Bottling Problem?!?!

[cafonabob11]

Hi, I'm new to this forum. Thanks in advance for any help.

I was bottling my first batch of beer in many years (I've done this before). I had about 24 25oz bomber size bottles, a mix of popular US brands (Guinness/Stella/Sierra Nevada).

Now my capper will only work on Sierra Nevada bottles. Works great. Will not close Guinness or Stella bottle. It just goes to one side or the other, if you force it you break the bottle.

Am I crazy? Are the bottles metric or something? I have a $11.95 free shipping capper. Maybe need a better capper?

Please advise.

 

[cafonabob11]

Also of course not twist type bottles. They are crown bottles. They look identical.

 

[thehaze]

I don't think they look identical. The mouth must be very different, as some bottles can only be capped using a bench capper, as the butterfly type ones cannot cap bottles that do not have a distinct shape.

 

[RM-MN]

There are two sizes of caps for the two sizes of bottles. Amazon has the European size caps.
https://www.amazon.com/29mm-European-Bottle-Caps-Count/dp/B0064OE9LW
You also need the European size capper to use them. Unless you have a huge supply of the European (29mm) size bottles, just take them to recycling and replace them with the more common size bottles.

 

[cafonabob11]

Thank you. I bought these bottles in a ghetto bodega in NYC. Maybe they were not intended for USA sale or some shady thing like that. That would explain why the Sierra Nevada bottles worked. Wow.

 

[wallyLOZ]

You may want to invest in a bench capper. I ran into the same capping issues with some bottles from American breweries. Boulevard Brewing out of Kansas City is one example. In the attached picture are three different bottle top configurations. The one on the left I would call a typical American made bottle. The one in the center is from Boulevard. I believe Anchor is another with that type bottle. The one on the right is from Hoffbrau if memory serves me. The two on the right don't work well with the wing style capper. All three will work with a bench capper. Good luck.

 

[balrog]

@wallyLOZ has it exactly right about wing cappers and bottles -- the neck has to be enough height that the wing capper grabs the underneath side and compresses the top down, squeezing between the top and that underside of the neck ridge. If the neck ridge is too short, like the two right bottles, the wing capper cannot squeeze as it is built for that long height and there's no way to adjust typical wing cappers.

A bench capper just pushes against the whole bottle, and while you have to set the height of a bench capper differently for different height bottles, it makes no nevermind what the neck shoulder profile looks like.

EDIT: All that having been said, @RM-MN prolly has your right answer with different DIAMETER cap / bottle opening diameter size, as being the issue.

 

[Saunassa]

I use a bench capper and it works great and it is easy to adjust the height with the push of a button. I do have a red Barron winged capper as a back up in case something happens in the middle of a bottling session.

 

[Soulshine2]

Hi, I'm new to this forum. Thanks in advance for any help.

I was bottling my first batch of beer in many years (I've done this before). I had about 24 25oz bomber size bottles, a mix of popular US brands (Guinness/Stella/Sierra Nevada).

Now my capper will only work on Sierra Nevada bottles. Works great. Will not close Guinness or Stella bottle. It just goes to one side or the other, if you force it you break the bottle.

Am I crazy? Are the bottles metric or something? I have a $11.95 free shipping capper. Maybe need a better capper?

Please advise.

what capper is it. I use a red baron wing style plastic capper.
the capper obviously only works with a specific design of the bottles neck. take a look at the bottles you use. a side look of the neck portion will tell you what and wont work. I dont use bombers ,especially sierra nevadas. the neck swell is too short for the capper to pull the cap down to seal. I use standard 12 oz long necks and it works every time. If you have broken bottles, its your technique in capping. Every time I read where someone has dents or impressions in the center of the cap or broken bottles its because theyre applying too much downward pressure instead of wrist . My capper has a magnetic post in the middle of the cup. I put a sanitized cap on the post, flip it over onto a bottle and press the wings down until you feel pressure as the cap contacts the bottle .At that point that magnetic post has retracted out of the way. the metal jaws will engage both sides of that swell in the bottles neck and pull the cap down to seal with slow but firm wrist twist . no dents, no broken bottles.
Heres another thing. flip your capper over and look at the metal jaw inserts. You might have to slip them out and flip them around for a different size diameter. just make sure theyre both showing the same size when installed.

 

[balrog]

Neglecting some parallax, blowing up that photo shows 3 different sized bottles @wallyLOZ
Left is largest diameter
Middle is smallest diameter
Right one is just about midway in between the other two, diameter-ish-ly speaking.

 

[GrogNerd]

Just popped in to say those red baron wing cappers have the pullout metal piece that reverses for 2 sizes of bottles

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/attachments/capper-0-jpg.10048/

 

[balrog]

That only helps with neck diameter size, though, right? Not the cap/opening diameter which requires a different bell and caps, doesn't it?

 

[GrogNerd]

pretty sure it's for different cap sizes