Bottling issue

[jmuman703]

Hi all!

I have a question about bottling. I just bottled and capped all my bottles (standard brown non screwtop bottles) and I am noticing that my caps aren't on really tight. What I mean is that while they won't fall off if I twist them they will spin. I applied enough pressure and some of the bottles are fine.

My question is will this keep the beers from carbonating?

Thanks so much for all responses!

 

[jro238]

I haven't bottled my beer in a while, but I don't remember this ever happening. While it *may* not necessarily mean your beer won't carb, it certainly isn't ideal (and I would say chances are the caps will leak). I would try to get the caps on nice and tight.

 

[E_Marquez]

I assume your using a wing capper

If so, You have to be fairly aggressive I've found to get a good crimp, and when i remember to; I crimp, then rotate the bottle 90 deg and crimp again.

Turn a few bottles upside down in a plastic tote, bucket, ect.. for a day.. if you come back and find beer in the container,,, they are leaking, if not your fine.

 

[jmuman703]

I am using a wing crimper. I have had this happen before and things were fine but never on such a large scale. Almost half of the batch is like this. I am hoping that it is fine. Keep your fingers crossed. I did open some bottles and try to recap and still the same issue. Oh well!

 

[Math0]

I use a bench bottle capper and never had any kind of trouble with it. I believe it is about 35-45$. If your capper is still close to new, return it and buy this one :rockin:

 

[unionrdr]

I had that problem with the red baron capper after a couple years use. The bell had stretched out to where it was doing the same thing. So I got the super agata bench capper. No more problems. the slightly loose caps will leak as co2 pressure builds up in the bottles. I had stacks of boxed full bottles conditioning upstairs on my side of the room. Every now & then,I'd get a wiff of malt. Some,maybe 3-4 bottles oxidized & smelled/tasted like damp musty cardboard in a basement. So at the least,the bell must be replaced.

 

[jmuman703]

Thanks for all the responses! Luckily I let them sit for about an hour (after marking which ones were loose) and came back and tested a few and they were tight as can be. Maybe it has something to do with the crown caps.

 

[unionrdr]

Keep a nose on them anyway. As they build pressure in the head space,any leakers will def smell malty...if they don't leak first. mine just released co2 pressure that gave the malty smell. If you get that,a 3 dollar bell should fix it. They just unscrew.