Twist Off Bottles

[MSKBeerfan]

I have 160 Brand new twist off bottles that were given to me from my son in law, he did not realize that these are not ideal for home brewing. I utilize a bench top bottle capper, and have read contradicting posts on line about the utilization of screw tops. I just hate to trash all these brand new amber bottles. Any thoughts?

 

[Skyforger]

I've used screw-tops before with such a capper. I got I would say about a 75% success rate with them. The rest had very little carbonation; the tops just didn't seal right on those few.

You could give it a shot if they have a low lip. If they have a high lip, like this:

I would not use them. In retrospect, that may have been the difference between the ones that worked and the ones that didn't for me.

If they have a low lip, maybe try a six-pack of them. See how it works.

 

[GreatWetNorth]

I use screw tops all the time, although I usually use a two-handed hand-held capper.

I tried using my buddy's single-lever bench-top capper but switched back to my capper after a couple bottles. The problem I found was the piece that fit directly onto the cap was a little too tight and when I removed the bottle, I had to work it out and ended up twisting the cap loose (so it was pretty much like re-using old caps). That's not to say it won't work for you. The capper I tried may have been abnormally tight (it's pretty old and has seen a lot of use, although it still does ok with pop-tops). Another thing you could try is when you take the bottle out of the capper, twist it clockwise so that you don't loosen the cap.

Without seeing your capper or bottles, I can't really say. Have you tried capping a few empty to see how it does ?

 

[Grizzlybrew]

I was always told by my LHBS guy that you shouldn't use screw-off unless you have a bench capper. Even then, I would drink them pretty fast.

Ken Grossman switched to pop-off a while back after an extensive oxidation study on different bottle types.

 

[lurker18]

All I use is the screw tops with the Red Baron wing capper. Have not had any bottles not carb up, but have cracked a couple while capping, but you can hear the bottles start to grind before they break, so once you hear that, the bottle is no good.

 

[Skyforger]

You could try filling some with soda water and capping them, see if they hold carbonation. Cap a pop-top too as a control.