Caps & Capper or Flipper Bottles

[digdan]

I tried to get out of brewing a couple years ago (gained too much weight) and sold a bunch of my brewing equipment. Now I'm trying to get back into it, and I'm taking a lot of cation on each purchase.

Previously I had a beer tree, with the squirter attachment on top, used a wing capper and had an assortment of caps.

This round I think I'm going to get the sink jet sprayer, coat rack (to replace beer tree) and thinking of using flipper bottles (like Grolsch bottels).

I figure that I'm going to pay for the bottles and reuse them, might aswell make it convenient and just skip the caps and the capper.

Well, the reason for this post is I'm wondering if there is anything I'm overlooking. What are some major cons to the flipper style bottles? Where can you get replacement grommets?

 

[khiddy]

My LHBS sells the replacement rubber grommets, so I suspect you can get them at yours.

I personally love the flip-cap bottles. It's one less step than caps & capper. Go for it.

 

[llazy_llama]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/vs-pro-con-analysis-109318/#post1204664 covers swing tops.

 

[wedge421]

I keg primarily, but when I want to empty a keg into bottles I have used both caps and swing tops. The more I use them the more I like swing tops. They are a lot quicker to use and if you get the larger sizes are super easy to fill to take to homebrew meetings or parties.

 

[bob1852]

I bottle in liter flip tops and a big negative (well sorta) is that the second pint poured usually has quite a bit of yeast/sediment.

But, it still beats bottling 52 12-oz bottles on bottling day

 

[Figbash]

I use both.

The swing tops are nice because they are easy to fill but they are 16 ounces instead of 12 so a 5 gallon batch doesn't go quite as far. They also take more space to store. The 12 ounce capped bottles are nice because you don't need to worry about getting the bottle back when you hand it out to a friend. They are a lot easier to come by than the swing tops.

Tom

 

[bob1852]

I use both.

The swing tops are nice because they are easy to fill but they are 16 ounces instead of 12 so a 5 gallon batch doesn't go quite as far. They also take more space to store. The 12 ounce capped bottles are nice because you don't need to worry about getting the bottle back when you hand it out to a friend. They are a lot easier to come by than the swing tops.

Tom

agreed - that's why I bottle 12 litre bottles and then ~12-18 twelve oz bottles. I can drink out of the litre bottles, and either give away or take the 12-oz bottles on the road and it's not a big deal if I don't get 'em back

 

[tenglert]

I usually have one or two leakers which results in one or two under carbed bottles. They also won't fit any 6 pack cartons or partitioned cases. And, it's harder to get your empty bottles back from friends and family.

 

[cyberbackpacker]

I just bottled a batch last night and the bottling and "capping" with my flip tops took me 6 minutes- total. I use .5L german flip tops and love them.