regarding <12oz bottles for testing/strong beers

Before bottling a test (~30 oz) batch of chocolate cherry porter, I picked up a six pack of the small 6 oz San Pellegrino Limonata bottles and when we were capping them last night, it seemed they were perhaps a slight bit narrow at the mouth. We got two of them capped, and noticed the others weren't staying on well, so we just put it in a grolsch. A couple questions.

Anyone bottled in San Pellegrino bottles before and capped them successfully? They are ridiculously nice, small, and convenient bottles and it would be nice to have them around for odd situations like a test batch, or perhaps a mead/apfelwein.

Is this something a bench capper would handle better? There was a thought that the two-handled capper wasn't able to "grab" the bottom lip.

If not, have you bottled in extra small bottles, and perhaps what might be some good options? I find myself noticing so much more product on the shelves of the grocery store now that I started to brew, and the San Pellegrino's seemed to be such a good option...

P.S. The cherry flavoring is rich, and even flat, sweet, and warm, I could have drank a couple. My neighbor was thinking it would be a good beer replacement in his Guinness ice cream recipe!

I've used small coke bottles for barleywine before. I just don't like that they are clear and I can't get the label/print off.

ohrinet said:

Is this something a bench capper would handle better? There was a thought that the two-handled capper wasn't able to "grab" the bottom lip.

Click to expand...

I've had this issue with wing cappers. Some bottles just don't have a large enough collar for the capper to grip. The bench capper doesn't have this issue.

are there different size caps?
are there different size bottle mouths?

i've noticed there are alternative "bells" for the bench capper types, but is it standardized with those two sizes or is it just a mixed bag.

i had the idea that if it was carbonated, and wasn't screw top, you could recap it (especially with a bench capper) and bottle condition...is that not correct?