Oxygen Absorbing Caps = No Carbonation?!

Has anyone used these before? This is very important.

I recently capped a high 10% beer with these caps and they didn't carbonate. I blamed the yeast mostly. It's been 3 months and no carbonation.

I recently used these caps on a different, lower ABV beer and they didn't carbonate either.

Has anyone has similar results with using these silver caps?

Please report.

I've done maybe 10-12 batches with them. No problems. Sorry.

I've done at least half a dozen, no issues.

I had a batch that was way over-carbonated with those caps. Maybe you are not storing them warm enough.

Haha, thanks for the quick responses. These will be good enough to put me at ease. Makes me wonder why only my brews that were capped with those didn't carb properly though. Very strange stuff.

What type of capper are you using? I capped a batch using a wing capper and it was not carbonated. So I uncapped them and tried dropping the gravity a bit by refermenting the beer (I was sitting at 12%). They had sat in the bottles from Jan until Mar and there were NO signs of carbonation. Then in March I got an itch and dumped it all back into a fermenter (had a high FG and was ansy to bottle). So I uncapped them all gave it a dose of WLP099 and let it go for 10ish days. Got my gravity down and rebottled. Now only a month later they were perfectly carbonated but this time I capped with a bench capper.

smokinghole said:

What type of capper are you using? I capped a batch using a wing capper and it was not carbonated. So I uncapped them and tried dropping the gravity a bit by refermenting the beer (I was sitting at 12%). They had sat in the bottles from Jan until Mar and there were NO signs of carbonation. Then in March I got an itch and dumped it all back into a fermenter (had a high FG and was ansy to bottle). So I uncapped them all gave it a dose of WLP099 and let it go for 10ish days. Got my gravity down and rebottled. Now only a month later they were perfectly carbonated but this time I capped with a bench capper.

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They are capped fine and everything. Nothing really wrong with the process. I think I've pretty much nailed it down to temperature. See here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/high-gravity-aging-bottle-conditioning-172046/

I've done two high ABV brews, and they both took a lot longer to carbonate. The best advice that I heard was from Revvy, who told me to roll the bottles around on a table about once a week for a month or so.

That said, I was just about to start a thread about that exact same thing. I've used oxy barrier caps for my last two brews, and they both took at least a week longer to carbonate. I was wondering if it had to do with the caps, too.

I certainly hope they don't cause issues as I used them for the first time on my NHC entries. I know you're supposed to soak them first, but I tok care of that with the sanitizer soak.

I've done a handful of batches with the Oxygen caps and havent had a single problem either.

I'd have to say that I do thing the caps play some sort of roll in the lag time of carbonation. I hope they aren't absorbing co2 for some reason (though that wouldn't seem to make sense). Maybe it just makes the environment that much harder for the yeast, especially yeast that have been under stressful conditions in high abv brews.

Alright, I am reviving this thread to report that I did a batch of Nutbrown and randomly placed regular caps and OA caps on the bottles. The Oxygen Absorbing caps don't have nearly as much carbonation and seem to be less than half way along than the regular caps. Priming sugar was evenly distributed and all bottles/beer was from the same batch/carboy/bottling bucket. I can now say that oxygen absorbing caps have proved to influence two batches of my beer. I have no idea why this is happening or what contributed to these factors, but I can say with full confidence that I WILL be avoiding these types of caps in the future.

Did those two batches ever get carbed up after waiting?


Maybe Revvy invented the O2 barrier caps to help n00bs WAIT on their dam beers to avoid threads about drinking green beer and why their beer isn't carbing.

It's all a conspiracy...

I've bottled some batches with both oxygen scavenging caps and regular caps. I have never noticed a difference. The caps I do notice a difference with are the 29mm caps that go on champagne bottles. They always seems a little less carbonated than my smaller bottles. It's been like six months by the way so its not a waiting problem.

DavidSteel said:

Alright, I am reviving this thread to report that I did a batch of Nutbrown and randomly placed regular caps and OA caps on the bottles. The Oxygen Absorbing caps don't have nearly as much carbonation and seem to be less than half way along than the regular caps. Priming sugar was evenly distributed and all bottles/beer was from the same batch/carboy/bottling bucket. I can now say that oxygen absorbing caps have proved to influence two batches of my beer. I have no idea why this is happening or what contributed to these factors, but I can say with full confidence that I WILL be avoiding these types of caps in the future.

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It could be the brand of oxy caps you are using. I source mine from two different places and one of them suggest I warm them in hot water prior to capping to soften the seal.

That said, I have never done that and both types of oxy caps have always provided consistent and full carbonation for me.

smokinghole said:

I've bottled some batches with both oxygen scavenging caps and regular caps. I have never noticed a difference. The caps I do notice a difference with are the 29mm caps that go on champagne bottles. They always seems a little less carbonated than my smaller bottles. It's been like six months by the way so its not a waiting problem.

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Yea same here, sometimes I think it's a myth that regular bottle caps fit over US champagne bottles because every time I've tried I've gotten a bad seal and inconsistent carbonation. Even martinelli cider bottles give me trouble, and its such a shame because my barleywine looks awesome served from one.

Time will tell, but I used the O2 caps on my last stout and I cracked open a bottle after only 7 days and it had a little psssst and some carb. smoke (I don't know what the correct term is) already. Hopefully they continue to carbonate.

Wanted to report that the regular caps have come along nicely while the OA caps are a little behind. They are carbing, just a few days behind schedule. So weird. These caps have made some sort of psychological impact on me and I'll avoid them in the future for nonsensical reasons on my part.

MetallHed said:

Maybe Revvy invented the O2 barrier caps to help n00bs WAIT on their dam beers to avoid threads about drinking green beer and why their beer isn't carbing.

It's all a conspiracy...

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I loled pretty good.

And for my first batch (and the original post), no they didn't and I had to re-cap them. Unfortunately, I thought I may have not primed the beer so I added fresh yeast and primed it again. Terrible idea. Now I have some champagne IIIPA. It's not bad, but it's not ideal either.. I had to rush them to the fridge and I still have half of the batch. Great (expensive) brew, just a tad bit TOO carbonated. I'm also happy to note that I capped them with regular caps after I re-bottled them.

I should really invest in a kegging system...

I think the likely cause here is oxygen deprivation. Yeast uses oxygen to replicate itself when it detects sugars; when there is no oxygen in the beer (i.e. when you use oxygen-absorbing caps) the yeast cannot replicate, and so it carbonates the beer much slower. When it can replicate, more yeast is made and carbonation happens more quickly. Unfortunately, all the oxygen is rarely used and so with non-oxygen absorbing caps the beer usually (in the absence of good bottling technique, and warm/fast fermentations) goes stale eventually. This is the great trade-off with these caps. They are definitely better for long-aged beers; for younger ones, it's a bit more complicated.