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Faulty PET bottle caps


Spursman

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I started having a few bottles whose caps were either splitting around the perimeter or cracking in the centre. This naturally led to no carbonation and wasting the brew. Wondered if I was overtightening the bottles but my brew shop owner said not possible. Checked brews again yesterday and found 9 bottles affected. Went back to brew shop with some of the faulty tops and the owner confirmed that there is a faulty batch of caps in circulation . Replaced the brew mix and carb drops no charge.

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4 hours ago, Spursman said:

I started having a few bottles whose caps were either splitting around the perimeter or cracking in the centre. This naturally led to no carbonation and wasting the brew. Wondered if I was overtightening the bottles but my brew shop owner said not possible. Checked brews again yesterday and found 9 bottles affected. Went back to brew shop with some of the faulty tops and the owner confirmed that there is a faulty batch of caps in circulation . Replaced the brew mix and carb drops no charge.

Never had an issue with tightening PET caps, even after multiple re-uses. I tighten them pretty firmly, too. You did alright with the shop owner. You've essentially got free beer!

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10 hours ago, BlackSands said:

Did you re-prime and re-cap the affected bottles? 

I did that, a Toucan stout which I don't normally do in plastic because I keep it for a year or more.

Reprimed it sat on the laundry floor for a couple of months, maintained pressure with same cap.

I was reluctant to drink it but it was fine and I still haven't got my Darwin award.

It is a good virtually free way to check a suspect cap/bottle and you can salvage the beer.

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23 hours ago, BlackSands said:

Did you re-prime and re-cap the affected bottles?

I did try that with one carb drop but it produced a White Island type eruption and beer all over the floor! not impressed so abandoned that idea. 

Is there a way to re prime without the eruption. Don't know if it makes any difference but I  keep my carb drops in the fridge ( it's a Qld thing).

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1 hour ago, Spursman said:

I did try that with one carb drop but it produced a White Island type eruption and beer all over the floor! not impressed so abandoned that idea. 

Is there a way to re prime without the eruption.

Work faster!  😁   It'd probably help to chill the beer first, though I've had to re-prime on the odd occasion and managed to get it done before there was any violent release of CO2.    Sounds like in your case there was still a a fair amount of CO2 dissolved in the beer. 

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So i took the advice about too much co2 causing an eruption when I added a carb drop. Didn't chill the existing brew but poured into a large jug from a height to release the co2. Added a carb drop to the bottle and (after a while) poured the brew back in. 

No eruption. Thanks to Blacksands for the advice..

Fingers crossed now!

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1 hour ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Hopefully the oxygen that would have introduced doesn't cause any issues.

Pretty new to this so didn't know that was a potential problem. Do you recommend a different method for re-priming low/no carb brews?

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