Bench bottle capper

Medarius

Medarius

Active Member
Trial Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2017
Messages
179
Reaction score
109
Points
43
Greetings all,
Since bottling has become the most time consuming part of my brewing, I am looking to get a bench bottle capper to replace the cheap dbl handle one I now use.

Can anyone recommend one brand over another, or is there little difference between the $60 and $100 models?

As always, thanks in advance and happy brewing
 
Medarius said:
Greetings all,
Since bottling has become the most time consuming part of my brewing, I am looking to get a bench bottle capper to replace the cheap dbl handle one I now use.

Can anyone recommend one brand over another, or is there little difference between the $60 and $100 models?

As always, thanks in advance and happy brewing
Click to expand...

I've been using this for several years. I don't bottle very much any more, but it has held up well. Reasonably priced too. https://smile.amazon.com/Ferrari-Su...8-1-fkmr0&keywords=super+agatha+bottle+capper
 
I use the same one, only issue was my magnet fell out, no biggie I improvise
 
I have a little hand crimper that works... ok. I generally use plastic bottles so I dodge this issue, but I may have to address it sooner than later. I wonder if my wifes wine corker would work for it.
 
Medarius said:
Greetings all,
Since bottling has become the most time consuming part of my brewing, I am looking to get a bench bottle capper to replace the cheap dbl handle one I now use.

Can anyone recommend one brand over another, or is there little difference between the $60 and $100 models?

As always, thanks in advance and happy brewing
Click to expand...
I bought a heap of swing top bottles.......makes life a lot easier.
 
I found that I can cap bottles faster with a wing type capper a lot faster than I can with my bench capper. I fill 10-12 bottles, set my caps on them and cap them as an assembly line. Fill more bottles and cap again. I mainly use the bench top capper to cap bottles that have irregular necks that wing type cappers won't grip on.
 
I'm still using the hand-held plastic version that came with my first brewing equipment kit. Didn't seem like a priority for me to spend my money on a different one.
 
fastengine said:
I found that I can cap bottles faster with a wing type capper a lot faster than I can with my bench capper.
Click to expand...
I am glad to hear someone says this! I have never used a bench mounted, so I have no means of comparison, but just couldn't imagine one being significantly faster than my "wing-type", which fwiw is (like Nosybears) the one that came with my very first brewkit >10years ago and has capped many a thousand bottles.
Seeing as I only brew ~25L at a time, I can fill all of my .5L bottles, line 'em up, place the caps on, and then perform the actual capping in under 5 Minutes.
 
Full disclosure: We do have a bench capper and use it for corking my wife's wines. I've used it for Belgian bottles with their 29mm crowns but on balance, the little red plastic wing capper works just fine and is ultimately faster.
 
This is what drives me crazy about this forum. The OP asked a question about the difference between certain bench cappers. Posts 2-3 are about his question. Post 4-10 are not, they are about why other brewers don’t want to use a bench capper. I get that the OP did mention a time aspect in his post, but he’s not asking if a bench capper would be faster or slower than the wing style. He’s asking about the difference in quality for different bench cappers. It’s frustrated me on multiple occasions when I’ve wanted the group’s opinion on an issue, but instead I got replies stating why I shouldn’t go down the path that I wanted to go. Please, people, when replying to a post, answer the question at hand, not why you wouldn’t do what the person is asking about.
 
jeffpn said:
Please, people, when replying to a post, answer the question at hand, not why you wouldn’t do what the person is asking about.
Click to expand...
@jeffpn: I am 100% guilty! Please don't take this the wrong way, but let me point out...
a) you are correct, thread drift is not desirable, but...
b) if most people on the thread don't use bench mounted cappers and / or have no opinion or usable information about them, the OP will receive no answers and the thread will remain empty. At the end of the day, it is a fine line between no content, some content, good content and bad content.
c) the OP explicitly mentioned "Since bottling has become the most time consuming part of my brewing", which would imply an assumption that a bench mounted would save time. Pointing out that this may well not be the case and buying a bench mounted, regardless of price, might well be a waste of money, seems fair (to me).
d) in my experience, this is typical of what happens on many if not most internet forums. I considered being the 2nd poster in this thread, with a bunch of "don't want to hijack...etc", but then decided to see where it was going to go first. Turns out, as almost expected, my own question (is bench mounted significantly faster?) got answered without me even having to try to hijack the thread...:p

Edit: in other words, if it makes you feel any better, at least I got something out of the thread. If the OP has a problem with the drift, then he/she is free to mix the discussion up again...
 
Last edited:
The aforementioned bench capper used to cork wines and cap Belgian bottles is similar to this model:

https://smile.amazon.com/C-Kraus-CO...03&sr=8-2-fkmr0&keywords=plastic+bench+capper

The outcome of using it is in no way qualitatively better nor faster than using the simple wing capper:

https://smile.amazon.com/Ferrari-LD...F8&qid=1521828985&sr=8-1&keywords=wing+capper

And the wing capper costs a third of the bench capper. There are other models of bench capper available starting at around $35 each on Amazon. To Jeffpn's point, it's off-topic but the wing capper at $15 each produces about the same result and speed as the more expensive bench models. Put another way, there's no increase in velocity from using one capper over the other.
 
And I decided not to publish my reasoning on why we answered the OP's real question - SBA Climber did a good job of that.
 
sbaclimber said:
@jeffpn: I am 100% guilty! Please don't take this the wrong way, but let me point out...
a) you are correct, thread drift is not desirable, but...
b) if most people on the thread don't use bench mounted cappers and / or have no opinion or usable information about them, the OP will receive no answers and the thread will remain empty. At the end of the day, it is a fine line between no content, some content, good content and bad content.
c) the OP explicitly mentioned "Since bottling has become the most time consuming part of my brewing", which would imply an assumption that a bench mounted would save time. Pointing out that this may well not be the case and buying a bench mounted, regardless of price, might well be a waste of money, seems fair (to me).
d) in my experience, this is typical of what happens on many if not most internet forums. I considered being the 2nd poster in this thread, with a bunch of "don't want to hijack...etc", but then decided to see where it was going to go first. Turns out, as almost expected, my own question (is bench mounted significantly faster?) got answered without me even having to try to hijack the thread...:p

Edit: in other words, if it makes you feel any better, at least I got something out of the thread. If the OP has a problem with the drift, then he/she is free to mix the discussion up again...
Click to expand...
I'm with you .......I think it's called freedom of speech!
 
Freedom of speech has nothing to do with it, but that’s an American right, anyway! :p That’s a very misunderstood right here in the states as well. Freedom of speech means that the American government will make no laws that restrict what people can say. I don’t think our government really cares what we discuss in this forum.
 
Aub said:
I'm with you .......I think it's called freedom of speech!
Click to expand...
um.....no.
My post was at most an opinion about proper forum etiquette.
As jeffpn points out, that has absolutely nothing to do with "freedom of speech".

So, how is this for thread drift... :D
 
Last edited:
jeffpn said:
I think he got all of the relevant information he asked for by post #3 anyway.
Click to expand...
Seems that way...
Thread drift aside, to be honest, I am actually surprised at how few here indicated using a bench mounted capper (primarily) at all!
Listening to other homebrewers, it always sounded to me like that was one of those pieces of equipment that one should aspire to eventually buying, for reasons which remained to me, for lack of inquiry, mysterious.
 
Thankyou Jeff for saying what I always think when reading forums, on this or any other brew site. It always makes me chuckle to read the replies that say " I don't use that method" which in no way helps someone looking for tips or help on a subject.

I am glad that everyone who uses the wing type cappers are happy with theirs. However the reason I started this thread is,
I find that the wing capper needs constant adjustment ( bell is constantly slipping) and if I don't pay attention to alignment, I can snap the top off a bottle in a heartbeat.

Thanks to those who answered the OP and again thanks JeffP for saying what many think when trying to find help in forums,

Reminds me my first post , when I was asking about beer labels for a buddy, almost every response said " I don't use labels" , " I just mark bottles" It sure was helpful in finding labels, to know who doesn't use them. :)

PS. Thanks in advance to all those about to tell me the proper way to use a wing capper
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Copyright © 2007-2024 Brewer's Friend, Inc. - Send Feedback - Terms - RSS Feed - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

Back
Top