Broken Neck

I have an all-metal capper. Works for most bottles, but every so often I cleanly break a bottle about 3/4" below neck where the capper comes into contact. It is mostly bombers for me. I can't remember if I ever broke a 12oz. You are right. It's a real distinctive sound and sensation you can feel when it happens. I cap very carefully toward the end of the capper throw. Luckily it's always been above the beer line so no spills.

 

On the second batch I ever made, I cracked a neck opening a bottle. Just keep it in mind that things wear out and keep the bandaids close.

 

I broke several 12 oz. bottles using the Red Baron Capper that came with my first brewing kit. Since switching to a bench capper, I haven't broken any if I remember correctly. I mostly use 22 oz.'s these days, also.

 

For me it was capper related. When I had the cheap black capper that came with my first kit I got several "broken neck"s but I switched to the red capper (someone gave it to me on FreeCycle!) and haven't had a broken bottle since.

 

I've broken a few. It sucks.

 

I too have broken a few. I had a cap on crooked and tried to crimp it which crushed the neck once.

 

I've had them break while capping and when opening. Sucks. It's why I'll leave the labels on the bottles for the first couple of uses, if a brand has crappy bottles overall, I won't buy their beers anymore.

 

The majority of US beer bottles are manufactured by Owens-Illinois - their bottles are easily identified by the OI logo embossed around the base of bottles. They also make many of the "proprietary" bottles - like BBC's bottles with the embossed Samuel Adams logo, etc. (IIRC, OI bottles have been involved in several recalls in recent years - the one for BBC's bottles the most publicized). North America Beer Bottle Stock Catalog.

Anchor Glass is another large bottle supplier to the US brewing industry (their stylized "V" anchor logo can be found on the base of their bottles, as well). Anchor Beer Bottles.

Verallia North America is yet another supplier of beer bottles in the US.

If some bottles don't "agree" with the capper being used, it's probably best to base one's decision on the manufacturer of the glass bottle, not the brewer(s) which buys them.

 

One of the reasons I switched to kegging was a particularly bad run of broken bottle necks when opening. I was (and still am) convinced that it was probably just a bad case of bottles, but I'm still very happy about making the switch. Less total work and better beer (with most styles) in my estimation.

 

Great info as always, @jesskidden. Thanks!!

I'm specifically alluding to a brewer around Utica. They tend to have the cheapest beer in pry-off bottles that doesn't have a logo stamped in the glass, so I would buy a case when I was running low on bottles, cause it was only like eight bucks more than a case of empties from the LHBS, and I'd get some OK-ish beer to boot. Now I'll spring for a case of something I would drink regardless of the price, but you know the old saying: Once bitten, twice shy.

 

Yeah, I feel sorry for you current homebrewers who have to buy bottles or buy a particular beer for the bottles and can't just buy beer in true "returnable/refillable" (aka "deposit") bottles that were made specifically for multiple use and built to hold up to abuse (they'd bounce off you kitchen floor - most of the time).

When I started brewing in the '70s, I simply didn't return my cases of Straub, Ortlieb, Croft Ale, etc. and used them for homebrew. And if I ran short, my local bar would gladly sell me a few cases of Schlitz empties for the $1/cs deposit. (Took some effort to clean them - amazing how the paper labels absorbed the stench of cigarette smoke back them. And, of course, you first had to check the empties for the occasional cigarette butt, plastic swizzle stick or potato chip bag).

When I finally sold off all my brewing equipment I still couldn't part with my all my prized steinies and steinie quarts, as well as a few old Imperial quarts and one lone half-gallon "picnic" bottle.

 

Yup, returnable bottles are the best. Below is a picture of my cases/bottled beers in my basement. I preferred the Rolling Rock bottles since they have painted labels (no need to remove those labels).

Cheers!

 

But you do have to remove the beer. Hopefully someone else did that for you!

 

Back in the day my father would ‘empty’ most of the Rolling Rock bottles. For the sake of transparency, I also consumed a lot of Rolling Rock beer before I ‘discovered’ craft beer.

The two Bud cases were presents from friends who liked to drink those beers.

Cheers!

 

I had several cases of silk-screened "pop" bottles (still being used in NY state in the 70s and 80s - came in nice heavy wooden cases, too). Think they were 10 oz'ers - green lemon-lime and ginger ale bottles for lighter beers, brown beers could go into clear Pepsi/Coke and root beer bottles - and I could bring beer where "no alcohol" was the rule.

(A few years back I bought a case of Mexican Coke in those heavy bottles for a great price at, I think, Wegmans. Even tho' I haven't brewed in decades, I still couldn't just throw those bottles in the recycling bin. Still down in the cellar - somewhere...).

 

I was like "WTF was that?!" haha

 

I have a Vaughan's (< perhaps the largest manufacturer of bottle openers over the years) "Never-Chip" wall-mounted opener in my garage, and it does that to Anchor Brewing Co. bottles, and ONLY to Anchor's bottles.

Talk about a misnamed unit, but I guess "Usually-Doesn't-Chip (but just might snap the entire top of the bottle off)" wouldn't work.

 

Strange, I've capped thousands of bombers and never had this happen.

Bottle bombs, on the other hand, I am familiar with!

 

I excellently try to capping a twist off bottle and it crack the neck thread.