The End All, Do all, Be All Capper/Corker

Has anybody found it?

The reason I ask is several fold:
I brew beer, I need to cap the standard crown caps.
I also have several european bottles that take the 29mm caps.
I have a growing collection of Belgian bottles which need a cork.
My wife wants me to start making wine, so I need a corker.

Is there a single capper/corker out there that can do all of these? I wanna cap standard 26mm bottles, 29mm bottles, cork Belgian bottles & in the future cork wine bottles. Any chance of one unit doing all this? I'm not afraid of buying different bells for it, but am afraid of having 2 seperate machines.

For you keggers: YES I know kegging would be easier, but..... I've got kegs too.. I just don't want to tie up a keg for stuff I don't drink much of.
Thanks guys. I want website links or personal war stories. My credit card is itching in my wallet!!!!

Cheers,
Zac

The agata bench capper has interchangable bells so you can buy the 29mm bell and switch them out as necessary.

For corking you'll need another piece of equipment, cappers can't do the job. A floor corker is probably where you'll wanna go with that.

The Colonna Capper/Corker should work for you. Don't have one and never used one, but from what I have found and read it works great. There is a Colonna Capper that is half the price, so make sure it says it is a capper/corker if you buy one.

I will second Evan! Go for the separate equipment. Agata and a floor capper will make you the happiest.

+1 the colonna capper/corker

I got mine about a month ago. It comes with three different size bells and a corker adapter. I haven't corked anything yet, but it does a good job bottling. I got it specifically because I didn't want to have to buy a separate corker later. I found one on sale for $50 +tax + shipping = $65 to my door. They've since raised the price to $60, so you might be able to find it a little cheaper if you shop around.

earlytimes said:

+1 the colonna capper/corker

I got mine about a month ago. It comes with three different size bells and a corker adapter. I haven't corked anything yet, but it does a good job bottling. I got it specifically because I didn't want to have to buy a separate corker later. I found one on sale for $50 +tax + shipping = $65 to my door. They've since raised the price to $60, so you might be able to find it a little cheaper if you shop around.

Click to expand...

Is that thing all plastic including the drive mechanism? That seems a little scary for longevity.

wehumble said:

Is that thing all plastic including the drive mechanism? That seems a little scary for longevity.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it's all plastic (except for the plate the bottle sits on and the lever), which was a small concern for me at first, but not after I used it a couple of times. This thing is heavy duty. I'd actually be more concerned about the light metal cappers breaking before this thing. I know Big Kahuna has the same one and he's corked with it as well and I'm sure he'd say the same thing.

I actually just bottled another batch tonight with it. No problems.

Ok, so the super colonna capper/corker it is.

Has anybody got good links for reviews of it online? What size bell(s) does it come with? Does it automatically adjust to bottle height? What about Belgian bottles where the cork dosen't go all the way in?

I googled this I swear, but can'tmuch in the way of reviews or even really solid product information.

Thanks
z

zac said:

Ok, so the super colonna capper/corker it is.

Has anybody got good links for reviews of it online? What size bell(s) does it come with? Does it automatically adjust to bottle height? What about Belgian bottles where the cork dosen't go all the way in?

I googled this I swear, but can'tmuch in the way of reviews or even really solid product information.

Thanks
z

Click to expand...

I feel your pain. I couldn't find any reviews either. I just made the plunge. It has the standard 26mm, 29mm, and 32mm I think. I'm not sure about the last one. And I don't know about your corking question as I haven't done that yet.

It's not automatically adjusting, but the bottom plate slides out easy enough to different levels. after a few batches, you'll get a feel for where to put the plate for different size bottles and it will literally only take about 2 seconds to adjust it.

I half reviewed it in this thread. Post #5.

earlytimes, actually what you put in the message was more than I have heard about it. Thanks! Now to find the cheapest place to get the capper from.... ogh boy....

Zac

HOW DO I KEEP LANDING LATE ON THESE QUESTIONS?

That Colona is the greatest thing to happen to a home brewer since hops.

It caps, it corks, it slices, it dices. Guaranteed not to rip run or snag. Make conception a wonder, and Child birth a pleasure.

But I'm really holding back....PM me if you want to know how I really feel about it.

I'm about to purchase the Ferrari Champagne floor corker I think. It handles champagne and regular cords and it can be turned into a capper just by slapping on an attachment. I think it runs about $120 and the capper attachment is about $20 so it is a little more expensive than the colona one but it seems like you can pretty much handle any task with it. I believe it fits bottles up to 1.5L. Not bad.
Champagne Floor Corker
Cheapest place I could find it so far.

BigKahuna said:

HOW DO I KEEP LANDING LATE ON THESE QUESTIONS?

That Colona is the greatest thing to happen to a home brewer since hops.

It caps, it corks, it slices, it dices. Guaranteed not to rip run or snag. Make conception a wonder, and Child birth a pleasure.

But I'm really holding back....PM me if you want to know how I really feel about it.

Click to expand...

I know this thread is old, but I was searching for corker information and came across a Chris LeDoux lyric.

Just had to say Prost!

RIP Chris LeDoux.

One of the greatest ever.

zac said:

earlytimes, actually what you put in the message was more than I have heard about it. Thanks! Now to find the cheapest place to get the capper from.... ogh boy....

Zac

Click to expand...

The Belgian beer corks are inserted Champagne-Style - which means you need a corker that can do a serious amount of compression. the Colonna has a plastic Iris, and it is not recommended for Champagne corks.

My understanding is that you need to buy the Italian Floor champagne corker, and also buy the capper for it. It is pricey.

see:
Bottle Corker - Italian Floor Champagne - Bottling & Racking - High Gravity

I would love to have the opportunity to challenge my Colonna to push in a cork, but no dice.

Chris LeDoux will always hold a special place in my heart. How can you beat "You just can't see him from the road"? Easily my fav song by him.

Shoot, wrong thread, but I still like Chris LeDoux.

de_ronde said:

The Belgian beer corks are inserted Champagne-Style - which means you need a corker that can do a serious amount of compression. the Colonna has a plastic Iris, and it is not recommended for Champagne corks.

My understanding is that you need to buy the Italian Floor champagne corker, and also buy the capper for it. It is pricey.

see:
Bottle Corker - Italian Floor Champagne - Bottling & Racking - High Gravity

Click to expand...

Are you sure? This guy seems to have no problems corking Belgians with the Colonna:
SLO Brewer » Corking Belgians

Same for this guy:
http://trilliumbrewing.blogspot.com/2008/12/belgian-quad.html

SumnerH said:

Are you sure? This guy seems to have no problems corking Belgians with the Colonna:
SLO Brewer » Corking Belgians

Same for this guy:
Trillium Brewing: Belgian Quad

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That is great that the Colonna can be used for that. That puts me in the market for buying one!

I guess the only real drawback is that for each cork, (First Guy's Step 3) - he had to undo the base of the corker, and then push the bottle out the bottom.

Thanks!

de_ronde said:

That is great that the Colonna can be used for that. That puts me in the market for buying one!

I guess the only real drawback is that for each cork, (First Guy's Step 3) - he had to undo the base of the corker, and then push the bottle out the bottom.

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Yeah, but for as often (not very) as I'd be corking Belgians I don't mind it being a little labor intensive as long as it's possible. They'd make great gift bottles.

I bet this would be a breeze with a cheap style wing corker like this one



you would just have to shove it in as far as you wanted then let go, right?
I've never done a belgian in bottles like this, I wonder if it would be good for some barleywine?

TerapinChef said:

I bet this would be a breeze with a cheap style wing corker like this one

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It _might_ work, you'd have to try it to see--the funnel-type corker requires a bit of force with Belgians so you'd probably be better off either with a bench corker (easier to apply the force evenly) or an corker with an iris (e.g. the Gilda) if you wanted a handheld.

Even if it would work, I'd have to think about it for a while. I'd like to have a second capper (I only have the red-baron wing capper at the moment) as I'm always worried about what happens if my capper breaks in the middle of a bottling session. The cheapest way for me to go would be a $25-30 hand corker and another handheld capper for $20, but the Colonna bench capper/corker is only $60 and it's supposed to be a very nice and easy bench capper rather than the handheld deal.

OTOH if all you want is to cork Belgians, then a handheld corker might work (though I'd spend the extra $5 or so for the Gilda rather than the double-lever kind). The Gilda also has the advantage that you can mod it into a floor version if you want: Gilda Corker Mods

The colonna corker is much easier than the lever corker pictured above, in terms of gauging depth and stability (the hand held is a two person corking process, one to stabilize the bottle, one to work the corker). I have read forum posts of people have had luck corking belgians w/ the Gilda, but I like the Colonna for the 1. consistent results, 2. the larger bell housing for capping champagne bottles and 3. smaller footprint than the floor corkers 4. one person operation.

Trillium Brewing

I just got the Colonna and tested it out on some Belgian bottles (cork + cage)--works fine with the caveat from upthread about having to remove the base after each bottle (not a big deal).

It caps well, too.

TerapinChef said:

I bet this would be a breeze with a cheap style wing corker like this one

you would just have to shove it in as far as you wanted then let go, right?
I've never done a belgian in bottles like this, I wonder if it would be good for some barleywine?

Click to expand...

has anyone actually used this corker for Belgians?