using caps on lager bottles

[pcrofts27]

Hi,

looking for some advice.
Been bottling my brews using a variety of bottles collected up over a period of time, but it seems my capper won't cap bottles such as Grolsch or Budweiser. (the Budwesiers were given to me. I haven't drunk em myself! How they got "King of Beers" past any sort of trade descriptions act beats me.)

Having looked at the bottles it appears to be caused by the difference in distance from the top to the lip on the neck. On normal ale bottles it's 19mm (3/4 inch) and on the continental style ones it's 12mm (1/2 inch). Does anyone know if there's anything I can do to cap these? Do I need a different capper or should I just bin them?
I'm asking as I have 40 pints of Hambelton Bard Czech Pilsner in the FV which I want to bottle in a week or so, and I'm a bit short of bottles.

I've also seen a few comments that they might not be strong enough. I'm planning to prime with 150g dextrose as it's a lager. Anyone any ideas on that?

cheers
paul

[Pinto]

New one to me - only two sizes i've come across are standard (250/330/500ml) crown caps and the larger (and rarer) 750ml/1litre crown caps.

Be careful of the green glass 33cl bottles, especially the "lightweight" ones - really not suitable for re-use. Best 33cl bottles i've found so far for recovery and re-use are the "Bavaria 0.0%" alcohol free ones - brown glass (big plus) and nice and strong, drinkable despite being alcohol free and.... £1 for 4 bottles

[ajclarkson]

My instinct would be to say be careful reusing lager bottles. They aren't designed for bottle conditioning, or as Pinto pointed out reuse really. Can't go wrong with brown ale bottles, as they are typically bottle conditioned and are heavier bottles designed to withstand the pressure.

Also if you aren't getting a good seal, probably best not to use them as they'll either steadily leak CO2 out and won't carb up properly, or once enough pressure is there the lid will pop!