Bottle cap seals

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JReasoner

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Okay, so about a month ago i bottled a batch of graff and something didn't go as I had planned.

It was a five gallon batch, 1 gallon of which i had racked off and spiced. I bottled the majority of the Un spiced graff in swing tops and the rest with crown caps and all of the spiced with crowns.

Now, every bottle I've opened with a crown, spiced or not, has been all but still. Both of the swing tops swmbo and i had last night were beautifully carbonated and delicious.

I'm planning on bottling two 5 gallon batches today and now I'm worried that my wing capper isn't working properly.

Could the caps i used have an effect? She saw some cider caps with apples printed on them at the lhbs and decided that's what would go on our graff, lol.

Maybe cider crowns aren't designed for pressure? It seems like they would be.

Funny thing is, i was worried about the swing tops not dealing properly.
 
Stupid question, but did you add priming sugar to the crown capped spiced and unspiced capped with crowns?
Of course the alternative is perhaps the crowns didn't fit the caliber of the bottles you were using?
 
The unspiced was primed all together with 4oz of dextrose and i used 1oz for the spiced (1 oz/gal)

I used recycled bottles for the crowns, well cleaned rinsed and sanitized.

I'm completely stumped as to why it didn't work out.
 
Maybe your carbonation sugar wasnt mixed properly?

Next time, I woudl try flipping each capped bottle upside down to check for leaks. That what SWMBO does when she helps out since shes always overly worried that shell mess something up in the process
 
Is it the capper itself? Or your crowns? Or the bottles? Did you check each cap for looseness after it was on by giving it a twist? I invariably find a couple out of 2 cases being bottled that move when I give them a twist. Those I replace and have no problems.

I also find there are certain bottles that simply will not accept my crown/capper attempts. For instance, some 7.5 oz. clear bottles (which tend to crack at then lip), and with Corona bottles I have a hard time releasing the capper from the crown.
 
I'm worried it was the capper, but I bottled 10 gal yesterday and it seemed to be working properly. I guess I'll know for sure in about 3 weeks. Maybe it was just the cider crowns weren't meant for beer bottles, I used multiple types, Sam Adams, Breckenridge, New Belgium, etc. Some of them I did have a hard time getting the capper back off but the seal was good enough on all of them to not leak when turned upside down.
 
The mixing of the sugar could be one thing. I bottled all of the swing tops first and then the crown caps last. It's possible that the priming sugar wasn't mixed through.
 
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