Bottle Capper

[Ralphi]

Hey guys,

Just looking for some advice on buying a bench capper. I am pretty new to home brewing but understand that a bottle capper is pretty essential.

My local K-mart has on offer a bench capper for $35 (I think it's a brigalow one),

My question is should I go for this or should I look at another brand? I've seen the super automatica ones go for around this much incl postage second hand.

Hope you can help me out

Ralphi

 

[rotten]

superautomatica wins for me. But then as long as it seals properly it's all good.

 

[bignath]

I've thought about buying one of those to replace my old and trusty, at $35 it's a good buy.

the one i have is old, and the adjustments for bottle height sometimes get temperamental but it still works, so i haven't replaced it yet.
Looks like its solid enough too.

As rotten said, if it seals, that's all it needs to do...

the bench capper could be a good buy, but please promise me you'll stay away from the brigalow "ingredients".

Shit beer guaranteed

EDIT: Particularly the "hop tablets". Oh and the hydrometers are bullshit too.

 

[Hatchy]

I use a bench capper that I picked up from somewhere. I half expect a mate to call me wanting it back one day but I don't know which mate "lent" it to me. I used a 2 handed capper for years without any problems.

 

[DUANNE]

Oh and the hydrometers are bullshit too.

oh i dont know about that they are pretty good for fg measerment or if you only make really low gravity beer. :icon_cheers:

 

[Goofinder]

Go to Kmart, open the box that says Brigalow on the side and have a look at it. It might just say Superautomatica on it. Mine did.

 

[Ivan Other One]

Ralfi, If you're close to Townsville you can have my spare bench capper for $5.00. Pick up only. Not sure but I think this one is only the Regularautomatica style, but it does the job.

 

[Ralphi]

Thanks heaps for the advice and sadly I'm down in melbourne so I can't take up your generous offer Ivan.

 

[Crusty]

superautomatica wins for me. But then as long as it seals properly it's all good.

Superautomatica for me too.
They're pretty good.
Picked mine up for $42.00 from memory.
You can change the bell too for wine bottles.

 

[ekul]

I got one in a a garage sale recently that came with 120 tallies in crates. It cost me $3 but i only bought it because i wanted the tallies and the crates. You can have it for free if you want to pay postage. It looks pretty old, i'll test it out tomorrow to see if it still works but if it does its all yours.

 

[Phoney]

I thought kmart stopped stocking HB supplies? (my local one has anyway)

 

[bill_gill85]

Go to Kmart, open the box that says Brigalow on the side and have a look at it. It might just say Superautomatica on it. Mine did.

My brigalow was a superautomatica too.

 

[drtomc]

The only possible gotcha I can think of is that you probably want to keep the possibility of using tirage caps for champagne punts up your sleeve. Do all cappers allow you to unscrew the bell to swap on a tirage bell?

T.

 

[Hatchy]

My randomly inherited from somewhere capper has a superautomatica sticker on it. I'm glad I brought my laptop outside to have a look at AHB now, I wouldn't have bothered to look if I had to get up.

I loved my 2 handed capper when I was using all different sized bottles & wouldn't have bothered with a bench capper. Now that I have enough bottles that I only use coopers longnecks & brewboys stubbies I've lent my 2 handed capper to a mate. It served me for 12 years of off & on (mainly off) brewing though.

 

[Florian]

I thought kmart stopped stocking HB supplies? (my local one has anyway)

That's why they're getting rid of them for 35 bucks. I got mine from kmart ages ago for $55. It is a superautomatica once you open the box. It works pretty well and is the same that the HBS sell. I'm not sure if I can change the bell on mine, never tried and never needed to, but I understand that it might be useful for some.

Florian

 

[Goofinder]

My Brigalow/Superautomatica can use a tirage bell, I've capped a few champagne bottles with it. I don't see how you can go wrong if you can pick one up at $35.

 

[Mattese]

Whereabouts are you Ralphi? I've probably got one lying around that you can have for nix if you're local. I'm far too lazy to post.
Cheers,
Matt

Edit: Sorry, didn't see that you were in Melbourne. Not much good to you I'm afraid.

 

[Ralphi]

@ekul, if the capper works I'd be interested on seeing if we can sort something out. where are you based?