Bad bottle caps

[BarbarianBrewer]

I've used the standard black wing capper from NB for years and never had a problem capping bottles. Of course, early on in my home brewing career I broke a few bottles but for the past few years the breaks were few and far between. However, with this past batch I had two bottles break off at the neck and one developed a hairline crack. Then yesterday one blew up after just two weeks conditioning (at about 72° F). I had assumed it was the one with the hairline crack but it wasn't. There must have been another one with a hairline crack that I just didn't notice. So I put a couple in the fridge; one being the one with the hairline crack. When opening the one with the hairline crack down the neck last night, the lip of the bottle completely broke off inside the bottle cap! The other one was fine had great carbonation. So over-carbonation wasn't the cause. These are the same set of bottles, same wing capper, and same technique I always use. The only change was the brand of bottle caps. Normally I use LD Carlson caps but, I stopped at a small LHBS I sometimes shop at and they only had BSG (26.5 mm oxygen absorbing) caps and some unbranded bulk caps. So I bought a bag each of red, blue, and green BSG caps plus a bag of the bulk caps. This is the first time I've bought BSG caps. With the first bag some of the caps were difficult to crimp, none cracked. But with this second bag, some of the BSG caps were almost impossible to crimp down and as mentioned multiple bottles broken. About halfway through I switched to the unbranded caps and had no more troubles. I don't think I'll touch the third bag. Has anyone had better experience with BSG bottle caps?

 

[Minbari]

You have a pair of calipers? Measure the inside. Wonder if they are a little smaller

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

I have a manual caliper and the some of the BSG caps might be at most 1/64" (0.4 mm) smaller. But, to be honest, that could easily be user error (or even user bias). It's not easy to measure the side of a bottle cap as there aren't any 90° surfaces. I have been thinking of getting a bench capper lately and just bought one. I'll post the results. I'll be trying it out on beer bottles filled with water before potentially wasting any more beer.

 

[west1m]

That bench capper looks like it puts pressure on the whole bottle where the wing looking cheapie capper only hooks on the lip. If there are any weak bottles the bench one should find them.

 

[Craigerrr]

I have a manual caliper and the some of the BSG caps might be at most 1/64" (0.4 mm) smaller. But, to be honest, that could easily be user error (or even user bias). It's not easy to measure the side of a bottle cap as there aren't any 90° surfaces. I have been thinking of getting a bench capper lately and just bought one. I'll post the results. I'll be trying it out on beer bottles filled with water before potentially wasting any more beer.
View attachment 16967

That bench capper looks identical to mine, I haven't had any issues with it, but have only used it 3 or 4 times.
I find that after crimping the cap it holds onto the bottle a little bit. Sometimes need to give the bottle a bit of a wiggle to free it from the bell.

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

That bench capper looks identical to mine, I haven't had any issues with it, but have only used it 3 or 4 times.
I find that after crimping the cap it holds onto the bottle a little bit. Sometimes need to give the bottle a bit of a wiggle to free it from the bell.

The instructions say to periodically apply silicone spray to help with sticking.

(Don't tell my wife I actually read the directions this time )

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

That bench capper looks like it puts pressure on the whole bottle where the wing looking cheapie capper only hooks on the lip. If there are any weak bottles the bench one should find them.

Yeah, the wing capper does put pressure on the neck of the bottle and that is where it was breaking; Making it another possible failure point. Actually putting pressure on the whole bottle always made me leery of using a bench capper.

 

[Ward Chillington]

I'd be more suspect of the bottles than the caps.

Glass, while hard, is also brittle and less forgiving than the malleable, soft steel crown you are press fitting it on to. The bottles take a beating compared to the three uses a cap gets...and that last use doesn't count!

There is also the second factor to the bottle being the root of the problem. Next time you are in the LHBS pick up a bottle they are selling and you should notice that it's got more heft to it than the reused commercial craft bottles you might use so the thinner glass is easier to break as it, while able to be reused, is not made for reuse!

As a very proud, self proclaimed cheap bastard and bottler, I will continue to live with the occasional broken neck of a bottle and pocket the savings.

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

I considered the bottles as the root cause but, what is the probability of no failures for a year or two then to have four break in one session? The only thing to change was the brand of bottle caps so I put that at the top of the list.

I am also a proud member of the Cheap Bastard Bottler club so please don't report me for upscaling my equipment! It was only about $15 over a new wing capper.

 

[Minbari]

The instructions say to periodically apply silicone spray to help with sticking.

(Don't tell my wife I actually read the directions this time )

You shouldn't be telling us! -3 man points.

 

[Donoroto]

I just re-use my caps...

(believe me?)

 

[Ward Chillington]

I considered the bottles as the root cause but, what is the probability of no failures for a year or two then to have four break in one session?

Timing my friend...I'm sure like me, you're not rotating the bottles ...why bother right? Anyhow, they retire jets after so many hours of flight for metal fatigue so I'm thinking along those lines...those bottles just got more air time.

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

There is also the second factor to the bottle being the root of the problem. Next time you are in the LHBS pick up a bottle they are selling and you should notice that it's got more heft to it than the reused commercial craft bottles you might use so the thinner glass is easier to break as it, while able to be reused, is not made for reuse!

Today I picked up a case of bottles from my LHBS and weighed them. All were 199 grams (+/- 1 g). Then I took a couple of cases of my bottles (making sure they had no water in them) and the vast majority were also approximately 199 g. But I found one was only 191 g and 5 that were in up around 216 grams! I'm thinking of weighing all my bottles to check for light ones. Thanks for that line of thinking @Ward Chillington.

While I haven't completely ruled out bottles as the root cause, I really don't think it's the bottles because in any process, if your failure rate is consistently very low, then you change one thing and your failure rate skyrockets, the most likely cause is the one thing you changes. Next thing to check is the wing capper I used. This weekend I'll use my new bench capper with the problematic caps and see how that goes.

 

[paulbern]

I broke a few bottles with a wing capper so I went a bought a bench capper similar to the one above. I haven't broken any bottles since! One caveat, though, is that you need to get the bottle centered properly or the cap won't go on straight. I've had a few bottle not fully carbonate because of this. I also give the bottle a couple of turns and a couple more presses just to make sure the cap is completely crimped. Haven't had a problem.

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

So, I did more testing with BSG and non-BSG caps and a the new bench capper.
Last weekend I bottled a whole batch with only NB caps. No problems. And today I bottled another batch (ESB) this time using BSG caps. After 12 bottles the bell broke off the bench capper.

After a quick trip to LBHS for a replacement. I continued bottling. After a couple dozen more bottles this happened...

After cleaning up I replaced all remaining bottle caps with NB caps and didn't have a single issue. Since none of the green BSG caps broke any bottles (though they didn't go on smooth either) I can't say all BSG caps are bad. But I can definitely say that this particular batch of blue BSG caps are defective.

Strike 1: Four broken bottles after two years, using another brand, with no broken bottles.
Strike 2: Capping bell broke off new bench capper
Strike 3: Bottle shattered using replacement bench capper.
BSG caps are out!

 

[Minbari]

how hard are you capping them? I have found that once I went to my bench capper I had to be careful to not over torque the caps on, since you have SO much more leverage.

modified mine with the hand capper bell

 

[Herm brews]

I use a wing capper. Occasionally, a cap feels resistant, as in there is a lot of tension in the wings. Whenever I feel that tension, I back off, reposition the bell, then proceed gently. So far, so good for me. I’ll put it to the test when I am home from Oregon - Herm’s Amber Ale awaits my return.

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

how hard are you capping them? I have found that once I went to my bench capper I had to be careful to not over torque the caps on, since you have SO much more leverage.

modified mine with the hand capper bell

View attachment 17138

The bottle shattered before it hit, what I call "the bump", when the cap seals. And considering multiple bottles also broke with a wing capper that previously only broke one bottle every two years, so I don't think it's technique or equipment. I don't rule either of those, or the bottles, but, I won't be doing any more testing with BSG caps. If I have similar problems with other caps I will be sure to post an update here.

 

[Minbari]

The bottle shattered before it hit, what I call "the bump", when the cap seals. And considering multiple bottles also broke with a wing capper that previously only broke one bottle every two years, so I don't think it's technique or equipment. I don't rule either of those, or the bottles, but, I won't be doing any more testing with BSG caps. If I have similar problems with other caps I will be sure to post an update here.

so wierd to suddenly have so many breaks. seen weirder things. my PID controller just went nuts because the PT100 went wonky all of the sudden.

 

[RoadRoach]

Yeah, the wing capper does put pressure on the neck of the bottle and that is where it was breaking; Making it another possible failure point. Actually putting pressure on the whole bottle always made me leery of using a bench capper.

In that photo, it's broken above the neck at the mouth where the cap pleats grab the bottle. It's just the sealing/clamping ring/mouth that's come off, like the caps might be a little too small or the bottle slightly large. There is a very slight difference between European import bottles and US bottles, probably because of metric conversion. While I know that some tolerance is necessary, apparently the Europeans disagree. A US cap will not work on a European bottle. I found this out the hard way. I have some Leffe Abbey bottles from Belgium that I was going to re-use, but after destroying more caps than I could get to seal on the bottles, I quit using them, or any other European bottle for that matter. I had exactly the same problem with Killan (Irish) bottles. Most of it seemed to be that the mouth of the bottle was a little too large for the cap, and the cap wasn't seating on the mouth before the wing capper was crushing the pleats. That let the cap get crooked in the capper, and pretty much destroy it. I haven't broken any bottles (yet), but have wasted several caps when I had one that was stubborn.