Threaded beer bottles? How to clean?

[tim_s]

Hi Everyone,

Hope all is well?

Short Story: Ordered my first home brew kit and the day it arrived my Brother-In-Law decided to go on an impromptu vacation to Prince Edward Island ("P.E.I") - great beer by the way. I checked everything on my home brew order and the only item(s) I was missing was the beer bottles themselves but I was told P.E.I wouldn't allowed beer cans - !! This is how I will get my bottles !!. So now that we have drank the 3 x 24s, I have bottles but I do not want to lug bottles back if they won't work.

Question 1: Threaded twist offs - Are they reliable to use within a capper?

Capper: [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvRmiBar13M[/ame]
(not my video)

Question 2: Cleaning the bottles - my wife wants to boil them before I use my no rinse sanitizer. What would the best practice be here?

 

[Hello]

Okay, twist off bottles supposedly do work, but from what I've read on a number of threads here is that a bench capper is necessary. You have a wing capper. You could try it, but there's no guarantee. It is said to use pry off top bottles. Even with a bench capper, you may not get a proper seal. An improper seal can prevent carbonation and introduce oxygen.

To rinse, usually it would be best to consume and do a quick rinse on the spot. I'm guessing that didn't happen. Even boiling may not get any sticky gunk from the very bottom. You may want to buy a bottle brush and do a quick pass under hot water. From there, you can sanitize. I find boiling unnecessary, but people do it.

 

[mtyquinn]

Boiling bottles seems a bit excessive. If they are scrubbed clean, the sanitizer will do the rest. As far as screw tops- I don't think you will get a reliable cap using those. I could be wrong, but it best to avoid screw tops.

 

[martyjhuebs]

I havent had much luck with threaded bottles but I honestly have tried it much. As far as sanitizing, I would just soak your bottles in a sink with hot soapy water to make sure you get any residue that may be inside. Rinse them, put them in the sanitizing solution and move them to a rack to dry. A dishwasher works perfect for this since you can close it off while they are upside down drying out. This is my process using One Step. I may be wrong but if you use starsan, I think you can sanitize and immediately fill.

 

[tim_s]

Thank you

 

[VaNewbieWRB]

I've had this issue recently. I have that exact bottle capper that's used in the video, and it does not seal twist offs very well. I only buy beer to drink now that has the pry off cap. I reuse the bottles, and just have had no luck with the twist off ones. they dont seal well at all with that capper.

 

[unionrdr]

They didn't seal 100% with my super agata bench capper either. Ditch the twist-offs & get pry-off brown bottles. I like the German bottles from Paulaner, Franziskaner & Wernesgruner, as they seem to seal really well & easily. but sam Adams & other craft pry-offs work real well too.

 

[MaxStout]

For all the expense and work (and waiting) that goes into brewing, I don't understand why anyone would want to cut corners and risk ruining some of that beer. Recycle the twist-offs and get some pop-top bottles. Go to your local pub and ask if you can grab some of their tossed out bottles.

 

[Calypso]

Every time I've tried to cap a twist off bottle, the lip has broken. I wouldn't waste the time and beer.

 

[TonesBrew]

I only use pop top bottles because I know they will work. I wouldn't even bother with twist top. I can't see how you would get a solid seal with those type of bottles. I have folks give me bottles all of the time and some are not cleaned and have dried gunk in the bottom. I let them sit in a bucket with warm water and Oxy clean for a week and they clean right up. Rinse very well and then they go on the hot cycle in the dish washer for sanitizing the morning of bottling day.

 

[amiller]

Opposed to the arguments above, I have that same capper and it's great. I have used it to bottle over 30 dozen beers. Every beer I have bottled has been a twist off and *knock on wood* I haven't had any problems yet. When you first cap them, they may not seal right away but give them a quick twist to tighten the cap up, and once the priming sugar and yeast start working, the cap will become tight. All my bottles come out really hard to twist off by hand(harder than store bought beer), I use a twist opening most of the time.

Hope this helps!!

 

[Malty_Dog]

How to clean twist-off bottles?
1) pick up bottle
2) drop bottle in recycle bin



All kidding aside, my experience is that the seal is not reliable and the thinner glass at the top is not strong enough. I recently was running low on bottles and issued a request to my beer-loving friends to save me their bottles. Yeah I won't be needing any bottles for a while.