Flip top bottles

ok so i have had my first brew sitting in the fermenter for about 18 days. I ended up ordering 12 1 liter flip top bottles from monsterbrew.com cause that was the most cost effective way of getting the bottles i needed. ( didn't find out till later that there was aplace here to get grolsh but that's another story) got the bottles today and thought " hell, i'll just put on the flip caps tonight then sanitize and bottle tomorrow night after bio lab is done" first bottle.....the neck broke cutting the crap out of me. is there a specfic trick to getting these things on right or am i gonna need to spread out all of the wirre tabs that slip into the holes on either side of the neck? any info on assembling these things would be appreciated

Interesting. There is another thread on here posted a few weeks ago as well with someone that ordered fliptop bottles and the necks broke whenever he tried to close them, and again wondered if there is a trick to it.

There really isnt a trick to it. I wonder if the swings are too small for the bottle, or the rubber gasket is too large/hard or something.

Ill try find the thread.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/help-these-bottles-236828/

Looks like its the 1L monster brew bottles causing the problem then. Send em back.

the solution was:

"Figured it out, the stopper thing in the case I just opened was slightly smaller and they work perfectly.

The first case has the wrong stoppers included, would have been nice to know before breaking a **** load of them and injuring myself, but it is what it is."

Id be pretty angry that this is happening more than once and they arnt solving the problem and customers are getting hurt.

ok got ahold of monsterbrew and i guess what they are going to do is send me an entirely new case of what he said were called ez caps. from what they guy said they are a slightly different design of the flip top bottle and are supposed to come pre assembled. they are also going to send me what is supposed to be the proper flip top assembly for the botles i have and if they work then i can get replacements for these bottles they sent. looks like they are doing what is proper to try and make things right. will let you guys know how things end up. am still kinda pissed cause now i have to rack out of my primary , clean it and sanitize and rack back in cause i don't have a secondary and didn't plan to use one. was really looking forward to getting my first brew bottled this afternoon as far as getting hurt i did cut my hand a couple times and the guy kinda freaked out over it saying that he wanted to get me the different bottles and caps so i wouldn't hurt myself again lol

Where in AZ can you get grolsch bottles?

well i can get them at Western Drug in their liquor and beer section...but that is the only place i have found short of going to Flag or Pheonix not sure how many western drug stores there are in the state...or even if they are a chain

My wife just went to the beer store and asked if they had any empties in back, i guess they hang on tot hem until they have a butt load. She got them for 10 cents each, just pay back the deposit.

AZbrewer1 said:

well i can get them at Western Drug in their liquor and beer section...but that is the only place i have found short of going to Flag or Pheonix not sure how many western drug stores there are in the state...or even if they are a chain

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How much does grolsch run? Just wondering how it compares to buying the empty ones.

Acoma said:

Where in AZ can you get grolsch bottles?

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Basha's sold individual bottles but that was a pain to accumulate them! I found that Total Wine sells them by the case, so I picked up one of those to help me along. I have a case of brown 16oz EZ cap bottles that I bought as well and in my opinion they are unreliable compared to the Grolsch bottles. Some of them were fine, but probably half of them didn't seal completely and allowed CO2 to leak.

AZbrewer1 said:

...now i have to rack out of my primary , clean it and sanitize and rack back in cause i don't have a secondary and didn't plan to use one.

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Why can't you just leave it in primary until you are ready to bottle?

Sorry you got hurt over this. I'm glad to hear they are making things right.

+1 I always leave my beer in primary for a month. Then straight to keg. I left an apfelwein in primary on yeast for 3 months and it was the best batch yet.

They ignored my emails after a point, so i guess you get lucky.

I was under the impression that to leave the brew on the yeast cake much after 2 weeks could cause off flavors and such. that's why i was going to take if off of it until bottling. and shawman, screw email...i called monsterbrew and let them have it. email is too easy to ignore. it has been my experience that anytime you have ordered something and they screw it up a phone call gets loads more results. as far as how much those grolsh bottles run. my local western drug hsa them for 1.99 for a single. they don't sell the 4 packs or whatever size grolsh comes in. it's really about the same as ordering empty ones from some place but hey if you buy the grolsh ones they come full of beer

Ill just chime in here as well....

I leave beer at least 3 weeks on the yeast cake, somepeople have due to unforseen circumstances, heart surgery etc, left it there for 6 months or longer without problem.

I think that if you dry hop you shouldnt leave it there for months, but if its just the yeast cake no harm no foul.

Originally bought 1 liter bottles from midwestsupplies and had no issues except the fact the metal swing tarnished when I sanitized in starsan. Now I use idophor for the swing top and starsan for the bottle.
Now I buy grolsch and figure for about 25 cent more my bottle comes with beer.

I've been using 1 liter EZ-Cap swing tops for quite a while now, only ever had 1 problem & that was with one bottle blowing the bottom off. I think it was just a flaw in the glass on that one bottle as nothing else was wrong with that entire 6 gallon batch.
IMHO, swing tops ROCK!!! :rockin: At least the EZ-Caps do. Regards, GF.

Just leave it in primary, will probably help the brew more than hinder it, let the yeast do some of their own cleanup. I generally do 3 weeks in primary then bottle/keg but I do 1 month a lot.... sometimes a couple months if I'm busy (but I don't recommend that)

I have a guy on craigslist with 16 green grolsh bottles with ceramic tops and 20 replacement gaskets, wonder how much I should offer him.

RugerRedhawk said:

I have a guy on craigslist with 16 green grolsh bottles with ceramic tops and 20 replacement gaskets, wonder how much I should offer him.

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$1 a bottle? See how much he wants.

kapbrew13 said:

$1 a bottle? See how much he wants.

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lol just offered him $15 for 16 of them, and he said he wants closer to $6 each!

Good luck with that one.

RugerRedhawk said:

lol just offered him $15 for 16 of them, and he said he wants closer to $6 each!

Good luck with that one.

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Lol! Pure Insanity. New 32 oz are around $2 from Midwestsupplies.

kapbrew13 said:

Lol! Pure Insanity. New 32 oz are around $2 from Midwestsupplies.

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He says he sees them going on eBay for $6.... I don't think he knows the difference between 'going for' and 'fishing for'. Oh well. I'll throw that $15 into my keg setup fund. I also updated my wanted ad to specify $0.50 - $1.00 each depending on size, color, and condition for future sellers

RugerRedhawk said:

lol just offered him $15 for 16 of them, and he said he wants closer to $6 each!

Good luck with that one.

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You can buy them full of beer for half that!

Actually, a local store has Grolsch in swing-tops, individual bottles are priced at 2.09 and 4 packs at 8.59 (And yes, I am fully aware that makes no sense, why would it be cheaper to buy them individually?)

dorklord said:

You can buy them full of beer for half that!

Actually, a local store has Grolsch in swing-tops, individual bottles are priced at 2.09 and 4 packs at 8.59 (And yes, I am fully aware that makes no sense, why would it be cheaper to buy them individually?)

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Curious, do they have plastic tops on them now? It makes no difference to me, but he specified that they are the ones with porcelain tops. I don't think I've seen it locally, but really haven't looked too hard.

RugerRedhawk said:

Curious, do they have plastic tops on them now? It makes no difference to me, but he specified that they are the ones with porcelain tops. I don't think I've seen it locally, but really haven't looked too hard.

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I'm sure all the new bottles have plastic tops, and I think at some point, they got smaller (used to be 16.9, now they are 15.2 or something).

dorklord said:

I'm sure all the new bottles have plastic tops, and I think at some point, they got smaller (used to be 16.9, now they are 15.2 or something).

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That's what I thought. Which is why I was willing to go as high as $1 each mostly for the novelty, probably closer to $0.50 for the newer ones.

the guys on ebay are ripping people off that's for sure. i get them for about 2 bucks full of beer. and yeah the new ones have plastic tops now but i don't see how that would make a difference. thanks for the info on the brew sitting on the yeast cake. i will just let it be until the new bottles come in and i am also working on building up my collection of grolsch 15.2oz bottles. ahh...if only all work was that enjoyable

AZbrewer1 said:

the guys on ebay are ripping people off that's for sure. i get them for about 2 bucks full of beer. and yeah the new ones have plastic tops now but i don't see how that would make a difference. thanks for the info on the brew sitting on the yeast cake. i will just let it be until the new bottles come in and i am also working on building up my collection of grolsch 15.2oz bottles. ahh...if only all work was that enjoyable

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Yeah, I think this guy is going to have those bottles setting in his basement for another 20 years dreaming about the $6/bottle that they're "worth".

RugerRedhawk said:

Yeah, I think this guy is going to have those bottles setting in his basement for another 20 years dreaming about the $6/bottle that they're "worth".

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20'years. Then he can justify the price as antiques. Lol

I love the Grolsch flip tops - the contents not so much.
As a side note, I've noticed as well that the EZ-Cap bottles are kind of touchy when you seal them. If it isn't seated properly it won't hold the carbonation. I've had this happen a few times and now am very attentive when bottling with them.

I just got 24 of the brown Grolsch bottles with ceramic lids for $.50 each. 12 bucks total. He delivered them so I gave him a round 15(and I hate asking for change).

Waiting on my gaskets to come, as these had obviously gone by the way side, but otherwise they are in great condition and am very excited to use them.

I use the 1 liter EZ cap bottles too and they run me about 32 bucks per case of 12 at the LHBS.

Anyone else have problems with the metal part of the swingtop tarnishing? Mine are white in spots and the white stuff flakes off.

kapbrew13 said:

Anyone else have problems with the metal part of the swingtop tarnishing? Mine are white in spots and the white stuff flakes off.

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What are you using to clean? PBW and the like will do that to metals sometimes if left too long. Mine have not tarnished. Even my 15 year old bottles are tarnish free....

jd3 said:

What are you using to clean? PBW and the like will do that to metals sometimes if left too long. Mine have not tarnished. Even my 15 year old bottles are tarnish free....

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Thanks. I l've used PBS and oxyclean. Does starsan tarnish the swing tops also?

kapbrew13 said:

Thanks. I l've used PBS and oxyclean. Does starsan tarnish the swing tops also?

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SO far I have not had any problem with that. Using Pbs or oxyclean just don't let them sit too long. If you need to soak the bottles for a long time, pop off the lids.

jd3 said:

SO far I have not had any problem with that. Using Pbs or oxyclean just don't let them sit too long. If you need to soak the bottles for a long time, pop off the lids.

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Ah, thanks. I see where I went wrong.