Has Sam Adams Changed bottles

[starrfish]

Was helping a buddy bottle last night and we broke 3 Sam bottles while capping. 1 full out broke at the neck, 1 Cracked, 1 chipped. I used to use a lot of sam bottles... but I think I may be trashing any new ones I've gotten recently.

In all my years of brewing I've only chipped 1 bottle, but to have 3 in one session is weird.

Anyone else experience this

Using a Red Baron hand capper...

 

[annasdadhockey]

Could it be the capper that is going?

 

[starrfish]

Don't think so. capper is tight no play... not that old. had 12 sam bottles in this batch and they are the only bottles it happened to. also the lip of the sam bottle looked thinner than some microbrew bottles we where using.

I could pick out the sam bottles standing above the bottles by the thin lips.

Buddy said he broke one while bleaching them too. clanked against another bottle and broke.

 

[waldoar15]

IDK, I'd say 30% of the bottles I use are Sams and haven't had any problems. But, It's been a few months since I've bought any of their beer.

 

[starrfish]

These all came from the new winter seasonal.

 

[Baldy_Beer_Brewery]

I quit using Sam Adams bottles long ago. I never broke one capping, but I had several break while opening. They just aren't as strong as some other.

The best bottles IMHO for reuse are Sierra Nevada bottles. The labels remove easily and they seem a bit heavier. I like everything SN has to offer better than SA anyway.

 

[lmg95]

i think there's just a lot of variation in glass production quality... i remember while bottling a batch I'd go from barely being able to see the liquid level to nearly being able to read a paper through the glass.

perhaps its a bad batch of bottles from that lot of Sam Adams.

 

[javajo91]

I was breaking bottles as well while using a "Black Beauty capper"

I use Bass ale bottles and some SA. If you look at the SA bottles compared to the Bass (European) you'll notice that the space between the ring on the neck and the top of the bottle is wider and required more pressure cap than the Bass. Same is true for the SN bottles which i've also used
With that said...I think my capper lost its gripping ability. If you look underneath where the steel "O" grabs the neck mine was worn..was no longer an "o"... more like an oval..
I cracked about 3 bottles of Oatmeal Stout in one session. I was crying!!
I made due by wrapping a moist paper towel around the neck of each bottle as i capped it and that got me through the batch.
Next day i called Grape and Grannary where i had purchased the capper and they sent me a new one at no charge.
The new capper worked like a charm on both types of bottles - both American and European...but the USA bottles still require more force.

I recently just bought my corny kegging kit so no more bottling for me!!
More time brewing and drinking!

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

I have a lot of SA bottles in my collection, and it seems like there are random bottles that are really tough to cap, but there's no consistency. My girlfriend and I polished off and reused the bottles from both the harvest and winter collections. Two or three bottles were really tough to cap and I'm surprised we didn't break them, but all the rest were really easy going.