just bottled my 5th extract brew kit. so I haven’t done a lot of bottle capping. I haven’t had any problems until to night. when I start capping I will try to turn the cap no problem until tonight capped 48 bottles and had around 8 that I could move. so I removed the ones that I could turn a little and recapped. I was wondering if I need to get a new capper or is this normal?
the capper was bought brand new in jan. this year. I use the gold crown & the ones with a b on the cap.
It’s probably the bottles rather than the capper. Some bottles don’t fit the bell on that capper very well. Anchor bottles won’t seal with my Red Baron, for example. You should make sure the bell is screwed in tight, though.
Anchor bottles are an absolute no-go. I broke a sixer worth of Anchor bottles in one bottling session. I’ve never really ever had a problem with any other bottles (tall & slender like Sam Adams or short and squatty like Sierra Nevada).
Sometimes you just don’t get a good crimp the first time, you can try rotating 90 degrees and crimping again before you give up on the cap. Its also possible you got some bad caps I suppose, although I’ve never experienced that. NB bottles should be of standard type and easily cap-able.
Clarification: I meant rotate the bottle relative to the capper, not trying to rotate the cap 90 degrees.
Make sure the bell housing (The part that goes over the bottle cap) is screwed in tight. I’ve had no issues at all with the red baron other than occasionally that bell housing will unscrew. I’ve noticed this with trying to cap bottles with a short lip under the cap like Summit or others like that. However every now and again the bell will unscrew. Make sure it is tight and you should be good to go. If it is not well then sounds like there is another issue.
