Did I screw up capping? Picture inside

I was looking at the picture I took of my capped bottles, and noticed that some caps look bent. How can I find out if my caps are tight and are keeping the CO2 in?



The plastic Mr. Beer bottle is there for me to monitor to carbonation.

Yeah, those don't look good. How long ago did you cap them? I would have popped them open and recapped them as soon as I noticed the dents.

Capped on Sunday, took a picture and put it in the closet. I was looking at the picture again today, and noticed the bends.

Damn, I am at work and won't be home for another 7 hours.

Careful there Hulk!

What did I do wrong?

What kind of capper did you use?

Usually they are pretty easy to use, but to me is looks like that the stem inside the capper was too long. On some cappers, the stem is adjustable. Shorten it if that's the case.

M_C

I am pretty sure it's Red Baron

There was no manual with it, but I think I know what you mean about the stem. I'll check it out tonight.

The Red Barron should never leave a dent.

However, I do have an old metal capper that does leave an impression dimple in each cap. The edges still stay nice and clamped down.

If your caps are slightly bent, then you may have problems. If they are just a little dimple, no big deal.

Just drink those first!

As you can see from the picture, they are bent.

They've been carbonating from about 2 days now, so I am weary to replace the caps.

How can I find out if the seal is good? Will just flipping the bottle upside down and seeing if there's a leak be enough? Should I submerge the bottle in some water and see if there's any bubbles coming out?

Pixalated said:

How can I find out if the seal is good?

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Shake it (once it's carbonated). You should see bubbles. If yes, shake it some more and hold it near your ear, do you hear leaking? Hopefully No. Good, now drink these bottles first so your friends don't tease you.

I like that idea, thanks. The plastic bottle seems to be getting harder, so I know there's carbonation happening.

Hypothetically, what happens if a lot of bottles are un-carbonated? Can I just gently pour them back into my bottling bucket, add some priming sugar and re-bottle?

I've got a butterfly capper similar to yours but metal. It always leaves a circular dent on top of each bottle. I had the opposite problem you had, some of my first batches over carbonated to the point of puffing up the cap.

Just put one in the fridge for a few hours to cool, then open and recap, should not gush...

If you press down too hard you can leave dents in the middle of the caps like that. I have never dented them that bad, though! As long as the 'teeth' are wrapped securely around the bottle top I wouldnt worry.

Oh, I pressed down as hard I could. I guess I'll go and look for a proper way to use a capper

Pixalated said:

Oh, I pressed down as hard I could. I guess I'll go and look for a proper way to use a capper

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no need to really press down hard at all... act as if the handles are a stick you are trying to break in half.

Ok, that's a good tip. Before I started capping my beer, i tried it out on a few bottles, the cap looked good, so I went to town.

Simplest way to answer your ORIGINAL question as to how to determine if they are sealed is to leave them on their sides for a few days as they bottle condition. If you get seepage/leakage you have a problem. If after a week or so everything is dry, they are sealed.

Pretty simple, right ?

Sounds like a good idea. I'll do that tonight with all my suspect bottles.

Are you sure they are bent? Could be the lighting in the picture.

I am not 100% sure, and I am kind of hoping it's just the lighting. But, I saw this early in the morning, so I have had my entire workday to obsess over it.

I get the dents once in a while. It happens when I use bottles with a small gap between the top of the bottle & the ridge on the neck where the capper grabs onto to pull the cap down. Sierra Nevada bottles are like that I think?? Cheers!!!

I am using 12 Siera Nevada bottles. As a matter of fact, I specifically bought two 6-packs of the stuff because I liked the shape.

How did you deal with the dents? Do they leak CO2?

I'd spray some starsan solution on them and see if any bubbles start to form. Starsan is like soapy water and should make for a pretty decent leak checker.

If you don't have starsan, you need it.

Pixalated said:

I am using 12 Siera Nevada bottles. As a matter of fact, I specifically bought two 6-packs of the stuff because I liked the shape.

How did you deal with the dents? Do they leak CO2?

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They didn't leak but they weren't dented quite as much as yours are. I'd try a couple of the ideas above ^^^ to test them. Here are a couple of pics of bottles I was talking about. Cheers!!!

Good Bottle


Not so Good Bottle

I don't have any starsan, I used iodophore for sanitation last time. I think what I'll do is just fill a sink with water and submerge a bottle in it.

Pixalated said:

Sounds like a good idea. I'll do that tonight with all my suspect bottles.

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And also, for what it's worth....

Grip your sealed bottlecaps with a dishcloth and try to turn them. You most probably can. BUT you can also grip and spin the cap on just about any factory beer. (not talkng about screw offs of course).

Point being, try to grip a factory beer and see how hard it is to twist the cap on the neck, just to get a point of reference. It's surprising how easy some of them turn on the rubber gasket. If yours are as tight or tighter, you are probably ok.

Looks like water droplets to me.

Stop worrying. If you end up losing 4 beers, just say a few nice words about them and drink the good ones. Then be more careful next time.

Sorry if I sounds freaked out. Maybe there needs to be a sub-forum here titled "Panicking about my first brew/bottling/kegging session"

Pixalated said:

Hypothetically, what happens if a lot of bottles are un-carbonated? Can I just gently pour them back into my bottling bucket, add some priming sugar and re-bottle?

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Although not the most pleasant of thoughts, yes. This is what I would do. I am not too keen on wasting beer.

I think I know what you did: You pressed down on the capper somewhat hard while operating the handles. You hardly need to press down at all.

M_C

Does you capper have a little magnet underneath it to hold the cap while you press down? i know i have a black wing style that has one. check to see if that is in the correct place. looks like that is what happened.

Whenever I capped bottles with my wing capper, they always had little circular indentations on them like that. I haven't had carbonation issues with any of them.

I think the solution is, as in most cases, RDWHACB. I wouldn't do anything other than that.

Wow, 4 pages? I looked at the bottles yesterday, and the bend might have been the trick of the light. Some of the caps look wierd on the side, but when i flip the bottles upside down, i don't see any problems. I will RDW (can't HAHB yet, since it's my first batch).

What about putting a balloon over the bottle to see if it blows up. That would tell you if it is leaking wouldn't it?

It will make my brew closet look very festive! If I try that, i'll be sure to post a picture.

that would be a sight

You created a "black hole" brew. The gravitational force within is trying to suck the cap into the bottle.