Bottle necks breaking!?!?

Brewfist said:

I utilize a variety of bottles and handle them all the same regarding cleaning, storing and sanitizing. Last night when cracking open a few to taste our latest batch of Imperial IPA, I literally broke off 3 bottle necks in a row! I almost started to cry by the third one since again I had to dump the contents down the drain for fear of glass shards!

Has this happened to anyone else with any frequency? When popping the cap off, the whole neck breaks!

Thanks!

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I had a batch I made for Xmas that had 10 or so casualties like this. I have noticed certain brands are OK to use and others are not. Any Sierra Nevada bottle works well for instance but Real Ale Fireman's#4 does not. Neither do any from the Blanco Brewery, which is local to Central TX. Redhook is another great brand to use, have bottled at lest 20 different batches using the same 5 12pcks and it helps that they have cool looking bottles. After having lost beers myself to this issue, I only use bottles from a brand I know will work so for your next batch, enjoy the Ruthles Rye Sierra Nevada and save on the worries of broken necks.

I just finished bottling a Pumpkin Ale and had the same problem using a metal-framed, two handle capper. I had gotten through almost a case of bottles when one broke, then 6 of the next 7 broke. I am not sure what caused the first one but I think it left minute glass shards inside the capping mechanism which then put excess pressure on the subsequent bottles. I ran the capper under a full stream of water and finished capping without incident. Anyway, that's my 2 cents!

Makes you want to cry... I threw away the wing cappers, switched mostly to kegging, but when we bottle, use the ferrari lever capper! Problem solved, so far!

SNL19067 said:

I just finished bottling a Pumpkin Ale and had the same problem using a metal-framed, two handle capper. I had gotten through almost a case of bottles when one broke, then 6 of the next 7 broke. I am not sure what caused the first one but I think it left minute glass shards inside the capping mechanism which then put excess pressure on the subsequent bottles. I ran the capper under a full stream of water and finished capping without incident. Anyway, that's my 2 cents!

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