Hi all,
Got a quick question by brother wanted to find the answer to. He is new to homebrewing and wants to use bottles that are made for twist off caps. I have not tried that so I could not give any good answers. Anyone out there in the ether tried to bottle with twist off bottles?
I haven’t tried to bottle with twist off caps. However, I know that the twist off caps are slightly thinner than their pry-off bretheren, and I have heard that you can’t get as good of a seal using bottles with twist off caps. I would recommend using pry-off bottles if you have access to them.
I have used them successfully when I didn’t have enough pry off bottles. Some people say they don’t seal correctly but I didn’t have a problem with that.
A few years ago Dogfish got a pallet of twist off bottles by mistake and ran them through their pry off equipment. I wound up with a case of twist off punkin ale and didn’t see any carbonation issues. Apparently they also tested bottles in their QC lab and didn’t find problems.
I’ve had one or two make it into my bottles and they seem to cap and carbonate just fine.
The biggest issue I’m aware of is that the bottles are typically thinner glass than pry-off bottles and might not hold up to higher carbonation levels.
But, since most pry-offs aren’t intended for reuse anyway, the difference in glass thickness may be minimal.
I have caped a few twist offs.( by accident ) They worked fine. I would not set out doing so.
I know people like Sierra Nevada and Boulevard have phased out their twist-off bottles because of QC issues. So I wouldn’t bottle anything in a twist-off you want to last a long time.
FWIW I found a six pack of Bud Light from 2006 someone had hidden in the attic of the bathhouse in our campground. They were twist off and they were all only 1/3-1/2 full. They were definitely still sealed, so I’m guessing the bottles don’t really seal that well and they evaporated.
The important question is, did you chill and drink it?
They went down the drain, and they smelled pretty rank when I dumped them out. While I have faith in my tolerance for mycotoxin, it wasn’t a risk I wanted to take.
I think the biggest problem is using a two handle capper with them. The capper can crush the neck of some twist off bottles. I have had this happen to me a couple of times. I have heard they work fine if you have a bench capper. YMMV
Paul
They’ve worked for me in the past. I certainly would try to avoid it if at all possible, but in a pinch it will work. I think there’s potential for the bottles to crack upon crimping due to the irregular crimping surface, not to mention the likelyhood of poor sealing which can allow more rapid oxidation and ultimately “flat beer”.
They work fine if you regularly cap with normal pry off caps. It doesn’t work as well with twist off caps(I don’t even know where you would get those)