Help needed - leaky crown seals

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

r055c0

Well-Known Member
Joined
31/8/11
Messages
284
Reaction score
80
Location
Hampton Park
I've noticed that my last few brews have lacked a bit of fizz, something I had attributed to the fact that I am cold crashing before bottling now (I had guessed less yeast in suspension = slower carbonation times) and assumed the fizz would pick up over the next few weeks, but I handed out a few bottles to some work mates a couple of days ago and got back reports of bottles slowly emptying themselves if left lying on thier sides. A shake and listen reveals the crown seals are leaking (slowly but enough to half empty a bottle).

I've been brewing for 5 years now and have always used a mix of brigalow and coopers seals, and have never had a broblem in the past. I have a bench top capper set to the same height as it always is, and I use the same bottles for everything as I have a steady supply from the family alcoholic.

All brews affected have been capped with the brigalow crown seals, all purchased at the same time.

So I have two questions:

1 - Is this a bad batch of crown seals? Is it happening to anyone else?

2 - How can I save the 150 + bottles of beer in my garage? Should I just recap them with a different brand of seals? Do I need to add more sugar to get the carb happening again? Will I need to drink all 150 bottles tonight to prevent wasteage???

Any insights would be very much appreciated :)
 
I'm not having those muppets around at my house!! Will have to drink it myself.
 
Mate, I posted the exact same thing on another forum a few weeks ago.

For about 5 batches, all of my twist offs were going flat except the ones bottled with Coopers seals. I don't know if the metal is softer/more malleable, meaning it forms a tighter seal with the thread, but the brigalow ones just weren't cutting the mustard.

I replaced the bell on my capper, and now I need a jackhammer to get them off.

Hope this helps champ.
 
Yeah, will be staying away from the brigalow ones in the future.

Any thoughts on recapping the beer with fresh seals?
 
This happened on my screw caps every now and then (especially when shaken up in the car), so I've ditched them all and only use coopers tallies now - don't have a problem with them.
 
Yeah maybe replace the bell on your capper. They do wear out.
 
Good idea Edgebrew, I'll pick one up this weekend.

I'm still toying with the idea of recapping the bottles, I want to add sugar to bring the fizz back but I don't want to create any bottle bombs.
 
Can you tell me a bit about the importance of lubrication during vigourous lever action?
 
I have noticed that my long neck crown seals have been leaking and the beer quite flat. I have been using both coopers and woolies house brand crown seals.
I found that my Italian capper left a dent from the magnet in the caps and the finished seals were a bit lopsided. I have had this capper for a number of years, but it looks similar to KL's lever action model.
I was given another bell which fitted my capper. This brand new bell looked pretty rough, to be honest, but I swapped them. I found the new bell pushed the same caps on much further onto the bottles. The magnet doesn't hold as well, but it definitely seals better. There is no dent made by the magnet in the crown seals now.
I hope this helps someone.
 
Back
Top