Troubleshooting Grolsch Bottles

[MiddleEarthBrewing]

Hello!

I wanted to throw this out there and see if anyone else has had this problem. I am finding, across three brews now, that a pretty sizeable number of the grolsch bottles I am using end up yielding flat beer. I cant seem to pinpoint what it is that is causing it, but I can assume it is a gasket issue. How frequently should these be changed out? Is there some kind of a treatment that needs to be done on them? Or am I way off the mark here.
Any help/advice/tips that can be provided are greatly appreciated!

 

[PoppinCaps]

That's so funny you just posted this. After 3 years of using Grolsch bottles, I had my first completely flat beer in one last night. All the other bottles of that brew so far are fine. Plus it was only a slightly used rubber gasket, but not like the rest. The backups I've been using to replace every year are a dull pink rubber, kind of rough, and very grippy. The gasket that was on my bad bottle was almost red, shiny, a little slick and not like the others. Came from a case of amber fliptops I bought at the LHBS. It looked fine, and was not overly compressed.

Anyway, I usually change them once they lose their ability to mostly pop back to shape if left uncapped for a while. Other than that, I do the whole lot every year. It's cheap to do. I guess I'll have to change all the other shiny gaskets now too. Damn.

Of course I still drank it.

 

[Sarge]

I guess I'm on the other end of the spectrum than PoppinCaps. I change mine each time I bottle. I don't have any of the shiny ones. I use the dull ones and never had a flat beer. Knock on wood.

 

[spearko520]

check the ceramic (or plastic) plug. sometimes if they are malformed, the gasket wont seat properly. I rarely change gaskets and have had few problems- sometimes i flip them over.

 

[ultravista]

BK (before keg), I bottled using Grolsch. I used the factory seals, or washers, for a long time without issue. You can pick up new seals for less than $.10. I bought 100 for less than $5 at my LHBS.