BeerBorg

Watched Some YouTube videos that showed a number of people re-using glass bottles and twist off caps from commercial beers such as Blue Moon. They seemed to have had good success. What are the pros and cons to re-using twist off bottles and their caps? Also, I have one of those two hand cappers that I have never used. Any tips on using it properly on non twist off type bottles and regular crown caps which I purchased through Northwest?

Pros of using a twist off bottle cap:
No need to use a capper.

Cons:
Bottles are typically thinner, especially at the neck.
It's difficult (although I've read that it's not impossible) to reattach the original cap.
If you plan to try to use a caapper, forget it. That's not going to work. If the neck doesn't break, the seal will likely be poor.


I should note that I've never actually tried it, but I never tried it becaue I read warnings similar to the above. Note that if you save the original cap, it may be possible to reuse it. I've read of *one* person who was able to do this successfully, but I've only been at this for a little more than 10 years.

If you have a capper, my advice is that you should buy some beer like Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams nu, etc (check for local brewries, too) that comes in a good sturdy bottle with a pry off cap. Reuse those bottles. You'll be much happier (and you'll be drinking better beer).

My understanding is that worst case scenario reusing twist off caps involves some small glass shards in the beer.

I have recapped twist off bottles a couple of times. I used a capper and new caps, it worked. This happened when some twist offs got mixed in with my pry off bottles. If I wanted to test the theory I would fill a dozen empties with water, cap them and turn them upside down for a couple of days. If they don't leak I would consider it a success. As for bottle strength, weight might be a good indicator. If you try it, please report your results.

I have capped a few twist-off bottles a few times by accident with my bench capper and didn't break one and seemed to hold carb. I didn't try to twist them off because I didn't know I did it until opened them with a bottle opener. Personally I wouldn't do it intentionally. Let us know how it works, might be something we are missing.

I've never tried twiwstoff bottles, but always thought it was not possible to use them for bottling home brew. It was fun collecting the 600 or so empty sammies and other crafts, back in the 2010 Mr Beer days brrrrrpppppppp

I went from bottling to kegging a couple years later, and all those bottles are piled in storage bins in my brew room; I don't know what to do with them.

I gave most of mine away at homebrew meetings. I kept a case of 12s, and a case or so of swing tops. Sometimes I bottle to share.

It's my understanding (although I'm not sure how I came by this information) that twist-off bottles have thinner glass around the lip than pry-offs. This can lead to small bits of glass getting in the beer both at capping and uncapping.

It's also been said that a wing-capper won't seal them properly, but if you use a bench capper, it will work. YMMV.

If you want the convenience of twist-off bottles, I suggest you use PET bottles. Or any plastic soda bottles except for root beer, because they can hold the aroma and flavor of the soda and you can't ever wash it out.

FedoraDave wrote:It's my understanding (although I'm not sure how I came by this information) that twist-off bottles have thinner glass around the lip than pry-offs. This can lead to small bits of glass getting in the beer both at capping and uncapping.

It's also been said that a wing-capper won't seal them properly, but if you use a bench capper, it will work. YMMV.

If you want the convenience of twist-off bottles, I suggest you use PET bottles. Or any plastic soda bottles except for root beer, because they can hold the aroma and flavor of the soda and you can't ever wash it out.

Actually, you can successfully rid root beer bottles of the aroma and flavor. The key (I got this tip from yankeedag) is to rinse several times with cold washer as soon add it's empty, then use oxiclean free a few times. I think it also helps to pour the root beer into a glass so it's not sitting in the bottle for any length of time after the bottle is open.

I think one of the problems with wing cappers and twists offs is directly related to the thinner necks. My impression it that it is much easier to cause the little glass chips and/or even bust the necks off of bottles with a wing capper trying to cap them properly.

I may have worded my original question incorrectly. What I was wondering was if anyone had success with twist off bottles using their original twist on caps. I do understand that because of the thin nature of the glass neck you would not want to cap one of those bottles with a pry off cap and capper. Trying to reuse a twist off bottle and it’s original twist on cap probably isn’t the best idea either, but having seen others on YouTube doing it, I was wondering if anyone on the forum has tried this. I still plan to continue using twist on caps on PET bottles and pry off caps on appropriate bottles.

My guess is it could work a few times per cap, if you twist it on to the right amount of torque and the cap was not deformed at all.

Pdunc wrote:I may have worded my original question incorrectly. What I was wondering was if anyone had success with twist off bottles using their original twist on caps. I do understand that because of the thin nature of the glass neck you would not want to cap one of those bottles with a pry off cap and capper. Trying to reuse a twist off bottle and it’s original twist on cap probably isn’t the best idea either, but having seen others on YouTube doing it, I was wondering if anyone on the forum has tried this. I still plan to continue using twist on caps on PET bottles and pry off caps on appropriate bottles.

I've never tried it, but I vaguely remember reading of people who did that successfully,