twisting on old twist off caps

In a week or so I'll be bottling my first brew (AHS American Wheat) and I'm still collecting enough to store it all. My step-dad has got a few dozen shiner bottles (twist offs) with the caps. He's been telling me I can just twist the old caps back onto the bottles.

Is this effective? I would worry that you wouldn't get a good enough seal for a bottle conditioned beer, but at the same time it seems to be the same concept as the PET bottle, which I know people use for bottling homebrew.

Thanks, and this is a wonderful forum.

You can take your chances if you want, but I wouldn't. There aren't enough threads on them to make a good seal IMHO.

Don't do it. Twist off bottles are not made to withstand the pressure of bottle conditioning and may either blow off the cap or worse yet, the glass may blow up. You need to use pry off bottles and recap them with a capper and blank crowns.

http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2009/08/27/5-home-brewing-tips-to-avoid-the-dreaded-bottle-bomb/

Thanks fellas. That's what I was thinking, just wanted some reassurance. Back to the bottle search.

You can't really twist a crown cap back on a twist off bottle. The cap isn't threaded like the bottle so it doesn't inter lace. When a crown cap is applied it is crimped on and pressed against the threads. I'd have to guess when you twist it off the bottle the threads allow you to easily overcome the crimp. Not something you'll restore just by screwing the cap back on.

i've heard you can cap twist-offs with new crown caps if you have a bench capper (bench capper b/c you can get a better crimp). I've not done it, but you could maybe try a few and post your results. Or just drink some pry-off beers before you bottle and re-use those

Just be patient. It won't hurt to let your beer sit in secondary a few more days while you drink a few more beers to make room for storage.

Here in Canada, we still use returnable twist off bottles to bottle beer with. The thicker glass makes this possible vs the thin glass south of the border.

As for reusing the caps. No, they are a one way trip I'm afraid. You might get lucky and have lots of them seal, but why take a chance ?

I OFTEN recap a twist off bottle with the cap. Keeps the bugs out and carbonation in. I have been wondering if they would work that way for new beer. Can't see why not, if you are using the same twist caps.

But if the bottles won't handle the pressure of conditioning beer, then it's probably not a great idea.

On my first batch, one of my bottles was twist off (damn you, Blue Moon!), and I capped it before I realized (I was using a wing capper). I decided to let that bottle be an "experiment".

Two weeks later, the cap popped off sometime while I was at my friend's house. I came home to find it on the floor next to my bottles. No damage done, but I know to inspect all my bottles before bottling now

Of course, this is all moot once you have a good stock of your own bottles. I was just getting started and grabbing any bottle I could get my hands on.