EZ caps give funny taste

OK,

So when I started brewing I bought EZcap bottles because I thought a little more money on the front end would cost less in the long run because I would not have to buy caps each time I wanted to bottle.

My first batch of beer went horribly wrong. I brewed a Hefe-Weizen with the help and advice from my seasoned brewer friends. I went a head and washed all bottles thoroughly and washed the caps. I bottled and about 4-5 weeks later ( I was testing 1 bottle at a time every 4 days after the 1st 2 weeks) My beer had not carbonated and still tasted very sweet. I am assuming that my yeast stalled and most of the sugar was not converted to alcohol. OK now on to my question.

I loaned my EZcap bottles to my friends when we were finishing bottle a few of our group homebrews which were activated properly with yeast.

We bottled in both bottles and EZcaps. We tried last night and the beer in the bottle came out just fine. The beer in the EZcap came out a little flat but had hints of the same sweet taste I experienced in my first horrible batch.

I am wondering a few things. How much does a plastic EZcap change the flavor of the beer? Is contamination much easier to happen with the way you have to handle the caps before you place them on the bottle and cap them, as opposed to a regular bottle capper where you place the bottle cap on the magnet in the capper and place over the bottle and seal.

Since the same beer was in both bottles and we got a wierd taste only out of the EZcap bottles, I am suspicious to buy/use more and return all my EZcaps for bottles. The savings on bottles caps is not as big as I estimate and almost negligible.

All comments are welcome. What do you think could give both bottle types such a significant difference?

-TR

Assuming that you washed and rinsed them properly, your EZ-cap bottles will not have caused an off flavour. I have used tons of them along side standard American longnecks with crown caps, and there is never a difference.

One thing to note, however -- sometimes bigger bottles take a little longer to carb up. Did you let them sit at a warm temperature long enough (1 - 2 weeks) before chilling them (another week)?

My biggest concern when you say it's still sweet smelling implies that you didn't reach full attenuation before bottling. Did you hit our end around your FG?

It could be that for one reason or another, the seals on the EZcaps aren't on the bottles quite right. You could always take the rubber grommets off, wash em, and put them back on to make sure they have a firm seal on the lip of the bottles.

When I bought my easy caps, I tested them with soda. Several didn't have a tight seal so ordered 100 extra seals and put double seals on all the caps. So far it seems to have worked fine. The way I look at it is that for an extra $0.02/bottle I bought myself some insurance.

I bought a case of 1L EZ caps and have never had a problem with them. You may not have properly sanitized everything, thats my only guess. Although infections are rarely "sweet" tasting.

I do agree with the idea that swing tops do not make life easier though. I find capping my bottles faster than setting the swing tops. I do reaaly like that nice POP you get with the swing tops though.

Guys,

Thanks for all your feedback and sorry for the delay. I was not getting e-mailed when replies were posted.

To answer all your questions.

This will refer to the "test batch", in which we brewed a great Red Ale and bottled in both EZcaps and regular 22 oz bombers with metal caps.

1) Did we let the beer sit enough? Yes 2 weeks in the carboy, then proper racking at proper warm temperatures (around 68 degrees F). Then bottling

2) My first batch I did, I found out the yeast stalled and thus there was a lot of sugar left. This gave a sweet taste and yielded little or no carbonation and fermentation. Please disregard my first batch as a litmus test for this conversation.

3) Sanitization may have been an issue and when I open the Red Ale side by side in a few days I will have a true test. I will post back with my results.

4) Verdict. I am about 90% sure I am going to take back my unused EZcaps and switch to 22 oz bombers. The "Pop" effect is cool but not worth the risk and time. My current bottles that have been used I may expirment with on a 1-5 bottle basis on each batch. Right now I just want to get a good batch done and this is one variable I can control.

5) Any good hints on a grea Hefe-Weizen recipe or Dunkel Weizen? I really love wheats (I know, please no flaming). I will probably post in the recipe forums. Seems every wheat batch I have done, the yeast stalls. I think I need to get into culturing and over pitching in order to do an effective wheat beer.

6) Just started playing with Pro Mash. Any good forums for how to use this software? lots to learn.

--TR

TeleRiddler said:

1) Did we let the beer sit enough? Yes 2 weeks in the carboy, then proper racking at proper warm temperatures (around 68 degrees F). Then bottling

Click to expand...

But how did you let the bottled beer beer carb up? Were the bottles in a nice warm place for 2 weeks before chilling? Did you let them go a full 3 weeks before trying them? For larger bottles, I would think 4 weeks might sometimes be necessary, particularly if your yeast were spent.

OK,

So my buddies drank the comparison bottles so I am afraid I don't have much to report. They said that the recipe seemed to have been bad and did not turn out as well as they had liked. They said you could not tell much difference between the EZ-Cap and regular metal cap bottles.

I have decided to take back the 4 cases of EZ-cap bottles and trade them in for 22 Oz. bombers instead. I will keep my original 4 cases and bottle with a few each time I make a future batch just to see how they taste. If they regain my trust I will use them again.

Thanks again for all your feedback.

--TR

So everyone here tells you that the bottles won't cause off-flavours. Your buddies who drank them say they didn't taste any different. Now I bet when you go to the LHBS they will tell you the same thing.

Why do you mistrust them again? LOL

Hi, SPACE ACE here, are the ez caps you are referring to the "Grolsch swing-top" type , or are you referring to the plastic ez caps that screw on to a soda type bottle ,that have a vent in them to release pressure build up ,but allow you to ferment, and carbonate in the plastic soda,PET type bottles. I have used the swing tops with great results, and have just ordered the ez caps(vent type) and will also give them a try. You might just want to try replacing the rubber seal ,if you are using swing tops, as some smell(and probably taste) better than others. Also you might want to remove them and soak them in sanitizer, before replacing them, and soaking the whole aparatus,as maybee there was contamination beneath the washer. soaking might also help the washer loose any foul taste ,if any . If possible see if anyone offers food grade silicone washers(like the material all the new baking pans, utensils are now made of ,..Hope this helps,..ACE...

Hi there,
I bottled a case of a trappist ale using a Grolsch type bottles and a case using regular air-tight caps. The air-tight bottles carbonated wonderfully and the ale is darn near as good as what comes across the pond. Meanwhile, I popped open a Grolsch-type bottle and found almost NO carbonation. Opened another bottle, same thing. Any tips that point me in the direction of a solution would be appreciated! I'll let you know how the swing-type tastes at four weeks (this weekend).

key info:
Batch reached appropriate final gravity
Bottles stored for three weeks (~55 F) prior to opening
Both air-tight and swing-type bottles were opened at the same temperature (~55 F); the air-tight were fully carbonated while the swing-type had almost no carbonation.

Thanks,
Pablo

how do you carbonate? glad to see you put up a new post.

sidewinder02132 said:

Hi there,
I bottled a case of a trappist ale using a Grolsch type bottles and a case using regular air-tight caps. The air-tight bottles carbonated wonderfully and the ale is darn near as good as what comes across the pond. Meanwhile, I popped open a Grolsch-type bottle and found almost NO carbonation. Opened another bottle, same thing. Any tips that point me in the direction of a solution would be appreciated!

Click to expand...

How big were the capped bottles? Standard 12 oz? Remember that larger bottles take longer to carbonate. 4 weeks is the MINIMUM I would wait.

Re hola!
I primed with 3/4 C sugar from the LHB. I'm surprised that these bottles take so much longer to carbonate than my 21 oz, capped, bottles. It'll be a fun experiment to see how much carbonation there is this weekend on those big boys.

Also, did you use new gaskets on your swing top bottles or were they old ones? Additionally 55ºF is a little cool and might take another week or so to carbonate properly. Hope everything carbs up properly for you!