Crown capper?

[DDoe]

Having now made, bottled and test sampled our first extract brew we think our capper is a bit rubbish, the beer was lacking cabonation - not completely but no head of which to speak and not very fizzy at all. It may not be down to the capper but we had a lot of caps that didn't go on the bottle at all and many that did didn't seem to go on as well as we would have expected, no definite feel that the cap was securely in place (sometimes using multiple caps before one worked). The capping process went badly and we decided at that point we would invest in another capper if we intend continuing with beer making. At present we have a 2 lever type which came as part of a kit and is a bit plasticy. We thought we would get a better version of the same type but as far as I can make out there doesn't seem to be much difference in price so I'm wondering if they all tend to suffer from the same problem.

As we do intend to carry on brewing what would be your recommended crown capper please?

Thank you.

[oldbloke]

I hated both 2lever ones I had, snapped a few necks: went back to the old hammer-on style until I could get a bench capper.

All the ones like this are OK. This is just the first link in google. Sorry about the long url!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184580223917 ... d27f26e7e4

[oldbloke]

Also, what bottles are you using? I had trouble with Wychwood bottles.

[Dennis King]

Pricy but this is the dogs dangles

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product ... mm-capper/

[Jocky]

I think the steel two lever one is extremely sturdy and well built: https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product ... nd-capper/

I’ve been using one for 11 years without any problems.

[MarkA]

I use one of these - https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product ... per-large/

It's very sturdy and easy to use, and automatically adjusts to different bottle heights

[MashBag]

If you also make wine you can get a corker that has a capper attachment very similar to the malt miller ones, but 3 options for the price of 1.

Search "Champagne Floor Corker"- does large crown caps, beer crown caps and straight corks.

With the larger caps you can bottle beer into champagne bottles... nice for parties.

PS You can recycle crown caps!

[Trefoyl]

I got so sick of lesser quality cappers I bought one of these
https://www.home-brew-online.com/equipm ... pper-p2387

[DDoe]

Thank you all.

Here is a photo of the neck of the bottles we're using

We're pretty settled on this capper (when it comes back in stock)
https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product ... wn-capper/

Or possibly this one
https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product ... wn-capper/

Any opinions?

We will be making 5L batches a few times a year, ~12 bottles a time. The other Malt Miller ones mentioned are probably a bit overkill for our needs and don't really want to pay twice as much unless we have to.

.

[f00b4r]

I have the top one and used it for the first time in a long while a few weeks ago (I usually keg everything) and it’s very sturdy and easy to use. Some of the others in the thread are better but are much bulkier and probably overkill for small batch brewing. I don’t think you will be disappointed and it also lets you cap (with crown caps, not corks) champagne bottles too (it comes with a slightly larger bell bit for the larger brown caps).

A couple of other thoughts:

- the hand cappers with two handles do have problems with some types of bottles (it is easy to avoid these with a little research but it’s an annoyance)

- the issue you may face with the bench capers is capping PET bottles with crown caps; most people never do this but it is worth mentioning (most PET bottles use screw on lids)
- I’ve never had a bench caper break a bottle but have heard of lots of breakages using the hand cappers; it might be the cheaper plastic ones that are worse in this respect

[Trefoyl]

I used a wing capper for years without issue, except an occasional broken bottle. A bottle would also be flung across the room if it slipped. But I was never unhappy with the seal.

[Meatymc]

Bench capper exactly as shown in the link but mine says Ferrari - I kid you not!

Just bottled brew number 101 so best part of 4,000 capped bottles without an issue. You do need to add some 'padding' every now and again for odd size bottles but I have a couple of squares of cardboard that do the trick. My only word of caution is don't be tempted to use something like a coaster or anything else that's solid and an exact fit on the 'cushion' base for 'padding' as it will crush out the 'cushion' effect.

https://brew2bottle.co.uk/products/benc ... gJO3fD_BwE

[MashBag]

Thank you all.

Here is a photo of the neck of the bottles we're using
IMG_1131 1.jpg


We're pretty settled on this capper (when it comes back in stock)
https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product ... wn-capper/

Or possibly this one
https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product ... wn-capper/

Any opinions?

We will be making 5L batches a few times a year, ~12 bottles a time. The other Malt Miller ones mentioned are probably a bit overkill for our needs and don't really want to pay twice as much unless we have to.

.

I have a wing capper you can have. See what you think. Pm me.

[MashBag]

With a rubber mallet these are very good.
I cap in crate. Which reduces the amount of handling.

https://www.lovebrewing.co.uk/knock-on- ... oZEALw_wcB

[steviebobs83]

Pricy but this is the dogs dangles

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product ... mm-capper/

I have this one and can confirm it is indeed the dog's dangles

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