Why Wing Cappers Won't Always Work

I've been bottling for 5 years and have seen a bunch of threads on wing vs. bench capper and people asking why their wing capper won't cap some bottles

I bottled a bunch of beer in Corona bottles when I first started out and then found that my Red plastic capper wouldn't cap them. They crimped and then were so loose I could flip them off with my thumb. I saved the day by unscrewing my capper bell and hammering it over the caps to fully crimp them.

The reason for the problem is that different bottles have different neck ring heights. I've measured up to a 3/8" difference in heights. The wing capper grabs the lower neck ring and uses it to pull the capper bell over the cap, crimping it.

Less neck ring height means that the crimper bell doesn't go as far down over the cap and thus, a less crimped cap. I went to a bench capper years ago because I have many different types of bottles

Here are a few pics showing what I mean

My standard red capper


You can see the difference in the neck rings on L->R, Modelo, Pils Urquell, Newcastle. The PU bottle won't cap at all with the wing b/c the bottle neck is as fat as the lower neck ring. The Newcastle style neck ring is the best style for wing cappers


Modelo and Newcastle have 1/4" difference in neck ring height


A Modelo bottle capped. The right side is flared up--not fully crimped. This cap was actually fairly tight. It may (or may not) have sealed

The red capper do have a tendency to break or malfunction at some point during use. I read about this in the review section of the Northern Brewer website for this capper. The black ones have a stronger track record in case you are looking to replace your current one.

Why do u use clear and green bottles? Dont say its all you have available. Distributors will sell you bottles back at 5c a bottle.
Light will skunk hops very quickly and IMO it tastes horrible.
Beers like corona can be bottled in clear glass because of the small amount of hops used in brewing.
If not 95% of brown bottles ive come in contact with have the correct lip for wing cappers. I would advise you to get more of these at it will affect the taste of your beer less but like i said almost be 100% universal for a wing capper.

EDIT: i own both and the red beauty is BY FAR much sturdier and stronger than the black baron regarding the post above

I had a problem with "Red" capping short (Green Flash) bottles. Bought a vintage bench capper and moved "Red" to back-up duty.

Bottled one batch with black beauty. It was terrible...snapped right through the neck of one. Ordered a bench capper and never looked back. The bench capper is really a must if you want to bottle in 22 or 24 oz bomber style bottles or shorter necks like Abita.

Using the $15 Emily hand-held capper I've bottled over a dozen batches with a variety of bottles and haven't found a beer bottle yet that I cannot cap - sure it's a bit tricker on bottles with short lips such as Bass Ales, Pils Urquell but it works and they're capped so tightly that I cannot get them to turn.

That really makes a lot of sense

I've never had an issue with my red capper, but most of my bottles come from either Great Lakes or Bells with a smattering of New Belium bottles in there as well...

Johnnyhitch1 said:

Why do u use clear and green bottles? Dont say its all you have available. Distributors will sell you bottles back at 5c a bottle.
Light will skunk hops very quickly and IMO it tastes horrible.
Beers like corona can be bottled in clear glass because of the small amount of hops used in brewing.

EDIT: i own both and the red beauty is BY FAR much sturdier and stronger than the black baron regarding the post above

Click to expand...

First, when I open a Modelo bottle I had better get that awesome skunkyness that what I am buying it for.
Second, I agree with the red capper. Had mine for probably 10 years and works just fine. But some bottles with short necks like red stripe pose a problem some times too.

Johnnyhitch1 said:

Why do u use clear and green bottles? Dont say its all you have available. Distributors will sell you bottles back at 5c a bottle.
Light will skunk hops very quickly and IMO it tastes horrible.
Beers like corona can be bottled in clear glass because of the small amount of hops used in brewing.
If not 95% of brown bottles ive come in contact with have the correct lip for wing cappers. I would advise you to get more of these at it will affect the taste of your beer less but like i said almost be 100% universal for a wing capper.

EDIT: i own both and the red beauty is BY FAR much sturdier and stronger than the black baron regarding the post above

Click to expand...

I know this is off-topic, but it's not the small amount of hops used but their use of reduced hop extracts. Even tiny bits are enough to get all skunky. It's the bittering agent that's been made inert that keeps those clear bottle beers happy in the sun.

I've got a red capper and it's worked well for me, even on twist-offs. Just my 2-cents.

I have a red wing capper and back when I first started I had trouble on some bottles. I've settled on Sierra bottles and that's all I use. Had to buy a lot, but shoots they make great beer and what more could I ask?

I see what you're saying. I mean, you've got full color digital pictures and everything. But, I've never had these problems.

My capper is the plastic red wing capper and I've capped Modelo, Corona, Red Stripe, Lindemans lambic, metal bottles and even Mexican soft drink bottles. No problem.

Mine is 6 years old. Maybe there was a design change at some point.

RCCOLA said:

I've been bottling for 5 years and have seen a bunch of threads on wing vs. bench capper and people asking why their wing capper won't cap some bottles

I bottled a bunch of beer in Corona bottles when I first started out and then found that my Red plastic capper wouldn't cap them. They crimped and then were so loose I could flip them off with my thumb. I saved the day by unscrewing my capper bell and hammering it over the caps to fully crimp them.

The reason for the problem is that different bottles have different neck ring heights. I've measured up to a 3/8" difference in heights. The wing capper grabs the lower neck ring and uses it to pull the capper bell over the cap, crimping it.

Less neck ring height means that the crimper bell doesn't go as far down over the cap and thus, a less crimped cap. I went to a bench capper years ago because I have many different types of bottles

Click to expand...

What you've found is crown caps/bottles are manufactured in two cap sizes, 29 mm and 26 mm. Most US bottles take a 26 mm crown cap, others take a 29 mm cap. The "jaws" on the red capper can be pulled out and reversed to crimp 29s, but the bell may need to be changed out.

I've run into these problems.

A friend and I also broke a LOT of twist-offs (due to the thinner glass at the top) for some of his batches. And that meant wasted beer because we were concerned about little bits of glass enough to not transfer those to other bottles.

Bottling was always the part of brewing I didn't really like. And I absolutely hated it when I was using a wing capper. The experience has been significantly better since I got my bench capper. The thing is good quality and even corks as well. And it didn't even cost THAT much. Certainly not enough to justify sticking with a wing capper, especially now that I know first-hand how much better bench cappers are. As far as I'm concerned, wing cappers are some real stone age crap. I'll never use one ever again.