Bottling problems

[fizzypish]

Hi all,
I had the good fortune this weekend to be in a position to bottle a beer that I thought was ruined. I got a heap of kopperberg bottles from a local pup and bottled my last brew without any problem. This time around I didn't have such luck. I got a new type of caps which the hand held bottler didn't seem to like. It also couldn't grip the kopperberg bottles that well. A couple of the bottles actually began to crack as I was capping. I'm thinking the problem was related to the caps, the poor quality cappers (they're the shi**y black plastic ones) and the weaker kopperberg bottles. Anyone else run into issues like this?
Also, if anyone can reccomend a good quality capper that'd be great!

[Ciderhead]

the bench ones are best an there is really just one model sold in this market.
No chance you could get flip tops from a pub somewhere?

[RichC]

CH is right on the bench capper. Mine has never failed to cap a bottle correctly, never cracked a bottle, no problems at all.

[ColmR]

I didn't want to fork out for a bench capper but needed to replace the useless plastic/black one that wouldn't cap a lot of bottles. I got the red Better Brew Steel one from HBW and it's way sturdier and caps everything. Very happy with that

[Padraic]

Just in case you didn't believe the lads, bench top is teh way to go, never had a problem with mine.

[fizzypish]

Thats good enough for me. Time to invest!

[LordEoin]

I've always used the black plastic twin lever capper and only ever had 2 problems.
1 - The first few bottles ever, I was putting the caps into the capper then moving to the bottle. fail
2 - Once I tried bottling into cheapass lidl 'finkbrau' bottles. crack.

Copperberg bottles should be plenty strong enough and the capper should have no problem.
I'd move back to your normal type of cap and save the expense of another capper for later on.

[Damien M]

I'd go with the Lord!!! The Black capper hasn't failed me yet. but a few of my lessons learnt are:

Put a towel down as it gives the bottom of the bottle a grip and something to push against if your not quite square.
Put the cap on the bottle and offer the Capper on to the bottle. Cap on the magnet in the capper sometimes leads to unsquare fits and means that as soon as the bottle is filled a cap gets it closed over straight away.
The Wychwood (Hobgoblin, GingerBeard, Scarecrow) bottles are great but the collar is a bit deeper... good for strength harder for the capper to grip ... Himm a positive for the the bench capper.

If you have the Capper for a while (1000s of bottles) maybe the insert needs changing???

Just me Tuppence! 

[delzep]

Does a bench capper not need to be constantly adjusted if you have different size bottles? Theres so many different 500ml bottles out there

[imark]

Yes. But it's fairly simple. There's a trigger. You squeeze and release to lock. Having used both I'd say the bench capper has more pros than cons.

[RichC]

Does a bench capper not need to be constantly adjusted if you have different size bottles? Theres so many different 500ml bottles out there

Yes but I'd say max 6 minutes or so to cap 40 bottles. Is very simple and quick to adjust

[fizzypish]

I'm sold on the bench capper but is there any model out there that has some method of clamping it to a bench? I usually bottle on the kitchen table so I cant drill it down.

[RichC]

I'm sold on the bench capper but is there any model out there that has some method of clamping it to a bench? I usually bottle on the kitchen table so I cant drill it down.

I bottle in the kitchen too. Absolutely no need to clamp it down, it has a good sized base and is really steady even with pressure applied

[Padraic]

I've never clamped mine down and it's never been an issue against tiled floor or counter top.

[Ozbrewer]

I bottle in the kitchen using a bench capper. It's very stable. Mine is 15 years old now - a little bit of rust on it, but otherwise going well. When I cap I get a little rust on the bottle cap, just wipe it off and then write the batch number. I've had few friends have other cappers which I've used when helping bottle. I'll be sticking with the bench capper forever.