Am I doing something wrong?

hi,

I decided to try bottling using glass bottles. I went to the recycling plant and bought plenty of commercial beer bottles (the kind with threads on the top. I bought some caps and rented a capper. The capper doesnt seem to reliabily cap the bottles. I am wondering if I need bottles without caps or if theres something I'm doing wrong.

Can't use screw top bottles. Pop tips only

You want the ones without the threads if you're trying to cap them. The threads are from twist off tops.

If you have a local brew shop they will have cases of bottle that you can buy.

Crap. Maybe the recycling plant has some like that

Timmyg316 said:

Crap. Maybe the recycling plant has some like that

Click to expand...

I'm sure they do. Some people have been able to use screw top bottles successfully with a bench style capper. Probably a whole lot cheaper and easier to just find some pry top bottles though.

You can order them online also through places like Northern Brewer. It will be more pricey than the recycling plant, but you'll know what you are getting.

Just a quick question.

What do you mean "The capper doesnt seem to reliabily cap the bottles." ?

Do you mean that it can be unscrewed off an empty bottle easily or that your tried carbing and it won't hold carbonation?

Because it's normal that caps are easily remove from a none pressurized bottle. Don't worry. I use screw tops all the time. Once the pressure builds, the thread lock in place and they hold carbonation pretty well. I even had caps that I didn't notice that were crooked and they held carb just as well as the other bottles.

So don't worry, It's normal that the cap comes off easily before carbonation.

While the view that screwtops will work fine is not something I'll attack I would point out to you, as a new brewer (the OP), that this is definitely a minority view. Most homebrewers who bottle, and authors on the subject, would never package their brew in anything but a crown top or flipper bottle. Do what you want; it's your brew, not mine.