 101 said:


> I have used twist top bottles with a bench capper, i.e. commercial beer bottles like vb etc. By screw top, I am thinking you have used glass soft drink bottles that have an aluminium cap like a regular coke bottle for example, in which case won't get capped with a crown seal.



oh dear, this is _exactly_ what the bottles are! I now know theres a difference between screw top and twist top!

thanks a lot guys, its clears everything up, i'll buy some PET screw tops tomorrow first thing, i know the local coles has them.

really appreciate the help all!


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## loikar (30/8/09)

turbodonkey said:


> oh dear, this is _exactly_ what the bottles are! I now know theres a difference between screw top and twist top!
> 
> thanks a lot guys, its clears everything up, i'll buy some PET screw tops tomorrow first thing, i know the local coles has them.
> 
> really appreciate the help all!



No worries mate,

stick around and do some reading through the threads here. 
your beer'll be fine

BF


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