Reusing bottle caps?

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Moezart

Moezart

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Hello everyone out there.
So, my stock of caps is running low and kI am trying to see if anyone out there have reused bottle caps before with any degree of success?

I ask this because I have no way of getting bottle caps for now!
Thanks a lot.
 
OK - nope, never have. I imagine that if they were clean, no rust and boiled for 10-15 minutes, you could get away with it.

That or you could wait a few days and order some -
 
Metal crimp caps?
A cap removed with a regular opener will have a crease in it, unless you carefully pry it off all the way around until it lifts off. If it gets creased it will never seal again.
Or use one of those Sentol type openers?
 
Any brewery around or other place that bottles? They may give you some.

I'm really curious why you can't get bottle caps right now.
 
Your the guy that posted a pic with arabic, right...so...do they sell screw cap plastic water bottles or anything?

edit: speaking of which i need to look up that thread of 'having' to malt your own....
 
bracconiere said:
Your the guy that posted a pic with arabic, right...so...do they sell screw cap plastic water bottles or anything?

edit: speaking of which i need to look up that thread of 'having' to malt your own....
Click to expand...
Hey! I sometimes buy plastic soda bottles, empty them and use them, because their caps seal better than those of water bottles. But I leave that as a last resort really. I prefer glass plus it does not look good when you give a home brew as a gift in a soda bottle.

About my other post. I think I found the problem, not sure yet but most likely the off flavor I am getting is from a copper fitting I have used to hold the spigot on my fermenter in place. I should find out once I bottle this batch.
Thanks!
 
bracconiere said:
wouldn't you? lol, and he said it in the malting thread....i think the normal punishment is flogging though? balls, balls, man!

i'll have to google the law there now....
Click to expand...
What are you talking about??? Alcohol is not illegal in Tunisia... Hell, more than half the country are alcoholics... You got Tunisia all wrong buddy! There is just no home brewing culture is all!!! But as far as drinking... ****... People here drink like fishes...
 
Make friends with a brewery. They may be your greatest resource (and friend) ever!
MaxStout said:
it might be worth the expense to have Northern or Morebeer Fedex a bag of them to you,
Click to expand...
bpgreen said:
Do you have Amazon prime? You can get a bunch of caps in a few days for a few bucks.
Click to expand...
If the OP only puts his location in his profile, those kind of answers could be easily avoided.

So, @Moezart, could you please enter at least your country in your profile?

If you don't want to reveal your country, Northern Africa will suffice as a general area, alas perhaps too broad for specific answers in some cases.
 
Moezart said:
Hey! I sometimes buy plastic soda bottles, empty them and use them, because their caps seal better than those of water bottles. But I leave that as a last resort really. I prefer glass plus it does not look good when you give a home brew as a gift in a soda bottle.
Click to expand...

If it's a choice between "looking good" and "having an availability of bottles that can reliably hold carbonation," I'd vote for the latter. PET soda bottles are excellent for bottling homebrew, you just have to be more careful about keeping them away from light. The caps reseal, it's easy to tell when the bottles have carbonation, they withstand several volumes of CO2 if you ever want to bottle condition highly-carbonated beers. Besides, most serious beer drinkers pour into a glass, so who cares what kind of bottle it came in?
 
IslandLizard said:
Make friends with a brewery. They may be your greatest resource (and friend) ever!


If the OP only puts his location in his profile, those kind of answers could be easily avoided.

So, @Moezart, could you please enter at least your country in your profile?

If you don't want to reveal your country, Northern Africa will suffice as a general area, alas perhaps too broad for specific answers in some cases.
Click to expand...
The problem is not me not mentioning my country. The problem is judgemental people's comment that are fueled by simple lack of knowledge... Aka ignorance. People should not jump to judgment, they should just answer the "simple" question...
 
MaxStout said:
The caps reseal, it's easy to tell when the bottles have carbonation, they withstand several volumes of CO2 if you ever want to bottle condition highly-carbonated beers. Besides, most serious beer drinkers pour into a glass, so who cares what kind of bottle it came in?
Click to expand...
Not to mention, relatively break resistant and lighter than glass. I haven't bottled in plastic, yet... but the thought of packing plastic instead of glass in and out on a camp or hike is very enticing.
 
Moezart said:
What are you talking about??? Alcohol is not illegal in Tunisia... Hell, more than half the country are alcoholics... You got Tunisia all wrong buddy! There is just no home brewing culture is all!!! But as far as drinking... poopy... People here drink like fishes...
Click to expand...

sorry?

Moezart said:
The problem is not me not mentioning my country. The problem is judgemental people's comment that are fueled by simple lack of knowledge... Aka ignorance. People should not jump to judgment, they should just answer the "simple" question...
Click to expand...

whoa now man, there's all kinds of 'foolish' people on the internet, like me....But i still think my idea of reusing soda pop bottles is a good one...what i did for a long time for traveling with beer...
 
Moezart said:
The problem is not me not mentioning my country.
Click to expand...
For those 2 answers that were supplied, it's clearly the problem! There are others instances that are related to not knowing your location/country.

For those 2 it turned out a total waste of time, since those solutions wouldn't be offered if the responders knew about your location/country. IOW, if they knew you lived outside the North American continent, Northern Brewer and Amazon wouldn't have been suggested.

Filling out the "Location" field is not mandatory here, but doing so is a courtesy to others! Those who may take the time to help by providing possible solutions to another member's questions and problem(s). Especially when circumstances are more special such as in your case.
Moezart said:
The problem is judgemental people's comment that are fueled by simple lack of knowledge... Aka ignorance. People should not jump to judgment, they should just answer the "simple" question...
Click to expand...
There is nothing judgmental here.

More than just a few have tried to answer your "simple" question, which isn't so simple as you don't seem to have a viable source for them due to where you live. And there is no way for any of us to could have known, because that location field is empty.

Please reconsider to be considerate and provide that valuable and free information by filling in the "Location" field. Please...
 
Or at least say something like "I live in ____ area, have limited options for obtaining supplies, and need help finding..." The more info you provide from the start, the more we can do to help. You came here asking for assistance and we are happy to provide it. Having read this entire thread, I have found zero evidence of anyone being judgmental towards you.
 
I don't really drink soda... ever. But was just thinking, if accessible, some root beer comes in dark plastic bottles.

And does anyone know if green plastic more light/uv resistant?

IslandLizard said:
Filling out the "Location" field is not mandatory here, but doing so is a courtesy to others!
Click to expand...
You assume most of us would be smart enough to look at a location before firing off an answer.
 
MaxStout said:
Or at least say something like "I live in ____ area, have limited options for obtaining supplies, and need help finding..." The more info you provide from the start, the more we can do to help. You came here asking for assistance and we are happy to provide it. Having read this entire thread, I have found zero evidence of anyone being judgmental towards you.
Click to expand...

In his defense, that's how he started the malting thread....
 
S-Met said:
I don't really drink soda... ever. But was just thinking, if accessible, some root beer comes in dark plastic bottles.

And does anyone know if green plastic more light/uv resistant?
Click to expand...

I would think it's an issue of what wavelengths pass through, and the shorter the wavelengths, the worse for skunking. So probably the green plastic would be like green glass--not as good as amber for filtering.

Those brown 16oz. A&W bottles would work well I suppose, but I just don't buy much root beer.
 
S-Met said:
You assume most of us would be smart enough to look at a location before firing off an answer.
Click to expand...
I don't see a smiley posted, so I'm assuming you are serious here.
In many (perhaps most) cases, location is not all that important, or only a secondary concern, so answering without peeking at the user's location won't change the answer, or much.
But where it is important or crucial, I'd say yeah, it can make for a better, more informed and to the point conversation.

Whether "most of us" are smart enough to do so, I'd like to think so. Now you're more aware, it will be more difficult to ignore it in the future. ;)
 
MaxStout said:
I don't know about the rest of you but any time I see one of those "I need help finding ___" threads I immediately look for location info. It does no good to suggest something like Northern if it's clear the OP lives overseas.
Click to expand...

must have been a comment about someone like me, that automatically assumes...if their speaking english they live in the US...unless they say differently anyway....

Good tip though, have to remember that for politeness...
 
IslandLizard said:
I don't see a smiley posted, so I'm assuming you are serious here.
Click to expand...
I did fail in the smiley department, but was 1/2-3/4 serious. This is a home-brew thread and I assume most anyone here has a greater possibility of having 1-2 beers at any given post.

I also just realized that my location isn't posted. I'll get around to fixing that eventually.
 
I didn't realize the OP was not in north America. My Amazon prime suggestion makes less sense.

Before I started using glass (and eventually kegging), I used soda bottles. Root beer bottles are good because they're amber, but it's difficult to get rid of the root beer flavor (for best results, use cold water).
 
IslandLizard said:
For those 2 answers that were supplied, it's clearly the problem! There are others instances that are related to not knowing your location/country.

For those 2 it turned out a total waste of time, since those solutions wouldn't be offered if the responders knew about your location/country. IOW, if they knew you lived outside the North American continent, Northern Brewer and Amazon wouldn't have been suggested.

Filling out the "Location" field is not mandatory here, but doing so is a courtesy to others! Those who may take the time to help by providing possible solutions to another member's questions and problem(s). Especially when circumstances are more special such as in your case.

There is nothing judgmental here.

More than just a few have tried to answer your "simple" question, which isn't so simple as you don't seem to have a viable source for them due to where you live. And there is no way for any of us to could have known, because that location field is empty.

Please reconsider to be considerate and provide that valuable and free information by filling in the "Location" field. Please...
Click to expand...
Still does not make any sense. Filling out the location would not help at all. USA is not the only place on earth where you can get home brewing supplies. So you want to tell me that if the same question came from Serbia, Italy or Germany you would have had a different answer for them... They do have homebrew suppliers there but they would have had a different reason why they would ask such question. Plus Amazon delivers to those countries.

I still don't get it... I never had to look at any body's profile since I have been on this forum.
You know what sorry for being on the defensive. I actually appreciate all your help guys. It is just frustrating.
Thanks.
 
shoengine said:
Text-based communication is hard. Kind of like driving: you have to assume the other's intent.

Did you solve your cap issue?
Click to expand...
Hi. Not yet. I mean I still have some but I will need to use green soda bottles I guess. Next time I travel I ll just have to buy a larger quantity of caps. It feels like I am stranded on an island when it comes to home brewing. Thanks a lot.
 
Moezart said:
Still does not make any sense. Filling out the location would not help at all
Click to expand...

The reason it matters is that it would probably knock off 1/2 of the comments saying just run down to your local lhbs and get a pack or order from site and it will be there tomorrow, as we would realize that this is probably not a feasible option.

When you take out the above questions that leaves you with more focused intent on the original question, can I reuse bottle caps? The answer is Maybe. It's going to depend on how they are removed. If you pry off using the bottle as the fulcrum creating a bend in the cab then most likely the cap is garbage. However if you pry off say with a lighter leaving the cap relatively intact without causing too much stress to the outside of the crown, then there is a possibility I'll be at small that you can reuse the cap.
 
S-Met said:
The reason it matters is that it would probably knock off 1/2 of the comments saying just run down to your local lhbs and get a pack or order from site and it will be there tomorrow, as we would realize that this is probably not a feasible option.

When you take out the above questions that leaves you with more focused intent on the original question, can I reuse bottle caps? The answer is Maybe. It's going to depend on how they are removed. If you pry off using the bottle as the fulcrum creating a bend in the cab then most likely the cap is garbage. However if you pry off say with a lighter leaving the cap relatively intact without causing too much stress to the outside of the crown, then there is a possibility I'll be at small that you can reuse the cap.
Click to expand...
Thanks a lot!
 

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