Breaking bottles while bottling?

[CaptainMallard]

I broke a rekoderlig bottle with a wilco capper once, but i reckon the bottle had been knocked about a bit.

 

[pogierob]

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/cgi ... teel_Beer_
Crown_Capper%2ehtml&WD=bench%20capper&PN=Automatic_Bench_crown_capper%2ehtml%23a101331#a101331

Do yourself a favour, don't waste money replacing your current one unless you go with something like this. Bench capers are the easiest and you can adjust them for different siZed bottles.

 

[pogierob]

Sorry meant to mention I have been brewing for 12 years with a bench capper and I cannot recall ever having a bottle break.

 

[Maysie]

This is the bench capper I have:
http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/aca ... t6TeBDFLmE

Seems pretty good to me despite having a few plasicky bits on it (which would be better if they were made of metal - I am an engineer though, so I like everything to be as solid/sturdy as possible!).
Pretty good price too for what it is I think. It is definitely a bit bulky to store though, but then so are loads of bottles.

I cap mine, then turn them through 90 degrees and cap them again, even doing that I don't think it take's any longer than 5 seconds per bottle.

Haven't broken a bottle yet, but then again I don't have any OSH bottles either!

 

[CaptainMallard]

... you can adjust them {bench cappers} for different siZed bottles.

I have a mixed set of bottles. How do you adjust the height?

 

[Maysie]

On the one I have (link in my post above) you pull the red lug away from the silver vertical bar and the whole clamping mechanism just slides up the vertical silver bar onto the next slot and locks into position again. It is a 10 second job to adjust. :thumb:

 

[Sone]

I have a mixture of different sized bottles too, I guess you just need to be a bit more organised and have your bottles lined up in size order to save adjusting all the time.

 

[oldbloke]

There was somebody with a capping problem a few weeks back where the adjustment was done by having an adjustable bottle support - the capping tool stayed fixed and the support slid into a choice of slots. Kind of clever but didn't appeal to me.

If you never throw a bottle away you'll soon have enough all one size to deal with your output (or you could cadge at the pub)
I've got about 250 down in the garage...

 

[winelight]

I have a mixture of different sized bottles too, I guess you just need to be a bit more organised and have your bottles lined up in size order to save adjusting all the time.

I cannot see that working in practice. Let's see you get organised and bottle 5 different beers, each with 40 identical bottles, but each batch a different bottle size from the other batches. Fine so far.

Now, you drink at random, surely? One of these, two of those, three of that one... not 40 all of the same one before you start on the others? So you immediately end up with a mix of bottles again...

 

[oldbloke]

I have a mixture of different sized bottles too, I guess you just need to be a bit more organised and have your bottles lined up in size order to save adjusting all the time.

I cannot see that working in practice. Let's see you get organised and bottle 5 different beers, each with 40 identical bottles, but each batch a different bottle size from the other batches. Fine so far.

Now, you drink at random, surely? One of these, two of those, three of that one... not 40 all of the same one before you start on the others? So you immediately end up with a mix of bottles again...

You just need about a 600 bottle stash... About half filled at any time...

 

[Sone]

I cannot see that working in practice. Let's see you get organised and bottle 5 different beers, each with 40 identical bottles, but each batch a different bottle size from the other batches. Fine so far.

Now, you drink at random, surely? One of these, two of those, three of that one... not 40 all of the same one before you start on the others? So you immediately end up with a mix of bottles again...

I meant when you are capping them

I have accumulated quite a lot of bottles so far, just have them all over the place, need to find a better way to store them when not being used and sort them all out!

 

[pogierob]

Nobody can help you if you are not organised.
I now have a 400+ bottle collection with only two various sizes.
Adjust your collecting to minimize the problem or stick with the hand held capper and accept the collateral damage they appear to cause.

 

[winelight]

stick with the hand held capper and accept the collateral damage they appear to cause.

No, a hand capper doesn't cause any damage if it's a good one, and has other advantages over a bench capper that I posted earlier.

Here is a post from a guy who has capped 100 brews (brews that is, not bottles) with the model I bought.

The trick is, buy a good one and not a plastic one.

 

[NickW]

I have so far capped over 700 bottles of various types (including wychwood ) and haven't had a single one shatter and neither have I found a bottle that wouldn't cap.

I use a plastic hand capper.

I know on the grand scheme of things that is probably a relatively small amount of bottles, but I thought I'd add my experience.

 

[Aleman]

Let's see you get organised and bottle 5 different beers, each with 40 identical bottles, but each batch a different bottle size from the other batches. Fine so far.

Now, you drink at random, surely? One of these, two of those, three of that one... not 40 all of the same one before you start on the others? So you immediately end up with a mix of bottles again...

So when you bottle them you group the bottles by height . . .bottle all of one height adjust the capper bottle the next lot, adjust . . .and continue. It takes seconds to adjust a bench caper, I don't understand what the fuss is about. I often use a variety of bottles from 500ml down to 207ml and never have an issue with my bench capper.

Bottling is all about being organised, from the cleaning and sanitising, storing, through the filling and capping and finally storing again.

 

[winelight]

I have so far capped over 700 bottles of various types (including wychwood ) and haven't had a single one shatter and neither have I found a bottle that wouldn't cap.

I use a plastic hand capper.

Yes, some are good, one of the more experienced members is still using his 1984 Boots model.

 

[Speccy]

I had a Wilko one but after a while it started breaking bottles. They do wear out.

Do the Wilko/Young's plastic ones wear out? I had no trouble with mine for the first year or so, but just recently it's begun breaking a bottle or two per batch. I've also had a couple of bottles explode in storage for the first time. Initially I put that down to over-priming, but now I'm wondering if the capper had damaged them.

Anyone know how I can tell if it's worn out? I can't see anything physically wrong with it.

What's better about the metal ones? The plastic grippy bit looks a bit more glass-friendly, I suppose.

 

[Aleman]

What's better about the metal ones? The plastic grippy bit looks a bit more glass-friendly, I suppose.

Not a lot really . . .even the metal ones wear out and start to be a PITA

 

[winelight]

Do the Wilko/Young's plastic ones wear out?

Yes, definitely. About a year is how long mine lasted - a bit less actually.

What's better about the metal ones? The plastic grippy bit looks a bit more glass-friendly, I suppose.

Yes, and the metal bits don't wear out. Well, not in my lifetime, anyway. Of course, that's if you get the right one, like the one I posted the link to before.