So what can I do besides ordering another kit and some bottles. I made a first batch. Two weeks in primary, two weeks in secondary, and now to bottling. I can’t get the caps to hold on these woodchuck cider bottles I had been saving. They are brown, pry off, so I figured perfect. I can’t get a standard crown cap to hold. It looks as the lip of the bottle I too large for the caps that came with the kit. I managed to get 42 to hold. But all look to be barely on. A few even popped within ten minutes of capping. I am afraid as they carbonate the rest will pop. I am planning ordering 2 cases of bottles and another kit. But are these bad bottles to use? Do you think any of this first batch will be salvageable?
Don
It is possible the problem could be the caps. Are they Fermenter Favorites from NB? Just keep trying with the caps. You might find enough that will go on correctly. I’ve never had a problem with L D Carlson gold crown caps.
I had ordered a couple of bags of these caps. NB will not post any negative reviews of these caps.
They were what ever cap came with their big mouth bubbler kit. It looks as the cap isn’t long enough to hold or the bottle has a thicker rim. Maybe a euro style bottle? every other bottle I have is twist off so nothing to compare to. Do they make different length caps? If you look at these crimped they are not wrapped around. Like the cap is too short for the bottle. I was going to order some bottles but found woodchuck cider on sale and thought I hit the goldmine. Full bottles for the price of empties.
Don
What capper are you using?
Order the beer bottles and try to get caps from a different source. Keep the bottles that you do have capped as cool as possible to slow carbonation. Try recapping these bottles with the new caps from a different source.
I had been using the Super Agata bench capper. You are asking OP this question?
It will take about 3-4 days to get caps. Can I recap then or will it be too late(
Don
They are 60 deg f. Should I put them in the fridge?
Don
Use the refrigerator if you can make the room. As cool as possible is the best. Be sure to get back to us on whether the problem is the caps or the bottles.
I have heard that the woodchuck bottles are hard to cap. I also have first hand experience with the caps and capper that came with that kit. The capper broke after 3 bottles, so I went and got a bench capper from my local place. The caps we also hard to put on and many got stuck in the capper and resulted in crooked caps. Only a few out of the batch didn’t actually seal though.
I got a big bag of caps from my local place, I think Brewers Best, and they were much easier. Took me at least half the time to cap the second batch, and not one crooked cap.
I have had similar issues with cider bottles. For the most part they cap fine, occasionally I will get a flat bottle. When I use these I crimp twice to hopefully get a better seal.
Well I went and bought new caps and two cases of bottles. As I was transferring over into the new bottles I didn’t need an opener. Every cap popped off with my fingers. I was talking to the guy at the store and he said they are odd bottles and that woodchuck gets them from china. Anyway the new bottles capped fine with the same capper. So in a few weeks I’ll find out.
Don
I use a bench capper and have used a variety of cap types for Woodchuck cider bottles with no issues. I suspect that the wing capper is not fitting right on the nect of these bottles and not allowing the caps to completely set. I could be wrong, but I’ve used these cider bottles many times without a problem. Back in my wing style capper days I remember many bottles that did not work with the capper. Hopefully, the suggestions provided by others folks here will work for you, but my guess is still capper, not caps. (edit: That being said I have had a lot more of the caps in recent months that seem to be different than in the past. They tend to stick in the cup of the capper much of the time requiring the bottle to be pulled or twisted out.)
Jerry
[quote=“jdwilliam”] (edit: That being said I have had a lot more of the caps in recent months that seem to be different than in the past. They tend to stick in the cup of the capper much of the time requiring the bottle to be pulled or twisted out.)
Jerry[/quote]
I have found this to be an issue with the capper and not the caps. I have one of the quick adjust bench cappers and it seems the notch for the standard bottle is just a bit too low so you can’t slide the bottle under the capper when it’s at the height it needs to be at to successfully cap and release the bottle.
To remedy this you can do a couple things. First is to crimp it down at the higher level then lift the handle to “adjust mode” and push it down to the next notch and crimp a second time. This will release the bottle and complete the crimp. Another method that I discovered yesterday that was much quicker was to put the bottle under the capper and adjust it down onto the bottle with a small amount of force, then just pull the handle down to cap it being careful not to let it adjust back upwards.
I always thought it was weird that my SNPA bottles crimped just fine but all my standard bottles got stuck. I was ready to toss my bench capper away and stick with my wing style capper till i discovered the solution to the problem.
[quote=“mattnaik”]I have found this to be an issue with the capper and not the caps. I have one of the quick adjust bench cappers and it seems the notch for the standard bottle is just a bit too low so you can’t slide the bottle under the capper when it’s at the height it needs to be at to successfully cap and release the bottle.
To remedy this you can do a couple things. First is to crimp it down at the higher level then lift the handle to “adjust mode” and push it down to the next notch and crimp a second time. This will release the bottle and complete the crimp. Another method that I discovered yesterday that was much quicker was to put the bottle under the capper and adjust it down onto the bottle with a small amount of force, then just pull the handle down to cap it being careful not to let it adjust back upwards.
I always thought it was weird that my SNPA bottles crimped just fine but all my standard bottles got stuck. I was ready to toss my bench capper away and stick with my wing style capper till i discovered the solution to the problem.[/quote]Not sure if it would work or not, but how about adjusting the capper to the higher level, and finding a thin slice of something that will raise the bottle up just enough to make up for the higher level adjustment?
That would most definitely work as well.
New Belgium Celebration bottles are slightly shorter than the bulk of my bottles which are New Glarus. I adjust for this with a one-eighth thick plastic disk to keep the column from flexing when capping these bottles. The New Glarus bottles will still slide under the bell of the Super Agata.
Not sure what type of tolerance they have when making those cappers but I have to assume that it will vary enough from capper to capper to get different results from person to person. Once I made peace with that, I started liking my capper a lot more. It just sucks that 99% of my bottles require an adjustment.
