Twist bottles

I am not sure how i missed this drinking 4 cases of Henry Weinhardt's, but I just found out they are twist tops

On the up side, they do look a little thicker than other twist off caps that I have seen.

Is sealing going to be my main issue? Breakage, because the threads are a little thinner? Do standard caps work, or do I need to buy special ones?

I dont want to waste 4 cases worth of bottles, but I also dont want to waste half of my brew to glass shards and spoilage due to leaks

I have been taught that the bottles' necks can't take the strain.....but have heard of others using them to some success (not sure about long term). Safety first, man.

Look at it as an excuse to buy some more good beer before you brew.

Your biggest problem is going to be sealing them. The threaded tops often make it difficult to get a good tight seal with your caps. Then you risk losing all of the CO2 out of the bottle, or having the cap blow off while carbing.

The caps will fit... I've done it on accident before. But, you'll have flat beer since 90% of the time, it won't seal right.

if you own a bench capper you can probably get them to work.
if you own a wing capper you're probably SOL

100% success with a bench capper here.

I mistakenly had some twist-offs in my bottling days. Never failed. I just did it like a normal cap, and it was no problem. I was always nervous about it, and I always drank the twist offs first, but they were always just like the rest of the batch.

are there any exceptional bench cappers? i was considering one anyway, but it looks like theres only 2 to choose from from every brew store online, and they both have pretty medicore reviews. they range from "omg, this thing is awsome" to "its ok, but it broke after a few months"

i use this one http://www.midwestsupplies.com/bench-bottle-capper.html

its works very well. I can see how it could break/not last as long as it should. But they made it with cheap plastic parts like they do everything else. If you aren't super rough with it it should last long enough to justify the added cost vs. using a wing capper(which sucks in comparision).

If you're willing to spend slightly more, this one:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewi...ing/bottle-cappers/colonna-capper-corker.html
will do regular caps, the larger European caps, wine bottles, and (with a little fiddling) Belgian corks. The one thing it won't do is full-size champagne corks.

Worth considering if you think you might ever want to cork things (I always do a few bottles of my bigger beers in Belgian bottles to give away as gifts).

Suthrncomfrt1884 said:

The caps will fit... I've done it on accident before. But, you'll have flat beer since 90% of the time, it won't seal right.

Click to expand...

same here didn't pay attention and bottle a sixer of 22oz twist offs, 2 held the pressure. The rest.........

SumnerH said:

If you're willing to spend slightly more, this one:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewi...ing/bottle-cappers/colonna-capper-corker.html
will do regular caps, the larger European caps, wine bottles, and (with a little fiddling) Belgian corks. The one thing it won't do is full-size champagne corks.

Worth considering if you think you might ever want to cork things (I always do a few bottles of my bigger beers in Belgian bottles to give away as gifts).

Click to expand...

I'll put in another vote on the Colonna. I've capped 100s of twist-offs without a single bad one. Some people comment against the plastic construction, but trust us, it's not an issue.