The Case of the Crappy Caps

Just wondering if anyone has come across this. I have bought my caps from various online sources and have had no problems. Generally I buy oxygen absorbing caps, and from the vendors I have used, they are generally gold colored caps.

Over the holiday I ran out of caps and had to bottle a batch, so I went to a semi-local homebrew place and bought a gross of oxygen absorbing caps which were silver in color. When I bottled, I had no end of trouble with these caps and my wing capper. Caps got stuck, unevenly crimped and the edges would get pried up sometimes when I removed the capper. Even when I removed the caps and tried re-capping, I had the same issue. I thought maybe it was ME, or the bottles or the capper, but I had a few of the old Gold colored caps and those went on as smoothly as ever without a problem.

Not sure if the silver caps are more cheaply made, or slightly different in size or what, but I fear that most of the bottles are not going to carbonate due to bad seals.

Anyone else see such a disparity in the quality of crown caps??

Whenever I buy oxygen caps, they are always silver...but I've seen both gold and silver versions. I've never had any problem with my silver ones, but I use a bench capper.

Is there a chance you got european caps instead of plain caps? European caps are 29mm vs standard 26mm caps.

gingerdawg said:

Is there a chance you got european caps instead of plain caps? European caps are 29mm vs standard 26mm caps.

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I thought about that after reading about it in another thread. There was nothing on the bag to indicate that, and they were the only caps on the shelf (except for the non-oxygen absorbers which were also Silver in color). I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask them if somehow they stock Euro caps. Of course the place is far enough away, I would spend the $3.99 they cost in gas to go ask for a refund. I guess it is worth calling and at least asking if perhaps they WERE European caps, either stocked by design or by accident.

..Just called them and they aren't European caps (they stock them, but not in Oxygen Barrier) and they probably wouldn't have fitted in the Wing Capper at all. So far nobody else has complained, so, unless everyone has a bench capper, I am either unlucky or got a bad bag. Next time I get down there I will bring the bag and my capper and see what luck they have..

standard european beer caps are 26mm. only the capped champagne-style bottles take 29mm

dinnerstick said:

standard european beer caps are 26mm. only the capped champagne-style bottles take 29mm

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I haven't seen the locals make the distinction. Since you're there, I'm sure you have it right.
Here is a link to the Midwest sight for 29mm (larger) caps.
29mm European Bottle Caps- 100 Count

Thread resurrection!! It happened to me again!! After several online purchases of caps with NO ISSUES at all, I happened to buy a bag of caps from (a different) LHBS. These were even 'branded' LD Carlson caps. Same issue as with the other batch. Capping with a wing capper, the capper would 'stick' and to get it off, the cap would pry up slightly. In most cases, the seal was intact, but there was a sharp edge. Tried capping the SAME bottle with the Mail Order cap and the LD Carlson cap to see if it was technique/bottle related, but no. The Mail Order cap went on smoothly, the LD Carlson did not. Both were Silver Oxygen Absorbers.

Anyone know what could be going on here???

I believe I had a bad batch of silver oxygen absorbing caps from LD Carlson a month or two ago. I use a bench capper so I didn't see any problems with them getting misaligned, but some of them didn't seal well. It was on bottles of soda and I had an unusually high number of them go bad. At first I thought my bottles got chipped, but I've reused the same bottles and haven't had a problem since with some bulk greenish gold caps (not oxygen absorbers) that I bought from the local winery.

Very odd.