Capper broke on bottling day!

[hoppypleasures]

Title says it all, this last Sunday I was bottling an IPA and my capper broke catastrophically.

Fortunately it was at the end of my bottling session, and I just had two more bottles to cap, so i didn't waste a lot of beer. I think I would've lost it if it was right at the start. Time to get something better!

So, horror stories with cappers, does anyone care to share?

 

[Miraculix]

Great thread, mine is also getting quite wobbly... Cannot give you any recommendations but surely am. Curious to hear some myself!

 

[slym2none]

InB4 "Bench cappers are best"

 

[BalloonGuy]

I have a bench capper. It is way better/faster than the hand held. I did break it 3 bottles in one day. I was happy to have the old handheld until I could get the bench replaced. The moral of the story is to keep a spare...

 

[flars]

Having spare parts or equipment on hand can be essential. Usually budgets can get in the way of accomplishing this.

I've been using the Ferrari Agata bench capper for 10 years. The one with the button for bottle height adjustment. Purchased another one at a nearby home brew shop a few days ago for $35. This was the same price I paid 10 years ago at the local shop. Just thought it might be a good idea to have a spare on hand.

There are hammer cappers where just the bell would be used to set the crown cap. Wouldn't trust that too much with the lighter bottles used now a days.

 

[hoppypleasures]

Great thread, mine is also getting quite wobbly... Cannot give you any recommendations but surely am. Curious to hear some myself!

Well, with mine there was no wooble, nothing at all. It just snapped when I was applying presure to cap the bottle. At least it did cap that bottle...

 

[kh54s10]

I think that people (I am not accusing you of this) put too much pressure on the end of the handles. I found that if you rotate your hands, pushing down on the outside and kind of pulling up on the inside you get a lot of force without putting all that force on the end of the handle.

I have been using the same type of capper for 6+ years. Though I do keg also. It gets a lot less uses than it did originally. I would estimate that I have bottled about 50 five gallon batches of 50 bottles for about 2,500 bottles.

 

[Ogroat]

Was it a normal long neck bottle you were capping when it broke? I've got the same capper and, although it will work, I've noticed that it really does not like stubby bottles (like the ones Founders uses) or even Belgian-style longnecks that don't taper quite so sharply.

 

[JohnSand]

When my first capper started feeling a bit loose, I bought another. The first became a back-up. But I also collected swing top bottles, of which I now have a couple of cases.
Then I switched to kegging!

 

[eric19312]

I only bottle a few beers these days but I got a nice bench capper for when I do. This guy is awesome... https://www.williamsbrewing.com/STEEL-COMMERCIAL-CAPPER-P3902.aspx#.WcCBQRdPQk0.mailto

 

[dsaavedra]

I had a wing capper break a quarter of the way through a double-batch bottling session. One emergency trip to the LHBS later and now I have a bench capper. It doesn't get used much because I switched to kegging on like the next batch, but the bench capper sure is nice when I have to bottle a few for sharing/competitions/etc. So much faster and a better seal IMO than the wing capper.

 

[slym2none]

*Itoldyaso.jpeg*

 

[MaryB]

I have 2 hand cappers and a bench capper. Backup for the backup! And I keg now! Only time i bottle is if I am taking beer to a friends house for a BYOB party, if I visit family I take a keg with, if I bring bottles they drink all my beer and I am stuck drinking horse piss in a can... they all think Budweiser is real beer... but will gladly drink my ale first! With a keg it at least lasts a day... and yes I have a big family, might be 15-20 drinking beer or wine.

 

[brandonlovesbeer]

I've gone through many of that capper. It's just a flimsy model. I finally got a bench capper.

 

[Brownalemikie]

I bought the middle-of-the-line Grifo bench capper for $45 shipped and still have my Red Baron wing capper for back up. No more worries with the Grifo.

 

[foam_top]

I have the same capper. Never considered it breaking but now I think I'll buy a backup just in case.

 

[hoppypleasures]

I think that people (I am not accusing you of this) put too much pressure on the end of the handles. I found that if you rotate your hands, pushing down on the outside and kind of pulling up on the inside you get a lot of force without putting all that force on the end of the handle.

That might've been the issue. Not that put a lot of pressure on the end of the handles. I always try to put my hands on the inside of the handles. But still, I wasn't too surprised it broke, the plastic on those things doesn't look super strong to me.

 

[HopGobbler]

Always have a backup on a single point of failure with something like beer preservation. My first batch I didn't have enough bottles so I bottled in growlers with screw cap lids. Always have a backup plan, I have 2 wing bottle cappers, but plan to invest in a bench capper at some point.

My biggest issue was the crappy bottle filler that came with my starter kit would always stay open and spray beer out between bottles and all over the floor. I went out and bought 3 or 4 spring tip bottle fillers and have not had a problem since.

 

[Dr_Jeff]

look for a Climax capper on ebay
I have one, it is likely 70+ years old, should last several hundred more, the way its made

 

[Mainer]

I use my wife's grandfather's bench capper (visible on the far left of the photo). It's 60 or 70 year old American steel and cast iron. That baby will never break on me. It may, however, someday rust solid.

 

[sancycling]

I have a bench capper and half way through bottling day it broke.
I finished capping all the bottles by unscrewing the capper bell, I used a hammer to tap the caps to the bottle. At the end of the day I got pretty good at it. Perfect seal in all the bottles.

This is just a suggestion that might be able to work in case of "emergency"

I machined the piece that broke out of aluminium and I don't expect it to break again.

 

[MaryB]

I know many of you hate Northern Brewer but this capper is built like a tank. I do have 2, one is still in the original shipping plastic... http://www.northernbrewer.com/fermenters-favorite-royal-crown-bottle-capper

 

[Brownalemikie]

I know many of you hate Northern Brewer but this capper is built like a tank. I do have 2, one is still in the original shipping plastic... http://www.northernbrewer.com/fermenters-favorite-royal-crown-bottle-capper

I disagree....that was my first capper. It came with my first kit from Northern Brewer. One of the hinges broke after about 130 bottles. I now have a Grifo bench capper with a Red Baron wing capper for back-up. Somehow I don't think I'll ever need the wing capper

Hope the link works:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BENCH-CAPPER-CAP-HOMEBREW-BEER-SODA-KOMBUCHA-BOTTLE-GRIFO-ECO-KIT-w-CROWN-CAPS-/331211485425

 

[shellsbells]

My first capper was the BBS-branded one. I think I got it on sale for $4 at Chapters/Indigo (and it came with a bunch of caps, too!) It actually held up for like a year and a half or so, but I wasn't surprised when it broke. Like you, it was near the end of a bottling session. Luckily I had a few swing-top bottles kicking around, so transferred the remaining beer to those. After that, I made sure to keep a spare capper on hand (though I haven't needed to use it yet)

 

[Miraculix]

Thanks for the thread. Will buy a new one and keep the old wilko one as a backup.