Pop-top mystery.

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Keither

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Well, I decided to buy some nice "pop top" bottles to put my beer in. I just opened the fourth bottle that didn't carbonate. I brewed a pilsener a while ago, and the first two that I opened were completely flat. All the other ones were perfectly fizzy. Then, I opened a bottle of stout I brewed a couple of months ago. Flat again. The next two were fizzy, then another flat one.

Each time the beers in question had been in the bottles for at least three weeks, and each time MOST of the beers were carbonated perfectly, except for two individual bottles which weren't.

At first I thought it might be possible I forgot to put sugar in a couple of them, but now I don't think so.

Has anyone else had sporadic trouble with carbonation in pop-top (grolsch-type) bottles? Are the gaskets letting the CO2 out when I put them in the fridge?

The good news is, the flat beer is still pretty good, it's just a little disappointing. Maybe I'm going nuts and forgetting to sugar all the bottles. I hope this doesn't keep happening!
 
Well, it requires pressure to force the bail down and compress the seal, so I thought they were seated properly. I'm wondering about it now of course. I examined one of the stoppers and it looks like at some point they did release some pressure, because there is a little beer stain around the seal. Maybe they aren't sealing properly. What a nuisance. I was going to age a coupe of the stout bottles for a long time; now it's hard to decide whether to bother or not because I don't know if they are carbed or not.

There was a slight amount of sediment on the bottom of one of the flat bottles, which makes me think the priming sugar WAS fermented at some point.

I thought of adding a bit more sugar and trying again, but instead I just drank the flat beer.
 
dunno what to say - all of my fliptops are used, all of them have replacement seals i installed (Except the one that came with a silicone seal), and i've never had that problem.
 
I just did a search for "swingtop bottles" on the forum, and encountered several other posts by people with the same problem. Looks like I will have to maybe tighten the bails and make sure there is no mold lines on the plastic stoppers. This seems to be causing the trouble.
 
I am fortunate enough to have access to all the flip top bottles that I need over here in Germany. I replace the rubber gasket every few brews, depending on the condition of gasket. The gaskets are really cheap to buy at any of the online HB super stores. I have never had a bottle not carbonate while practicing this routine.
 
A buddy of mine got some of these pop tops, They were made from some hard plastic and he gave me half of them.
After a few days of using them i noticed they had actually popped back up. So the bottles were leaking co2.
I took all of them off and replaced the bottles with good quality tops.
The reusable pop tops were useless, I put mine into the garbage..
 
No problems here...your suppose to replace th gaskets every 5-6 brews or when you see where but most of mine are getting up to 10 brews with no issues. What size are they? Most are 16oz and will take longer to carb.
 
Ever thought of looking in to "Batch Priming"? It is lots easier and you won't miss a bottle when you do it this way.
 
When the gaskets start leaking they do it slowly and not all of them do it in the same amount when they do. This causes exactly what your seeing.

If you have E-Z caps you can still crown them if in a pinch or you can get red rubber lathe-cut gaskets at just about any brew shop. I've used them because I have yet to find the OEM gaskets. The replacements are inexpensive but they don't hold up nearly as well and they smell strongly like rubber
 
Batch priming is the way to go, can't miss any bottles that way. I've been using EZ-cap swingtops (1l size) for a couple years now, never had any issues with them. I love 'em.
Regards, GF.
 
Going to try batch priming. I think I will look at the bottle stoppers too though. I think some of them are leaking.
 
If you are certain that you are carbing correctly (batch prime, proper temp, time, etc) then mark the bottles that don't carb with a sharpie...if after a few batches the same bottles are not carbing you have to replace them. I see many people don't like the rubber gasket replacements, I too am not a fan. A more expensive alternative it that you can buy the entire swing top replacement, they are usually 12 for $8...but I bet you can find cheaper.
 
Keither said:
Going to try batch priming. I think I will look at the bottle stoppers too though. I think some of them are leaking.

Batch prime is what I think most bottlers do. Just Be sure and get a sanitized spoon and gently stir in the bottling bucket with no splashing. Even if you dissolve the prime in boiling water( which you should) it will drop to the bottom unless stirred in. That would cause you the same problem you started with.
 
I bought some brand new EZ Top bottles to use for my first two batches and had the same problem both times. Some would be carbonated and some would be flat. The regular capped bottles that I also used had no problems so I know it was not the batches. I will never use these again to bottle my beer. Good news is they make good hops containers if you are buying in bulk and don't have a heat-sealer.
 
For the record, while I don't use them exclusively - I love my flip top bottles and would never stop using them.
Send me the ones you don't want. : )
 
Good news! I've discovered why the bottles lost pressure. It seeped out along the mold lines in the plastic caps. Every beer that has been flat has had prominent flash lines on the plastic: the smoother ones are fine. I'm going to use a hobby knife to scrape off the plastic ridge, and they should all be fine.

Watch out for this if you buy new flip-top bottles.
 
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