I feel so dumb!

I'm sorta mad at myself for this one. Total brain fart.

I called my local brewery to see if they'd sell empty bottles to a homebrewer. They said sure, for $9 a case, plus they'd give me free caps. Sounds good.

I go and the brew master gets the bottles and caps. I pop them into my truck, talk to him for a bit about brewing, then head home.

My brother just got home. he walks in, takes one look at the two cases of bottles, and says, "Why did you buy twist off bottles?"

WHAT!?

It didn't even occur to me for a second that 1) a small brewery was bottling with twist offs and 2) the brew master wouldn't think twice about selling them to a homebrewer. Especially considering he even gave me caps...

I feel pretty dumb and a bit angry that I wasted the money.

On a side note, it made me wonder why is it we can't use twist offs, but they are okay for breweries to bottle with? I'm assuming it has something to do with the pressure, and the cap will shoot off or something?

Some people use them but I think you need a bench capper to cap them properly.

Clann said:

Some people use them but I think you need a bench capper to cap them properly.

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Oh, so with a bench capper I can use these? Hmmm...maybe worth a look at ebay.

Yeah, it's really just about the seal. Industrial cappers do a great job or, as said above, a bench capper. I personally hate them because they remind me of how much I hate lazy people.


At any rate, what brewery was this that has twistoffs? I'm very curious.

HopsJunkie said:

Yeah, it's really just about the seal. Industrial cappers do a great job or, as said above, a bench capper. I personally hate them because they remind me of how much I hate lazy people.


At any rate, what brewery was this that has twistoffs? I'm very curious.

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It's Barley Creek Brewery: http://www.barleycreek.com/

They are very small and don't even bottle to distribute here any more (that's why they are selling the bottles). I may go for a bench capper just so I can use these...though I do prefer pop top.

There's quite the possibility they didn't know they had them. I know mistaken bottle shipments happen, especially to small guys. I'd call and ask to make sure that's what they meant to have/give you before buying a bench capper....def cheaper to replace the bottles than buy one of those.

HopsJunkie said:

There's quite the possibility they didn't know they had them. I know mistaken bottle shipments happen, especially to small guys. I'd call and ask to make sure that's what they meant to have/give you before buying a bench capper....def cheaper to replace the bottles than buy one of those.

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That's a good point. I'll give them a call tomorrow. Though I did find an old bench capper on ebay for around $9 shipped...isn't too bad. But I'll see what he says. I have a feeling he just never home brewed and has no idea we don't generally use twist offs.

Can you take them back and tell them they gave you something you did not want?

NRS

NorthRiverS said:

Can you take them back and tell them they gave you something you did not want?

NRS

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I could try, it's just sort of a pain (for me *and* them), over $18. I have to deal directly with the brew master, and he has all the bottles offsite in a trailer, so I'll be pulling him away from the pub for the refund.

My options are to do that, or try and find a cheap bench capper. I'm leaning towards the second option since most of what I'm reading suggests it's okay to cap twist offs with a bench capper.

What are your opinions on this? Am I better off just trying to return the bottles?

Thanks

IMHO, just hit up Craigslist. I put out an ad looking for free or cheap pry off bottles. I got about a 1/2 dozen people looking to cash in on their empties, but I also had a few people offer me cases for free. I ended up with about 200 bottles without paying a dime.

Frankly, with how paranoid and perfectionist I am with brewing, I'd just ditch the twistoffs. The sheer disappointment I'd feel on opening a homebrew to no carbonation is worth tossing them, in my opinion. I mean, who wants to bottle a brew(tedious task) and only have half of them hold the seal and actually carbonate. It's a damn shame, a damn shame.

Just my opinion,

Cheers!

I have seen too many twist off bottles with chips on the threads. When you use a bottle opener on them you may damage the threads, which damages the holding ability of the caps during re-use. I tried a six pack of twist offs just to see if it was possible. Even with a bench capper two of them came out without carbonation, each had chips on the threads.

Awww crap. I was hearing so many good things (or at least neutral things) about capping twist offs, I was starting to think it'd be fine. There was even an article on Brew Magazine online that said it's fine with a bench capper. But if so many of you had problems with it... Damn.

I have used twists offs on my bench capper many times. Regardless of the caps used, you can twist them off (in my experience) so you don't need a bottle opener and they have never failed me with carbonation. Try a few filled with water or even empty and check out the seal.

If you want I can cap a few tonight and post pics for you!

Germelli1 said:

I have used twists offs on my bench capper many times. Regardless of the caps used, you can twist them off (in my experience) so you don't need a bottle opener and they have never failed me with carbonation. Try a few filled with water or even empty and check out the seal.

If you want I can cap a few tonight and post pics for you!

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Thanks! That's really nice of you to offer. I don't have the bench capper yet, but I did try capping with my wing capper (before I read it has the potential of breaking the neck of the bottle). We capped two bottles, and they both seemed to have a pretty good seal. I pulled on the caps and the didn't pop off or anything, but they did come off fairly easily with a twist (which I supposed they should).

By the way, here's a couple pics of the bottles I got. Maybe it makes a difference?

Thanks again

We actually capped a few with a wing capper for fun on one batch. The only reason a wing capper is more dangerous is it looks for somthing to grab. Since twist offs don't have a ridge there like bench cappers, they are known to decapitate bottles occasionally. Never happened with us, but I will admit it is very possible!

Germelli1 said:

We actually capped a few with a wing capper for fun on one batch. The only reason a wing capper is more dangerous is it looks for somthing to grab. Since twist offs don't have a ridge there like bench cappers, they are known to decapitate bottles occasionally. Never happened with us, but I will admit it is very possible!

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Yeah, that's what I read too (after trying it!) That's why i was looking for a cheap bench capper. Ebay actually has a whole lot of old/antique cappers for prices like 8-15 bucks shipped. If I can get one for that price, I'll probably give it a shot, though I most likely won't do a whole batch in all twist offs, just in case.

We'll see...

That is exactly what I have. One of my bench cappers is 60 yeasr old, and the other is 30. Grandfather made his own ketchup and bottled it in coke bottles. My dad brewed using very crude methods before I was born!

Your other option is to find a hot little bartender at the local bar that has a lot of craftbrews and ask her to save you a case or two after a sat. night instead of chunking them in the garbage. Not only will this score you some free bottles, but may even get you laid if you sparj up good conversation and she gets interested and wants to come over and try some of your homebrew!

I have capped twist offs successfully using a standard capper. I'm not advocating using one or anything, but twist offs have worked fine for me in the past.

I've capped twistsoffs with a hand capper too. One went crunch and broke during the process so far. But the others have fared well under some reuse and have mantanied carbonation.
While you can sometimes get the non-twists from people/ebay, if bench cappers are cheap enough, then it could be worth getting one, just because you can then use any bottle that uses the standard cap size. Makes it easier when you or someone buys beer that you can't really hand cap. Like I had a friend drink some this past weekend Stella Artois that I won't be able to wingcap, but would be able to benchcap.

Have capped thousands of twist-off bottles with bench capper. Have yet to open a flat bottle. Mind you up here in Canada our bottles are pretty tough

Thanks for all the responses!

Germelli1, I'm glad to hear the old ones work well. I was a little worried about it, but it sounds like as long as it's in "functioning condition" I shouldn't have a problem. And I'll save a good $30 going with an old one over the new models.

boomtown25, well hell. I'm going to do that either way!

Soopa, good to know. It's sounding more and more doable to me.

KevinM, I'm thinking about getting the bench capper one way or the other. That way, in a pinch, I could always cap some twist offs if need be, though I'll focus on getting mostly pry offs in the future.

osagedr, Shweet! I think these bottles I bought are pretty heavy duty. They look thick and like decent bottles. Plus, they've never been used yet anyway.

So it's sounding like capping twist offs is doable, so long as I'm careful, use a bench capper, and make sure to twist the tops off so I don't chip the glass with a bottle opener.

I can deal with that.

Hmm be careful with twist offs. I have a bench capper from the 60s and I am known to be over zealous when capping. Long story short one of the threads was chipped, when I was yanking down to cap the bottle exploded and my hand went in the shards. A trip to the ER followed shortly with a number of stitches.

I have recycled all my twist offs and moved to crown top and kegging.

DeNomad said:

Hmm be careful with twist offs. I have a bench capper from the 60s and I am known to be over zealous when capping. Long story short one of the threads was chipped, when I was yanking down to cap the bottle exploded and my hand went in the shards. A trip to the ER followed shortly with a number of stitches.

I have recycled all my twist offs and moved to crown top and kegging.

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Yeesh! Sorry to hear it. If I go forward with this, I'll be sure to take precautionary measures (like wearing a baseball mit!) :cross:

HopsJunkie said:

There's quite the possibility they didn't know they had them. I know mistaken bottle shipments happen, especially to small guys. I'd call and ask to make sure that's what they meant to have/give you before buying a bench capper....def cheaper to replace the bottles than buy one of those.

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On brewmasters this year Dogfish got a shipment of twist offs and bottled a bunch before realizing it. they ended up giving it to the employees since they weren't sure of the seal

JeepDiver said:

On brewmasters this year Dogfish got a shipment of twist offs and bottled a bunch before realizing it. they ended up giving it to the employees since they weren't sure of the seal

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Yeah, I actually looked into it and Barley Creek really does bottle (or used to at any rate) twist offs. The simplest solution really probably is just bringing the bottles back for a refund. It just sucks because I'm back were I started, and I still need bottles for this weekend.

Jtc2811 said:

IMHO, just hit up Craigslist. I put out an ad looking for free or cheap pry off bottles. I got about a 1/2 dozen people looking to cash in on their empties, but I also had a few people offer me cases for free. I ended up with about 200 bottles without paying a dime.

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Hey, so I took your advice, Jtc2811. I put an ad up for bottles on Craigslist. I offered a tiered price guide based on a few factors, and an hour later got a response!

I stopped by the guy's place today and got 52 Grolsch swing tops for $16. Pretty sweet deal I thought, especially considering I've been buying swingtops at yard sales--1 at a time--for $1 a piece.

In the ad I offered $4 per 12 swing tops, or $5 for 12 if they were clean and delabled. Some of his were a bit moldy inside, so I gave him a little less.

Anyway, great idea.