Trouble with twist-cap type bottles

[StefanK]

Hello.

Im an avid fan of recycling and I thought It would be good to recycle some used un-marked beer bottles to bottlemy own brew.

I found some plain ol' green glass beer bottles. This, when I bought them (and later emptied them) came with twist caps.

I thought this was not going to be a major issue, and having recently gotten my hand capper, I capped one classic beer bottle (without threading) and it was all good and tight.

However, I tried to cap a twist-cap bottle and... It came off! Tried 4 times again without any kind of success.

Any tips? Can these bottles be re-capped at home? When bought they just look exactly like they have been capped like standard bottles.

Thank you in advance

 

[Yooper]

In general, the twist offs have thinner necks on the bottles and often break when trying to cap them. I think they can be capped with a bench capper, but I"ve never tried it.

 

[StefanK]

In general, the twist offs have thinner necks on the bottles and often break when trying to cap them. I think they can be capped with a bench capper, but I"ve never tried it.

Missed to say this. At the 5 try, I cracked said glass... Bench capper? That works like a drill press right?

 

[day_trippr]

Yes, I guess one could say a bench capper works kind of "like a drill press".
I'd be really reluctant to encourage using one with twist-off bottles though. I don't think the problem is lack of force with a wing capper. Might be the bell shape isn't optimal for twist offs, but I wouldn't count on a bench capper being any more capable...

Cheers!

 

[Temptd2]

We started off reusing some twist-off bottles with our bench capper. We had a fairly decent "failure to seal" rate though. Some would, some wouldn't, nothing worse than knowing some of your beer is not gonna carbonate because the cap is leaking!

KOTC even tried putting the cap on, pressing down, turning the bottle 1/4 turn and pressing down again - finally gave up on the idea and now we only recycle the pry-off cap bottles.

 

[StefanK]

We started off reusing some twist-off bottles with our bench capper. We had a fairly decent "failure to seal" rate though. Some would, some wouldn't, nothing worse than knowing some of your beer is not gonna carbonate because the cap is leaking!

KOTC even tried putting the cap on, pressing down, turning the bottle 1/4 turn and pressing down again - finally gave up on the idea and now we only recycle the pry-off cap bottles.

Damn

Im toasted on that. I think this happens (day_trippr said it) taht the bell shape in my wing capper isn't optimal. Pry-off bottles get capped tightly right away, since I tried a couple.

The trouble is... Pry-off bottles are painted with some heavy duty kind of paint I dont know what is made off. Finding new pry-off bottles unmarked isn't possible in my country since the glass bottle industry is practically broke and non-producing, so breweries recycle their own bottles and I dont know what they do to get twist-off bottles, but certainly there is no production surpluss

 

[Temptd2]

That's a bummer!

You could still TRY it but I think you'll be disappointed and frustrated with it. We tried maybe 3 batches with twist-top recycles and finally threw up our hands in disgust and just put them in the recycle bin.

Any chance of checking with a restaurant or other source of beer that's been drunk out of pry-off cap bottles? We even have the local Moose Lodge here saving them for us!

 

[StefanK]

That's a bummer!

You could still TRY it but I think you'll be disappointed and frustrated with it. We tried maybe 3 batches with twist-top recycles and finally threw up our hands in disgust and just put them in the recycle bin.

Any chance of checking with a restaurant or other source of beer that's been drunk out of pry-off cap bottles? We even have the local Moose Lodge here saving them for us!

Well that's not the problem; I have about 6 cases, 36 bottles each, of pry-off bottles sitting in my backyard. It's very popular over here to buy them this way (full, of course) drink them and returning them to the liquor store as a discount to get a new case. Its more eco-friendly and also means savings for the company.

The problem with this bottles is that they dont have paper labels but are painted with an aforementioned very tough paint. I dont know how to remove it but it seems impervious to most solvents. Only non-returnable, disposable bottles (the ones I recycled) have paper labels.

 

[MindenMan]

Okay, I'll ask the obvious question: why is the paint on the bottles such a big deal? Is there something I'm missing here?

 

[StefanK]

Okay, I'll ask the obvious question: why is the paint on the bottles such a big deal? Is there something I'm missing here?

Its not the original goal of the post, but it gets narrowed to this: I dont want to hand a home brewed beer to a friend in a "Polar Pilsen" bottle and say to him: "Look, I brewed this, have a taste". I will know its mine, he will probably believe me, but is kind of unconfortable, IYKWIM

 

[Yooper]

Its not the original goal of the post, but it gets narrowed to this: I dont want to hand a home brewed beer to a friend in a "Polar Pilsen" bottle and say to him: "Look, I brewed this, have a taste". I will know its mine, he will probably believe me, but is kind of unconfortable, IYKWIM

Do you have star-san available as a sanitizer? I've heard (but didn't try) that it even removes the paint off of Corona bottles, so maybe that would work?

 

[StefanK]

Do you have star-san available as a sanitizer? I've heard (but didn't try) that it even removes the paint off of Corona bottles, so maybe that would work?

Well no, but a quick google search on Star-San linked me to a couple of acids which compose it. I guess the thing that strips off the paint is phosphoric acid, and as a matter of fact, i havent tried acid on my bottles yet!

Thank you :

 

[Temptd2]

You could always just print up a label large enough to at least mostly cover it, if the acid bath doesn't do the job.

Need help drinking all that beer?

 

[StefanK]

You could always just print up a label large enough to at least mostly cover it, if the acid bath doesn't do the job.

Need help drinking all that beer?

Why not?

 

[buzz1670]

Fill bottles with water.
Fill bottom of 5 gallon pail with bottles
Fill to cover paint with vinager
Wait about 6 hours and wipe off paint
repeat

 

[StefanK]

Fill bottles with water.
Fill bottom of 5 gallon pail with bottles
Fill to cover paint with vinager
Wait about 6 hours and wipe off paint
repeat

I'll be trying this. Less toxic than phosphoric. I will post results.

 

[NinjaBear]

I would be curious to see results too.