Hi All,
Here recently, I’ve noticed that several of my bottles are getting small chips on the mouth of the bottle. I have a few ideas, but wanted to see if anyone has had this happen before. I recently started brushing the bottles as well as soaking in oxyclean. I also bought a super agata bench capper at about the same time. When I use the bottle brush, sometimes the twisted metal shaft scrapes the bottle lip. These are the only two things I can come up with for cause. Anyone have this happen before? I’m hoping it’s not the capper, the bell looks OK.
When I first started brewing I had a bottle brush that would tear up bottles. It was oversized and required way too much effort to get the brush into a bottle.
“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
I’m gonna give the bench capper one more try and see if I get any more chips. I thought of another issue, I sometimes repurpose commercial bottles. Wonder if they are a bit thinner and are the ones giving me trouble. Hard to tell after the label comes off.
I had one of the bottle openers (for lack of a better description shaped somewhat like a yield sign) that occasionally chipped bottles. It contacted the cap at three points. After I chipped the first two bottles, it went into the trash.
But speaking of the super agata cappers, I ordered one about three months ago. It would barely seal the bottles, and I was afraid that three volumes of CO2 would blow the cap. I returned it to Great Fermentations, they agreed with me that it was defective, and refunded my money.
I have an old style double ended opener. Bottle opener on one end and can puncher on the other end. The hook on the bottle opener is long enough to grab the lip of the bottle. I’ve taken chips out of bottles and even taken half the top off. I still use it but careful to make sure the hook is just barely under the edge of the cap to prevent grabbing the lip of the bottle.
