Reusing bottle caps

[awalton007]

Can you reuse bottle caps after they have been popped off?

 

[richc]

Why would you want to? New caps are cheap.

 

[Davybarman]

Personally I would have presumed you could not reuse crown caps.

Would they not be deformed after use with a bottle opener? I would hazard a guess that if you reused them, you would not get a adequate seal on the bottles to allow carbonation.

I personally have tried this but maybe someone else here might have.

 

[awalton007]

I work in q bar so we get thousands lol. That's where I've got all my bottles lol

 

[Davybarman]

I work in q bar so we get thousands lol. That's where I've got all my bottles lol

Well you have a good source of bottles. You can pick new crown caps up relatively cheaply online and at the local LHBS. I love to reuse and recycle but sometimes we do have to bite the bullet . You would not want to lose 5 gallons of a new beer.

You can get away using Grolsh type bottles if you have these in the bar.

 

[awalton007]

Lol unfortunate not. I'll think I'll have to get some caps then I'm sure eBay will be a good source

 

[Davybarman]

Yes you can get a couple hundred for a couple of pound

 

[Crastney]

it depends...
if the bottle opener has deformed the cap, and the whole thing has a line across it, then probably not.
However, if the bottle opener has only pushed up the edges of the seration, and the top is still flat then possibly, yes.
I've re-sealed a crown cap bottle before now, and had to use mole-grips to do it, but it sealed perfectly ok.