Bit of a bottling oversight

[Ogri]

Went to bottle a 2.5 gallon batch of Dopplebock last night and as soon as I tried to cap the first bottle I realised I was going to have to come up with, and switch to, a hasty back up plan.

I'd been harvesting my empty bottles of Wychwood brewery's HobGoblin, Wychcraft, Fiddler's Elbow and Goliath for bottling a batch and last night was supposed to be their debut. Also, yesterday was my first time bottling using glass bottles and a capper, successfully bottling a 2.5 gallon batch of IPA a couple of hours earlier. Soon realised that it wasn't going to happen. Not last night anyway. The problem is that these bottles have a really extended, spherical-ish, section running down the neck that's totally different from the Chimay, Rochefort, Maredsous, Carolus, Duvel, Bishops Finger, Spitfire, Fuller's etc etc, every other beer bottle I've got.

The clamp part of my winged bottle capper hooks on half way down the, sort of, spherical shaped section and just slides up and off so there's no pressure coming down on the cap to crunch it closed. I'm wondering if, other than a bench capper, there's any other less expensive cappers that'll work with these bottles?

Anyone out there that's used the Wychwood Brewery bottles for homebrew??

 

[Skyforger]

There are a variety of bottles that don't work with an ordinary capper. You learn quickly which those are.

There are cappers that have rubber clamps instead of metal ones; they advertise that they work on any bottle. I haven't tried to use one so I can't verify; I just keep bottles I know will work.

 

[RM-MN]

I have a policy that if the capper I have won't work on a bottle, I throw the bottle away. Life is too short to deal with defective designs no matter how cute they are.

 

[Ogri]

Thanks guys

Yeah, I started harvesting these bottles before I even got my wing-capper so was totally oblivious to the possibility of non-compatibility.

Oh well. You live and learn.

Cheers,

 

[Challenger440]

I did a similar thing once with Heineken bottles. I was going to use them for a cider, spent a couple hours getting the labels off (they must use super glue or something), just to find out they don't have anything for the capper to latch on to in order to clamp. Suck!

 

[RM-MN]

I did a similar thing once with Heineken bottles. I was going to use them for a cider, spent a couple hours getting the labels off (they must use super glue or something), just to find out they don't have anything for the capper to latch on to in order to clamp. Suck!

My Red Barron will cap Heineken bottles just fine but it seems to take a little care getting the capper back off. I've had other bottles that it won't grip at all.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Also, be sure to use only the pry off bottles. The twist off necks are thin and usually break after a few uses.

 

[Ogri]

I did a similar thing once with Heineken bottles. I was going to use them for a cider, spent a couple hours getting the labels off (they must use super glue or something), just to find out they don't have anything for the capper to latch on to in order to clamp. Suck!

Hahah, I'd just spent a couple of hours sanitising them before my Homer Simpson "Doh!" moment. Luckily enough I still had loads of odd bottles kicking around so sanitized and made do with them.

 

[boist]

This is one of the many reasons that I switched to a bench capper.

BTW: Heineken bottles (At least the ones in my part of the world) are some of the easiest bottles to get the labels off: Just leave them overnight in a bucket of water

 

[unionrdr]

A bench capper would be the choice for those bottles. Bench capers don't grip the neck to press the caps on. So it's a non issue at that point. I've had trouble with Smithwick's & Saporro bottles,with the shape of the collar under the lip on the end. I go to pull the Red Baron off it,& it hangs up on one side. But not enough to break the seal.