Using Commercial Beer Bottles

[DrewCarey82]

Mate honestly I got a tonne in an auction off ebay. They where longnecks , tooheys, VB, Fosters, Carlton and I have never had a bottle crack in about 300 all twist tops.

These are fine, you'd be unlucky to find a brandname beer that uses shithouse bottles so seriously dont stress about that.

But what you do need to stress about is cleaning them properly.

What I recommend is buying a garbage bin, abottle tree, some homebrand nappy cleaner chucking about 20 bottles in a normal sized bin two normal sized spoonfulls of the napi cleaner leave for 24 hours, rinse out with hot water and stick on the bottle tree and your sweet.

Then every time after your initial cleaner wash out with hot water and get rid of all dregs, then spray with idophor(look up and you'll get plenty of threads on this) and ur painful job of washing becomes bloody easy.

And the brigalow capper is fantastic if you want to go fancier all it does is cost more money.

 

[tangent]

yeah, i gotta agree, a good capper with a normal bell and a tirage bell is definitely money well spent

 

[Phoenix]

Thanks Drew, sounds promising. And thanks for the info on cleaning them.

 

[DrewCarey82]

Bottle Tree is about a 50 buck investment and holds about 60-70 bottles its a must, if u do that method u will never have a drama.

This site is great but be careful about listening to complicated instructions some people get really technical and confuse the crap out of you.

 

[Jim - Perth]

Try using Weihenstephan bottles. They have the following advantages:
- Brown
- Crown seal
- 500ml
- Thick

 

[DrewCarey82]

But once again with any bench capper it makes no difference wether its crown or screwtop.

 

[tangent]

This site is great but be careful about listening to complicated instructions some people get really technical and confuse the crap out of you.

lol
Just make sure you understand where you're at and get the basics down before you progress to the next step and so on...
If you take brewing sip by sip it's not too hard to digest.
Understand racking, bulk priming and making a yeast starter and you're making good ground.

I also understand that there's different softness of metal caps. The newer ones seem to be a bit softer than the old ones and they wrap around the threaded bottles a bit better. Dunno if anyone can shed any light...

 

[Beerpig]

Bundaberg Ginger Beer bottles

- Glass
- 750ml
- Brown
- Thick
- Plastic screw cap, same as Coopers caps

Capping isn't something I want to get into

Cheers

 

[RobW]

I also understand that there's different softness of metal caps. The newer ones seem to be a bit softer than the old ones and they wrap around the threaded bottles a bit better. Dunno if anyone can shed any light...

[post="94429"][/post]​

I had a problem with some hard caps that sealed crown seal bottles beautifully but were difficult to get onto threaded bottles. The place I got them also sells wine & preserving equipment & the proprietor told me these caps were popular with people who bottled tomato juice because they sealed so well. They were a bronze colour. I haven't had problems with any other caps on threaded bottles (although I prefer crown seals).

 

[Boozy the clown]

Phoenix, ACI bottles arent that bad, when my mate worked there they were on a big push to save money, as big companies do. But anyway they make the glass just thick enough, i think they were pushing the boundries when my mate was there, just make sure you check them for scratches or any point of weakness.

I gave up trying to cap threaded bottles and chucked my coopers longnecks out, man if i only knew it was the actual cap being too hard. Oh well, just have to buy a bunch of coopers...bummer.

 

[Phoenix]

Boozy just PM'd me this:

Phoenix, ACI bottles arent that bad, when my mate worked there they were on a big push to save money, as big companies do. But anyway they make the glass just thick enough, i think they were pushing the boundries when my mate was there, just make sure you check them for scratches or any point of weakness.

I gave up trying to cap threaded bottles and chucked my coopers longnecks out, man if i only knew it was the actual cap being too hard. Oh well, just have to buy a bunch of coopers...bummer.





PS, dude, i cant post on the forum at the mo, dunno if its a browser issue or not. Anyway, feel free to post this message on the board from 'clown in exile' if you want.!

 

[barls]

i use comercial bottles and have never had a problem

 

[Doogiechap]

I find less pressure is needed to cap crown seals thus reducing paranoia about busting screw tops (not that I have ever busted any with my state of the art verge collected drill press/ bench capper :super: )

 

[gonzo]

ive capped heaps of screw tops over the last 2 weeks are they supposed to be able to be open like screwtops or do u have to use a bottle opener

 

[Tyred]

You can do it both ways.

I've capped screw tops and just twisted to open. I've had a couple that just ripped my hand as well. On the ones that broke the skin, I've noticed a little rust on the inside of the cap.

I also used a bottle opener (after ripping my hand) on screw tops. Doesn't appear to make much dfference to me.

 

[spog]

i have been capping the same bottles for 3 years,most of them are screw tops except the long necks (tallies) i use a bench capper and have had minimal problems.what ever you like just go with it.
sure i have some rejects but they are minimal...cheers...spog...