Major Score

My wife's uncle used to do alot of homebrewing back in the day. He hasn't brewed in over twenty years. Well, my first batch was brewed for his birthday, and named after him (Crazy Uncle Crinson Ale). One day he tells me that his old brewing stuff is still around and he is going to dig it up for me some time.

Last weekend, we were having a beer at his place and he drags me out to the polebarn to "see what's left of the brew stuff". He drags this old box out and says take what you want, toss the rest. There was some junk (20yr old hops, old caps with cork seals, etc). I was able to salvage two hydometers, a three piece air lock, and some bottle brushes. At the bottom was the real gem...




Score! Its an old cast iron "big ben" bench capper. I tried it out, and it seems to work well. Last night I was bottling my Winter Warmer and used my twin handled Red Baron to cap most, but capped a six pack with the Big Ben. It seemed to seal well. I will test them, and it they carb properly it will become my primary capper. I will probably knock some of the rust off and give it a coat of paint, but overall...its a great score. From what I can tell online, it looks like its from the mid 1920's! Uncle Lee said he bought it for $0.50 about 40 years ago! Made my weekend, I tell ya!

-Todd

Score dude! Bench cappers rock. Most of the new ones on the market today have a lot of plastic on them - no where near the durability of the cast iron gem you have. I'll bet it weighs a ton. Hold on to that puppy.

Prosit!

Yeah...I am just waiting for my plastic capper to break at the worst possible moment. I have half a mind to buy a back up capper because it seems like just the kind of Murphy's Law event that I can count on happening.

That's some unit. And the price was right!

that's a good idea. my buddy broke his capper a few years ago after only sealing up a 6er of his batch. He stuck the bucket out on his balcony (it was January and very cold) immediately, bought a new capper the next day, and then finished the bottling job that evening.

Just hearing his story made me go out and buy a second capper 'just in case'.

-walker

I volunteer time over at a local brewery occasionally and when the capping machine takes a dump, guess what they use: That exact model.
It kicks butt, and if I bottled more, I'd have one.

Good find!

You should make a lambic with those old hops!!!!

Yeah - I've got the same kind. Works darn well.

I picked it up with a bunch of other junk when a local antique store went out of business and had a "all you can fit in a box for $5" liquidation.

The 'gear shaft' should snap out to allow for changing the handle position, for different height bottles. It uses a sprig loaded ball check. I thought mine ball was just peened in, and thought I would file it off to replace with a pin to allow the adjusability. One stroke with a file, and the red paint unstuck the ball, now it snaps in and out, like changing a socket on a ratchet. C-clamp it to the table to use. I've broken one bottle in 300 with it...

Have fun!

SUPER SCORE!!! so what do ya want for it???? hahahahaha

That is pretty neat. I have one that looks like that but for corking wine bottles. I wonder if I could modify it for beer capping?

insco2 said:

SUPER SCORE!!! so what do ya want for it???? hahahahaha

Click to expand...

I wouldn't sell it for anything. I capped two cases of Phat Tyre on saturday in about five minutes. I love this thing.

casebrew said:

The 'gear shaft' should snap out to allow for changing the handle position, for different height bottles. It uses a sprig loaded ball check. I thought mine ball was just peened in, and thought I would file it off to replace with a pin to allow the adjusability. One stroke with a file, and the red paint unstuck the ball, now it snaps in and out, like changing a socket on a ratchet. C-clamp it to the table to use. I've broken one bottle in 300 with it...

Have fun!

Click to expand...

Actually, the handle itself slides out and can be repositioned. I have it set right now for 12-oz bottles, as thats all I use (aside from 16oz blue flip-lids.).