I saved a bunch of Boulevard bottles (shorties as I call them). Had the same issue with the seal not being right. Heck, most of them I could just pry off with my thumb. One of my cappers worked better and only with a certain gold-colored cap (not sure of brand, BSG maybe?), where the silver-colored caps wouldnt work. Not sure what the difference is.
I use a wing capper and as I mentioned in my prior post the capping issues seems to be hit and miss, out of a case maybe 3 will not cap completely. I have used the gold, silver, and currently the temp change O2 caps all with similar results. Then again I have had a normal Sam Adams or Dogfish bottle that just want’s to not cap right also.
Matt,
Probably getting away from the initial topic a little here, but thought I’d pass along some more info. I think I have an older version of your capper. It is adjustable with a small spring catch on the front near the vertical bar to pull out allowing the mechanism to slide. I have been using the capper for over 20 years and adjust it repeatedly during a bottling session as I use a variety of bottles. I hadn’t had much problem with caps sticking until about the time folks on the forum started talking about problems with the new caps that came on the market a couple years ago. At about that time I started having the problem with sticking. Its entirely possible that my cup is worn enough that it has become an issue and I should look at replacing it. Its also possible the caps are slightly different. After using a bench capper for a while I, and I imagine others, are able to feel the moment when the crimp completes so I suspect that there is either a slight difference in crimped cap morphology or a worn out cup (I’ll test this potential problem area soon).
Anyway, I suspect that the Don’s issue is with the wing capper and the varying shapes of bottle necks and probably shouldn’t have added my edit to my original post.
Jerry
Thanks for all the input. I have no idea but the capper and caps seemed to work fine on the new bottles sold at the brewing shop. I hated buying bottles just out of principal but being new to this I don’t need any additional potential problems. I just took the cider bottles back for the 10 cent deposit. Basically have me 10% off the new bottles. I will find out in a couple weeks how it turned out.
Don
Well no idea of what caused the issue, but with the new bottles and caps and using the same capper everything turned out fine. We drank over a dozen this weekend and all were good. Maybe just a combo of difficult bottles and a cheap capper.
Don
