twist offs

[rod]

quote: brewman
. And then when I go to take the bottle out, it sticks in the head and I have to wrestle it out. And still the cap loosens easily. quote

i have the same capper and still use twist-offs without problems.
put a light coat of mineral oil in the capper head.
if the bottle sticks just pull on the bottom of the bottle(do not twist- pull straight)
and it should pop right out.
all my bottles have held pressure - the caps seem to loosen easily when you first cap them-but are firmer as pressure builds

 

[z987k]

quote: brewman
. And then when I go to take the bottle out, it sticks in the head and I have to wrestle it out. And still the cap loosens easily. quote

i have the same capper and still use twist-offs without problems.
put a light coat of mineral oil in the capper head.
if the bottle sticks just pull on the bottom of the bottle(do not twist- pull straight)
and it should pop right out.
all my bottles have held pressure - the caps seem to loosen easily when you first cap them-but are firmer as pressure builds

This is what I found when I tested a few with soda. At first they come right off, don't touch. After pressure builds they're not easy to get off anymore.

 

[mountainrev]

This will date me, as well as place me geographically, but when I first started brewing beer in Wisconsin, the old returnables were still very common. For those of you who aren't familiar, beer used to be sold (at least in Wis.!) in bottles that were reused over and over again. You'd pay $.05 deposit/bottle, but when you finished a case, you'd just haul it down to the beer depot, leave on the counter, and pick up a new one.

I don't know why no one seems to do this anymore. I would think it would be very environmentally friendly, since recycling consisted only of washing them, not melting them down and making new bottles. I suppose it's just another symptom of our throw away society. Too much bother. (They also took up a lot of space in liquor stores. I used to work at one when I was a student. 2/3 of the basement was filled with cases of empty bottles!).

Anyway, it was very easy to get non-twisties 10 or more years ago in Wis. Just stop by the liquor store and give them $1.20, and you got a case of them (or get a case of full ones--better yet!).

When I moved to Colorado 11 years ago, I made sure to bring a few empty cases of returnables with me. The movers must have thought I was nuts, moving empty beer bottles!

 

[z987k]

Figured I should do a follow up. It's been almost 3 weeks since I bottled the first batch and about half of the bottles were twist off's. Every single one thus far has been well carbonated. In fact last night a guy tried to open the bottle by hitting it on the edge of the counter (dumb) and it caused it to foam like crazy. So it seems twist off's work just fine as well.

 

[dibby33]

Good to hear. as I said in my post, I never have a problem but the more risk that you can remove the better I suppose.

What was the beer like?

 

[Cookiebaggs]

This will date me, as well as place me geographically, but when I first started brewing beer in Wisconsin, the old returnables were still very common. For those of you who aren't familiar, beer used to be sold (at least in Wis.!) in bottles that were reused over and over again. You'd pay $.05 deposit/bottle, but when you finished a case, you'd just haul it down to the beer depot, leave on the counter, and pick up a new one.

Those were the days! I have two cases of 12 oz. in the old returnable box. wish I had more.

Fortunately, I also have 14 cases of the Hacker Pschorr 16 oz bottles. My parents and some of their friends were buying weiss and oktoberfest by the case one year and I was the lucky one to get the empties! :rockin:

 

[joshpooh]

Everyone on this thread seems to love swingtops, but I used 12 of them a while ago and 3 or 4 of them did not seal. Maybe I did something wrong. Is there something you have to do to swingtops other than just seal them. I was thinking maybe wet the seal or something, but I don't know. I know I probably won't use them anymore because it sucks to open up and have flat beer. This is also why I won't use twistoffs unless it is a last resort.

 

[brewman !]

I didn't take any chances. I returned all my twisty bottles. This past weekend the boyscouts had a bottle drive. I found their sorting station and scored 4 dozen pop off bottles, Heineken, Corona and a local micro brew all use pop off bottles.

 

[D*Bo]

Brewman,
I've got a very similar capper and it works great.
I was using some unibrou bottles for a while before I realized they were screw tops. They worked out fine. I've even used wine bottles with that capper.
Granted one of them turned into a Sea Monkey Ale, but that was probably more of a sanitation issue. It got contaminated with brittmatious(sp?). But I had run out of clean bottles and used a couple of those last minute, so they probably weren't sanitized properly. It was my 3rd batch.
The yeast had started dancing around the bottle when it was opened and looked like sea monkeys.

 

[z987k]

Good to hear. as I said in my post, I never have a problem but the more risk that you can remove the better I suppose.

What was the beer like?

Well the first 24 or so had too much lemon in them - part of the recipe. The one's I had tonight were much much better. Don't know how they don't all taste the same except for a few days difference.

 

[Beermaker]

I guess it all depends on how well you mash the cap on. I dont use twisters, but I was thinking of trying them out on a batch of cream ale.