Which beers use pop tops?

I am currently brewing my first batch and collecting bottles. When I go to buy beer I can't tell which beers are twist offs, and which are pop offs, is there a method to identifying this without buying one of each? I am currently buying Sam Adams, great beer, but am wanting to mix it up a bit. Does anyone know of any other decent, cheaper beers I can switch off with while collecting bottles?

pulp26 said:

I am currently brewing my first batch and collecting bottles. When I go to buy beer I can't tell which beers are twist offs, and which are pop offs, is there a method to identifying this without buying one of each? I am currently buying Sam Adams, great beer, but am wanting to mix it up a bit. Does anyone know of any other decent, cheaper beers I can switch off with while collecting bottles?

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Just look clsoey at the ridge of the caps. THere will be a definite spiral to the shape indicating they're twist off.

Many caps are also labelled as twist off.

Cool, thanks BierMuncher!

I found that Sam Adams labels seemed to come off a lot easier than other varieties i tried. Just a quick soak in some hot water and they will just peel right off.

Pretty much anything imported, few American brews aren't twist off. Sam Adams is pretty much the only one, Sierra Nevada, and other micro-brewers but they are clear.

I've been buying a lot of Moosbacher, they are Grolsh style bottles, but brown.

Mix it up with Sam Adam's if you can't find anything else they brew, Black Lager, Brown Ale, Octoberfest. Winter Lager, Spring white, Summer something, Hef, Holiday Porter, Old Feziwig, + the regular fair and others I can't remember right now.

Here's a couple of other domestics Pete's & Sweetwater

Most of the Micro Brew beers I have bought come with pop top bottles. As far as Sam Adams goes, look around for their mix packs, they will come in 12 pack cases, they have a great seasonal one out at the moment with two of each, Oktoberfest, Winter Lager, Old Fezziweg, Cranberry Lambic, Holiday Porter, Cream Stout and Boston Lager. They also have another good mix pack out with Boston Lager, Black Lager, Honey Porter, Scotch Ale, Brown Ale and Boston Ale. Its a good way to "taste test" their brews.

I concur that the Sam Adams bottles are some of the easiest to deal with in terms of label removal and capping. Other domestic microbrews usually use pop-tops as well. Be careful with some of those imports, they may be pop-tops but many of them have a small bead that makes it harder for your capper to grab and crimp-depending on your capper.

By far the easiest label removal/capping bottles are from New Belgium Brewing Company. Soak the bottles in a little TSP and 5 minutes later the labels will be floating on top of the water

Also the worst: Amstel Light (somebody left at my house, I swear). They have the plastic sticker labels that are pretty much impossible to remove and capping is not any easier.