Recapping bottles

Terry B · Post by **Terry B** » Thursday Mar 17, 2005 8:35 am

Gday All
Have noticed that lately when drinking bottles of the same batch of home brew that some bottles were flat and yet others are ok.The ok bottles were the old heavy pre twist top and the flat ones were twist tops,that had been recapped many many times.Am thinking that you can only recap these bottles so many times before they lose their seal.Any thoughts on the matter?
Cheers TerryB

Dogger Dan · Post by **Dogger Dan** » Thursday Mar 17, 2005 9:33 am

Terry,

They tell me that is the case. I am still using old caps but I check the seal for wrinkles and faults. If I see a flaw the lid is gone. The tell me they can be used four times but that is crap. I suggest you check out your gear at bottling time

Dogger

Terry B · Post by **Terry B** » Thursday Mar 17, 2005 3:19 pm

Thanks Dogger
Am going to play it safe, and to use the old adage"If in dought throw them out"Will turf current stock of twist tops and start renewing with new ones.Oh to find a batch of old pre twist top bottles,they are like hens teeth in this neck of the woods
Cheers TerryB

Post by **Oliver** » Thursday Mar 17, 2005 5:53 pm

I wouldn't have thought the actual bottles would wear out.

You aren't using a new brand/source/batch of caps are you?

Do you use a bench capper? If so, don't be frightened to use a fair degree of force.

Cheers,

Oliver

NRB · Post by **NRB** » Thursday Mar 17, 2005 6:28 pm

Dogger Dan wrote:Terry,

They tell me that is the case. I am still using old caps but I check the seal for wrinkles and faults. If I see a flaw the lid is gone. The tell me they can be used four times but that is crap.

Dogger, please don't tell me you reuse caps? I might be misinterpreting your post, but it reads as if you can reuse caps multipple times, not the bottles!

Shaun · Post by **Shaun** » Thursday Mar 17, 2005 7:53 pm

Dogger I read it the same way?

r.magnay · Post by **r.magnay** » Thursday Mar 17, 2005 8:55 pm

Settle you blokes!!
With my amazing powers of observation I have detected that there is a bit of a mix up between screw tops and twist tops, screw tops have the thread in the cap and on the bottle, twist tops are crown seals pressed onto threaded bottles, Just sit quietly Dogger, I think the confusion started with you! I'm stepping back now and let you all go!!

Just as a point of interest though, I have heard of people re-using crown seals by scewing them back on, but I have never seen it.

Andrew · Post by **Andrew** » Thursday Mar 17, 2005 9:51 pm

I'm a firm beliver in the bottles that come with an obscure Hungarian Dark Beer called Dreher Bak. About 550 ml with Crown seals. Excellent size.

Dogger Dan · Post by **Dogger Dan** » Thursday Mar 17, 2005 10:14 pm

Yeh,

see, maybe I should read more,

I was thinking the caps for PET Bottles, not crown caps

Crown are one time use and are pennies a bunch so why try to save them.

Sorry for any confusion, glad to see someones checking up on me

(to much blood in the alcohol system)

Dogger

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Friday Mar 18, 2005 8:31 am

re-using crown seals.

Maybe we should all bow our heads for a few moments in appreciation of the Coopers led home brewing kit explosion.

Before there was home brew kits for sale in Woolworths, crown seals in the seventies were 2c each(when the entire bottle of beer was costing 8c), smart home brewers took off their seal carefully with "Crown Cork" bottle openers and boiled them before reusing. Thats the equivalant of about $15-00 for a pack of 100 crown seals.

Lest we forget.....

pb

BPJ · Post by **BPJ** » Friday Mar 18, 2005 8:41 am

Most bottles I use are twist top and only occasionally get a flat bottle. I suspect that these were mostly from priming sugar getting in the way of a good seal. Bulk prime now so that should be a thing of the past. Each one i examine teh bottle for a cause. Occasionally get a damaged thread or lip and toss these.

There are two types of crown seals. the original and then duo-caps. the duo caps are supposed to be softer for twist tops. I think most are now of the latter type. I have used hard caps for twist tops. I bought these for about $10 / 5,000 !! these were misprinted caps sold for sauce, but worked fine on twist tops. Just had to use a bottle opener as they were on good and tight.