Screw Cap Profile With Bench Capper?

[jaup]

Hi,

I am about to bottle my first brew and was having a trial run with the bench capper. When i cap a non-screw top bottle the caps kind of crimps below the lip of the bottle, however when i cap a screw top bottle it doesnt sit as well or crimp under, is this still ok? I have attached a photo.

Thanks,
Paul

Screw cap on left.

 

[Flipper79]

jaup,

I tried using screw top bottles years ago with a bench capper and only acheived about a 30% success rate.

My advice would be to ditch them and collect enough crown top bottles to replace them. Personally I haven't had any fail to seal yet.

Looking at your photo do you think that maybe your capper is hitting the glass ring under the cap and preventing your capper from getting the neccessary travel to seal correctly?

Hope this helps.

 

[Adamt]

I've never had any problems sealing screw top stubbies with a bench capper.

Fill one with water, seal it, and tip it upside down/shake it/whatever to check it's sealing OK.

 

[jimmy01]

I've never had problems with capping screwtops either.

 

[warra48]

I use my bench capper on twist top bottles, and roll tops, all the time, with no problems.

The key to it is to ensure the capping bell is adjusted as low as you can get it. Try capping a bottle, and then adjusting the capper down another notch and doing it again. I think you'll get a proper seal that way.

If you can slide the bottle under the capper without having to angle it, you are adjusted too high. I set mine so I have to squeeze the bottle under the belll at an angle, and often have to give a bit of a thump near the bottom to get it to slide under the bell.

 

[raven19]

I use my bench capper on twist top bottles, and roll tops, all the time, with no problems.

The key to it is to ensure the capping bell is adjusted as low as you can get it. Try capping a bottle, and then adjusting the capper down another notch and doing it again. I think you'll get a proper seal that way.

If you can slide the bottle under the capper without having to angle it, you are adjusted too high. I set mine so I have to squeeze the bottle under the belll at an angle, and often have to give a bit of a thump near the bottom to get it to slide under the bell.

+1, I have used coopers screw tops for years with no issues.

 

[blackbock]

Ahh the joys of bottling...

 

[boingk]

Ditto on the adjustment thing - I find that my capper [Superautomatica] works fine with everything I can get my hands on, although if not adjusted low enough it'll churn out caps like the one in your pic. Hopefully this is your problem as well, and won't take much fixing. Otherwise, trawl evilBay for some rolltops...or drink some more

Cheers - boingk

 

[Mantis]

Yes if the capper is at the correct height for the bottle you will feel that sort of clunk as it crimps the edge of the cap over.

 

[Joel]

When I bottled I used the usual 750ml tallie with screw tops. I didn't have many problems capping with my bottle capper. I just pressed down about three or four times to make sure that it had done as good a job as it could.

Then I moved to Grolsch style bottles with the swing tops. Heaps easier to bottle. And the 500ml volume was a good size to drink of an evening after work.

Then I moved to kegging. Now the Grolsch bottles sit pretty much unused, except for the occasional few bottles overflow after filling the keg. (Hate wasting good beer.)

 

[jaup]

I just did a dash out to the super market and (packed on xmas eve) and grabbed some Home Brand caps and they fit fine. Its just the ones from my home brew shop that don't crimp on properly.

You can feel the Home Brand ones crimp on and they are water tight.


Thanks for all the replies.

Paul

 

[mick8882003]

I found the biggest trick was to keep the capper square on the lid, a little off square and the cap wouldn't seal.

Oh yea and keep your capper low.

Would pay to wear leather gloves as well, at least on the hand your holding the bottle with, your really pushing the limits of the bottle when your capping screw tops. If it breaks you will end up with stitches.

I found you had to keep the base of the bottle a little forward so when the head rises you compensate for that

Cheers

Mick

 

[pint of lager]

A superautomatica capper will seal twist tops all day long without a hitch.

The el cheapo two handled cappers will crack the threads. This style come with the cheaper supermarket kits.

Do not try and use a wooden hammer on capper with twist tops.

 

[Barramundi]

never had a problem capping twist tops .. only thing i can think of is the capper head is too high ,or your just not pushin down quite hard enough

 

[Jase71]

The key to it is to ensure the capping bell is adjusted as low as you can get it. Try capping a bottle, and then adjusting the capper down another notch and doing it again. I think you'll get a proper seal that way.

If you can slide the bottle under the capper without having to angle it, you are adjusted too high. I set mine so I have to squeeze the bottle under the belll at an angle, and often have to give a bit of a thump near the bottom to get it to slide under the bell.

+1 to what Warra said. I have found this is the only way to get a trustworthy seal onto screwtops.

Best of luck with your first bottling, Jaup.