Bottle Caps

[mishabella]

Hi everyone,


I am about to bottle for the first time,
I have screw top bottles, a bench capper, and crown seals. I tried to cap an empty bottle just to get the feel of it, and it just doesn't seem to work, doesn't squash the sharp points around the bottle, and i was able to pull the cap off. On the box of the bench capper it does say that the caps may feel loose on screw tops, and will tighten with carbonation, can I trust this, or is the capper faulty, or is there different caps i should be getting?

Cheers :chug:

 

[jayse]

It will work OK, make sure you cap them all the way on/down. The bench capper may be tight at first being new but the cap should not have the pointy sharp bottom edge sticking out. Another extra push down should do the trick, to the point the bottle may get stuck in the capper slightly. Of course becarefull as those screwtop bottles are very cheap and nasty but you can use them with no probs.

Alcohol fueled brewtality.
Jayse

 

[mishabella]

It will work OK, make sure you cap them all the way on/down. The bench capper may be tight at first being new but the cap should not have the pointy sharp bottom edge sticking out. Another extra push down should do the trick, to the point the bottle may get stuck in the capper slightly. Of course becarefull as those screwtop bottles are very cheap and nasty but you can use them with no probs.

Alcohol fueled brewtality.
Jayse

Hi Jayse,

Thanks for your reply.

Screw top bottles cheap and nasty are they??? Oh no thought I got this good deal off a home brewer, bought 100 bottles for $50, they look so clean and good. Ah well.

Now the Bench capper, should I push down as hard as I can?? Was scared of breaking the bottles. Maybe it needs a males strength does it??

Oh so new at this, very nervous.

 

[Stuster]

It doesn't need that much strength, mishabella. Just make sure the bell of the capper is close to the top of the bottles. If it isn't, it will be much more difficult to cap them.

Crown bottles are better, but screwtops will work fine. I think that's a price I'd never pay for screwtop bottles though. If you need more, why not promise a mate a few beers in exchange for a pile of empties. Cleaning them up is pretty easy. Just soak them overnight in napisan and make sure you rinse them well.

 

[barls]

i use the screw caps for years and they are no different to the crown tops. give it a good pull down and you should be right. the way to do a test is put some water in a bottle, cap it and then turn the bottle upside down and ssee if it leaks. just for the record ive had more crown top bottles break than the screwtops and ive never broke one capping

 

[Kingy]

hey mate, `im knew to this as well ive done 4 brews in 5 weeks and the first brew was the scaryiest i thought the same thing with the bench capper......what ive noticed is set the capper to the right height(therez only 1 correct height for each size bottle) push all the way down till therez no more leverage..and a little more...
hold for a second or so then release..

in my 1st brews the cap would get stuck in the capper(bottle attached) and it took a while to work out how to get the bottle out of the capper..
usuaslly just rock the bottle back and forth carefully and it will pop out.
But as the capper wearz in, it just releases the bottle leaving it free standing on the rubber bottle stand.

 

[mishabella]

hey mate, `im knew to this as well ive done 4 brews in 5 weeks and the first brew was the scaryiest i thought the same thing with the bench capper......what ive noticed is set the capper to the right height(therez only 1 correct height for each size bottle) push all the way down till therez no more leverage..and a little more...
hold for a second or so then release..

in my 1st brews the cap would get stuck in the capper(bottle attached) and it took a while to work out how to get the bottle out of the capper..
usuaslly just rock the bottle back and forth carefully and it will pop out.
But as the capper wearz in, it just releases the bottle leaving it free standing on the rubber bottle stand.

Hey Just tried again with more force, seems to be ok, can still pry it off, but will obviously tighten with carbonation as the box says.

I am just a little worried because no instructions came with the capper and I am not sure if all intact and working ok, I bought it brand new at BigW, I guess it should be ok.

As for the bottles, I drink a lot of stubbies and so does my friend, and in just a weekend we collected enough empties for my brew, but after chatting to my Dad who used to brew, was talked out of using stubbies for the reasons of time and more beer wasted because of sediment, so bought these long neck bottles for $50. Ah well hope it all turns out ok, guess I will know in a couple of weeks.

My brew is probably ruined as i didn't get instructions with my fermenter set up either, and only guessed by pictures on the internet where everything was suppose to go. When I went to pick these bottles I bought up, I looked at the guys set up and realised that water needed to be put into the airlock, which I didn't do. I just wished i didn't pick the most expensive Kit to start with, should have started with the old cheapy's from the Supermarket. All a learning process I guess.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Kingy]

search the FAQ on the search panel on this site ....its a huge help.

I was asking almost the same questions,except the water in airlock lol ) all the answers are here..

also check new brewers and guide to better brewing (all on this site)

and a homebrewshop is a shitload better than kmart. I went straight to a HBS and im glad i never even thought about a kmart setup. I didnt even know they done them (luckily)

Quality beer = quality ingredients from a quality shop

 

[Linz]

misha

Fill out your location and Im sure you'll get and invite to a brew day to see how others do it.....

 

[Brewtus]

Post a picture of the capper if you can. Try a little vaseline under the capper so it slips over the cap. If you put some gease or vaseline on the moving parts it can help so your force goes into capping, not getting the capper to work.

I do some stubbies and some 740ml PETs so get the best of both.

Stick with it, after 3 brews you will be an expert. :beer:

 

[mishabella]

Ok I have bottled the beer, the only way I was able to get the lids on tightly is to continually push the capper whilst turning the bottle to get all the edges down, this is wrong isn't it, you should only have to do it once yeah?

Here is a couple of pics, not sure which part you wanted to see so I have put one to show the name brand, and which level I have it at, and the other underneath the actual capper to see if that is looking alright.


Hey Linz where do I fill my location.

 

[mishabella]

misha

Fill out your location and Im sure you'll get and invite to a brew day to see how others do it.....

Alright Linz, forget last message, found where I put my details, cheers.

 

[StuBear]

Sounds like you have your capper set too high.

On my capper, I just have room to slide the bottle, with the cap already on, under the bell. It is almost impossible to put the cap on after the bottle is under the capper bell.

One test I did was to fill a stubbie with cola or another fizzy drink, then cap it and shake the bottle - you will soon know if the cap is not on tight enough.

As king VB mentioned, the bottle will probably get stuck in the bell when capping - if it doesn't then your capper is set too high.

I'm also a new brewer (only 5 brews bottled so far) but most of them have been in twist tops

Stu

 

[mishabella]

Sounds like you have your capper set too high.

On my capper, I just have room to slide the bottle, with the cap already on, under the bell. It is almost impossible to put the cap on after the bottle is under the capper bell.

One test I did was to fill a stubbie with cola or another fizzy drink, then cap it and shake the bottle - you will soon know if the cap is not on tight enough.

As king VB mentioned, the bottle will probably get stuck in the bell when capping - if it doesn't then your capper is set too high.

I'm also a new brewer (only 5 brews bottled so far) but most of them have been in twist tops

Stu

Hey Stu, so what do you need to almost bend the bottle under the capper to fit? Well I guess it is too late for my bottles if the caps aren't on properly hey? I did tip a couple of bottles slowly upside down and no liquid came out so hopefully they are ok. There was only a couple of bottles that got stuck under, did try a couple of levels on the capper, maybe I had it at the right level when the bottles that got stuck.

 

[StuBear]

Hey Stu, so what do you need to almost bend the bottle under the capper to fit? Well I guess it is too late for my bottles if the caps aren't on properly hey? I did tip a couple of bottles slowly upside down and no liquid came out so hopefully they are ok. There was only a couple of bottles that got stuck under, did try a couple of levels on the capper, maybe I had it at the right level when the bottles that got stuck.

The bottle with the cap on slides under with about 2mm or less clearance. Looking from the side there is just not enough space to put another cap between the bottom of the bell and the existing cap.

If you have already capped, then slide the bottle back under, drop the capper till you can only just pull the bottle back out and pull the handle again. This will crimp the cap tighter, if it's not tight enough already.

At the moment, all my bottles get stuck when capping and need to be rocked to get them out. Make sure you don't twist them . When capping, I feel 2 stages. The first puts the cap on, but the crimps are still sticking out compared to normal cap on a stubbie. The second stage crimps it home and gets stuck in the bell.

Stu