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twist off beer bottles
Is it ok to cap onto twist off style beer bottles?
jscandal79 wrote:
Is it ok to cap onto twist off style beer bottles?
I have never tried to but I have read in several books that did not suggest it because they are too thin and hard to to get a good seal with the cap.
I would say no. Mainly because twist offs don't have the same lip as pry bottles to secure the cap. And they could let air seep in, which would degrade the quality of the brew.....
no, don't use twist offs. as stated above they won't seal correctly and your beer won't carbonate as well as oxygen getting into the bottles and oxidizing the brew.
if you want to recycle beer bottles from your purchasing and drinking of store-bought bottles, just buy the pry-off caps (Sam Adams, New Belgian, Smithwicks, etc...).
i would stear clear of the green bottles though, you want amber glass to prevent light strike of the beer once it is bottled (so no heineken, st pauli girl, etc...).
krausenator wrote:
i would stear clear of the green bottles though, you want amber glass to prevent light strike of the beer once it is bottled (so no heineken, st pauli girl, etc...).
Heineken, etc will do, green and clear, you just have to be careful to keep them in the dark......I use the Green Grolsch flip tops all the time......if you can't find a way to do that.....use the brown (amber) bottles............
yeah, i use the grolsch flip tops too.
it is just easier for newer brewers to not use them; eliminates one avenue that an off taste could be introduced to your beer when you are still trying to get the brewing basics down.
I've always heard and read that you shouldnt, but every now and again i wonder how bad could it be?? But then again caps are cheap and its easy enough to put them on with a capper, so the benefit of twist off doesnt outweigh the risk to me.
NO!!! to the original question, they don't seal properly
I will be the dissenting voice.
The main problem with twistoffs is that they are difficult to cap with a wing capper because of the shape of the ridge under the crown. This picture uses normal recappable bottles for examples, but it will give you an idea what you are up against with a wing capper.
Twistoffs generally work fine with a bench capper. They can be more lightly built, so don't cowboy them around too much.
This is easy enough to test. If you have a benchcapper, just bottle a couple out of each batch in twistoffs and see for yourself. They have worked in all my tests so far, and I am considering using them for giveaway bottles that you don't expect to get back.
[edited to correct typo]
Seeing as non twist offs are easy to get and more reliable, I'd say don't use twist offs... but I'd hate to break it to everyone, 99.9% of the time twist offs seal just fine. I've done it and most of the people in my club have with out ever having any ill effects.
I've capped twist-offs with a hand capper with great success... If you're afraid, then set aside a couple of twist-offs and cap a few to see what happens.
its all about getting a seal, and not cracking the bottle. If you can get that reliably with twist offs good for you. it is easy enough to ask a local restaurant to set aside pop top bottles for a while. they usually are happy to do so.
I have used a 1.5L wine bottle with a traditional cork before and it worked, but the first time the beer was a bit under carbonated. by turning the wine bottle on its side (so that the cork is under water) during carbonation it will retain the CO2 head much better.
BUT if you have solids/ sediment you need to be careful when pouring since it will be on the side wall instead of the bottom
efloyd18 wrote:
its all about getting a seal, and not cracking the bottle. If you can get that reliably with twist offs good for you. it is easy enough to ask a local restaurant to set aside pop top bottles for a while. they usually are happy to do so.
I have used a 1.5L wine bottle with a traditional cork before and it worked, but the first time the beer was a bit under carbonated. by turning the wine bottle on its side (so that the cork is under water) during carbonation it will retain the CO2 head much better.
BUT if you have solids/ sediment you need to be careful when pouring since it will be on the side wall instead of the bottom
You can get expansion plastic type stoppers that will work in wine bottles and beer. I've used them on both. The beer carbonates normally as the stopper expands to for a tight seal when the lever is pushed down on the side of the stopper. they're reusable and just need to be soaked in sanitizer before using.
DC
I tried this on a few as I ran out of bottles to use. The twist offs worked fine actually held in a lot of carbonation...........more than normal beer....plus it seemed like the cap seated really well. I just screwed a cap on........it was pretty hard to get off but it did work well.
Have used twist-off bottles when I was short of regular, worked OK with my old cast iron geared capper using standard caps.
However, BEWARE that if you OPEN them with a church-key type opener, instead of twisting them off, sometimes a chunk of the top lip of the bottle cracks off, and winds up in the bottom of the bottle, ready to be swallowed down your anxious little gullet!
Sharp glass the guts don't appreciate! imp
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