Beer bottle capper?

Adamale · Mar 26, 2018

Hi all,
wondered if anyone had any advice regarding the following. I have a mixture of new glass beer bottles bought online and some commercial beer bottles recycled after drinking the contents. I've realised that my hand held capper (with handles) won't cap most of the commercial bottles.

To get round this problem I was thinking of buying a bench type capper; would such a capper be suitable for all kinds of beer bottles? And are there any cappers that you would recommend? Many thanks.

Adam

MmmBeer · Mar 26, 2018

Most commercial bottles should be compatible with your capper. There are a few, mainly continental beers that use caps of a larger size. A bench capper will be quicker and less hassle to use, but they are expensive and require adjustment everytime you use a bottle of different height. I'm still using the much maligned Wilko 2 handled job, without any disasters to date,other than the occasional mangled cap.

Chippy_Tea · Mar 26, 2018

Adamale said:
And are there any cappers that you would recommend? Many thanks.

Welcome to the forum.

Have a look at these threads -

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/bench-cappers.52993/#post-484558

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/can-anyone-reccomend-a-good-bench-capper.68053/

.

WierdFish · Mar 26, 2018

I had one of these bought for me for Christmas although I've not had a chance to use it yet. It is a fairly standard design which a lot of folk on the forum seem to have. It is height adjustable and suitable for 26 and 29mm caps so should do 99% of the bottles in your collection. I only have 2 sizes of bottle so the height thing isn't an issue for me but if you have a wide range of sizes you might find yourself having to adjust it all the time.

Ciaran12s · Mar 26, 2018

I ordered a bench capper a few months back at 40 quid. They emailed back and said they hadn't got that in stock and would I be happy with the one at 20. I took it and it arrived and it looks exactly the same as the 40quid one and works fine.
I got it from thehomebrewcompany.com and I don't even know what brand it is but it was 20 quid and works well. It also has two bells, one for regular caps and a larger one for larger caps. I've never used the larger one but the small one works on every bottle I've tried it with. They're all a mix of commercial beer and cider bottles.

Adamale · Mar 26, 2018

Hi all,
thank you to everyone for replying - very quickly too. A few bits and bobs to mull over for me then. Considering I bought my current capper years ago (recently started brewing again), I reckon I can withstand forking out for a decent bench capper - it'll hopefully be a good investment. Once again, many thanks.

Adam