Jason D Cook
Member
Hi everyone - I just had my first bottling day as a new brewer and it was an unfun thing.
First off, I live in the Philippines and everything I am using to homebrew has been sourced from either Northern Brewer or Amazon and shipped here.
I have a Ferrari Super Agata bench capper and 26mm bottle caps from Northern Brewer. I collected 20-oz. Paulaner bottles purchased (full!) locally in the supermarket to use for my first bottling. I also collected bottles from a local craft brand called Pedro Brewcrafters. I measured the openings with calipers to be sure they were "standard".
My problem is when I capped the Paulaner bottles, the caps sometimes popped off themselves or sat so crookedly that I could pop them off with thumb pressure. I wasted about 1/3 of the caps I used.
I was getting a complete capping, with the second "smoosh" you feel as the capper crimps the cap, so I know I had the capper set for the right height and was pulling the handle down hard enough.
With the local Pedro bottles, many of the caps were skewed and (on Drinking Day) could be pried off really easy. My beer was also pretty flat though it had a nice head.
I just now tried to cap a Heineken bottle and also got skewed caps.
Is anyone using the combo of Paulaner bottles and Super Agata capper? Does anyone have any idea why I'm getting this bad capping?
I took the existing bell off and checked it over and everything seems to be level and true until I actually cap. I'm about to rush order a standard size replacement bell for my Second Bottling Day in two weeks.
Any thoughts about this, out there in the vast wonderland of knowledge?
JD
First off, I live in the Philippines and everything I am using to homebrew has been sourced from either Northern Brewer or Amazon and shipped here.
I have a Ferrari Super Agata bench capper and 26mm bottle caps from Northern Brewer. I collected 20-oz. Paulaner bottles purchased (full!) locally in the supermarket to use for my first bottling. I also collected bottles from a local craft brand called Pedro Brewcrafters. I measured the openings with calipers to be sure they were "standard".
My problem is when I capped the Paulaner bottles, the caps sometimes popped off themselves or sat so crookedly that I could pop them off with thumb pressure. I wasted about 1/3 of the caps I used.
I was getting a complete capping, with the second "smoosh" you feel as the capper crimps the cap, so I know I had the capper set for the right height and was pulling the handle down hard enough.
With the local Pedro bottles, many of the caps were skewed and (on Drinking Day) could be pried off really easy. My beer was also pretty flat though it had a nice head.
I just now tried to cap a Heineken bottle and also got skewed caps.
Is anyone using the combo of Paulaner bottles and Super Agata capper? Does anyone have any idea why I'm getting this bad capping?
I took the existing bell off and checked it over and everything seems to be level and true until I actually cap. I'm about to rush order a standard size replacement bell for my Second Bottling Day in two weeks.
Any thoughts about this, out there in the vast wonderland of knowledge?
JD