Flip cap failure...

[OleBrewing]

I will add that swing tops are "easier" than the two lever hand capper, which is cumbersome at best. I have had some long bottling days of 140+ gallons. Using an old bench top capper i think from the 40-50s, fully adjustable from 12oz to the 22oz bombers. best piece of equipment my dad pulled out of a junk pile for capping bottles.

i did have one sam adams bomber break and explode in my hand, luckily no cuts; but those bottles were very very massed produced and were poor visually looking at the seams and bottle profile.

saving bottles and removing labels is painstaking, so is washing homebrew bottled beer. I still am certain that the old glass produced from Mexico was of higher standard than what i see today.

any way get a bench capper and swing tops will be nostalgia. now days i use swing tops for growler purposes from kegs.

 

[Fixerman]

I've tried various brands of swing cap bottles. EZ Cap is by far the best brand. The bales are stronger than other brands so they seal nice and tight. But the main reason I'm writing is that I found a video which shows how to adjust the bales so they seal more tightly. You'll find the technique 3 mins into the video. This has really helped with some of the lesser quality swing caps I've purchased: How to tighten swing cap bottles

 

[thefigure5]

I've seen those too.
I guess you could file or sand those seams down, making the stopper smooth.

I have seen the seams too. It's the leading theory for me. I haven't tried using Grolsch swing-tops on the brown bottles bought online. It's something to try if they fit.

There is also the gasket material. A lot you can buy are silicone, which seems a harder material. Grolsch bottles are harder to close with this type of gasket. My local home brew store had gaskets more like Grolsch's, a lot softer and more compliant.

When I changed the gasket on the brown bottles, some still lost carbonation. None of the Grolsch bottle leaked when I changed to the gaskets.

 

[Graham H]

There is also the gasket material. A lot you can buy are silicone, which seems a harder material. Grolsch bottles are harder to close with this type of gasket. My local home brew store had gaskets more like Grolsch's, a lot softer and more compliant.

I’ve used replacement rubber and silicone gaskets, but the rubber ones were much less pliant than the silicone. I used the ones made by Otis for both types.

 

[thefigure5]

I’ve used replacement rubber and silicone gaskets, but the rubber ones were much less pliant than the silicone. I used the ones made by Otis for both types.

I see, pliant is a better word. But my experience is different. I found the rubber - or whatever the Grolsch gasket material is - to be more conforming than silicone gaskets.

 

[Graham H]

I see, pliant is a better word. But my experience is different. I found the rubber - or whatever the Grolsch gasket material is - to be more conforming than silicone gaskets.

I’ve never used Grolsch brand bottles. When I swapped my generic swing top bottles’ rubber gaskets for silicone, it was an improvement. Maybe Grolsch gaskets are even better yet?

 

[Joe 😎]

Well, if this

means that about a third of the bottles in the last batch you packaged were carbonated the way you wanted them to be, then it means that you're doing at least some things right. Did you keep track of which bottles worked from one batch to the next? Because unless you really know that these 15 bottles work every time and those 20 bottles never work, then it could still be something else that you're doing. If you do know that you have 15 good bottles and 20 bad bottles, then it should be possible to figure out what's wrong with the bad ones.

This seems like a rather tedious and inefficient way of dealing with mixing. If you're doing an open transfer to a bottling bucket anyway, then just stir the priming sugar into the beer well.

Thanks for the reply. It's an IPA, so I stirred it in lightly. After opening a few more last, I'm convinced that the bottles I got from Amazon are leaking. My Grolsch bottles and the 12 oz bottles frome the brew supply are good.

 

[Joe 😎]

Thanks for the reply. It's an IPA, so I stirred it in lightly. After opening a few more last, I'm convinced that the bottles I got from Amazon are leaking. My Grolsch bottles and the 12 oz bottles frome the brew supply are good.

 

[Joe 😎]

View attachment 842589

These are the bottles I'm having trouble with. One distinctive difference is that the good bottles are very smooth at the sealing area and these are not.

 

[corncob]

I think there's a trick to getting a reliable seal with swing tops: seat the cap by hand and compress the gasket with your thumb, then toggle the bail.

The fit between the stopper and the mouth of the bottle is a spherical joint, but the bail applies force along a line. If that line ends up nearly perfectly bisecting the circle that is the mouth, the bottle will steal very nicely with even a fairly weak preload on the bail/stopper assembly. If not, it's a roll of the dice. Because the bail swings in from one side, the stopper automatically wants to push off center. Prevent this by seating the stopper hard with your thumb. Feel the stopper settle into its lowest position and load the gasket concentrically. Then swing the bail over (very little force will be required). 100% good results unless something is worn out and needs adjustment or replacement.

Extra credit: before sealing, hold the stopper down with your thumb and give the bottle a shake to liberate a little dissolved Co2, then release the stopper to vent the headspace. Bottle condition, do this twice, then seal as above for months (years?) of oxidation-free storage.

EZ Cap bottles are wonderful. Elegant, low-tech, low hassle. Worth every penny.

 

[Fixerman]

I think there's a trick to getting a reliable seal with swing tops: seat the cap by hand and compress the gasket with your thumb, then toggle the bail...

Excellent tip. In a way, it reminds me of the technique I read somewhere on HBT for sealing a corny keg: hold the cap up in place, let a little gas into the keg; it will seal the cap, at which point you lock the handle down. Thx for the post.

 

[fluketamer]

These are the bottles I'm having trouble with. One distinctive difference is that the good bottles are very smooth at the sealing area and these are not.

those bottles are a little sus. although the kombucha reviews say they work great the homebrew review said he couldnt seal them well enough for beer
maybe kombucha is traditionally less carbed than beer . idk i dont make or drink bucha