When you are done brewing your beer or beverage, the next thing that comes to mind is packaging and sealing them with bottle caps or plastic bottle caps. So, a bottle cap helps in sealing the top of a bottle. Most brewing industries decorate their bottle caps with their logo on them, and they make them colorful. Brewers use plastic caps for plastic bottles while they use metal with plastic backing is used for glass bottles. PE or PP is used for making plastic caps, while metal caps are made of aluminum or steel. The plastic used for making plastic caps is different from the plastic used to make the plastic bottles themselves.
A hammer bottle cap is a very strong tool that is used to cap your glass bottles. It is quite portable, and even a novice at homebrewing and can make use of it. You can use the hammer capper to seal drinks like soda, beer, wine, and beverages. The technique used for capping bottles is very easy, and the hammer tool is unbreakable when you use it correctly. You can use a hammer bottle capper for ∅ 26 mm caps; you should protect it with a piece of cloth to reduce the risk of you breaking the glass bottle before you hit it with a rubber hammer. Using a hammer bottle capper is very safe and not a complex thing to do.
To use a hammer bottle capper, place a new cap on the bottle jack, position the capper squarely on top and strike it firmly with a mallet. Hit it carefully, so you don’t break your bottles. Hitting it once with the hammer is enough to close the bottle tightly. If you keep doing this, you will get better at it.
Many home brewers prefer using the hammer bottle capper because it is less expensive and effective. Other benefits of using a hammer bottle capper are:
- It has a high quality. It comes in red plastic and metal. It also has a handle that is comfortable and doesn’t slip out of your hands. All these features make bottle capping less stressful.
- It is an important tool that every homebrewer needs because it simplifies their bottling capping job and makes things faster.
- You can use it to cap different drinks, whether beer bottles, water bottles, or juice bottles. The hammer bottle capper will do the job professionally.
- It is very simple to use. Place the bottle cap on a piece of cloth that is folded plenty of times so it can absorb the impact of the hammer before you put a cap on the bottle, place a capper to it, and hit it with a hammer–a rubber hammer is preferable for capping.
A lot of brewing companies take advantage of their bottle caps to promote their brand. They usually print a message inside the cap for people to see and win a prize. So, this will encourage people to buy more drinks and get the chance to win a prize.
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When caps were first made, they were designed to be pressed over the top of a glass bottle to grab a small flange on the bottleneck. The German standard DIN 6099 in the 1960s first decreased and specified the height of the crown cap; as a result of this, the “twist-off” crown cap was defined in Australia, Canada, and the United States. The twist-off cap is usually pressed around screw threads instead of a flange, and it can be removed by simply twisting the cap with the hand; thus, a person won’t need to use an opener to remove it.
The flip-top is a type of bottle cap. The flip-top, Grolsch, and swing-top bottle caps come with a ceramic or plastic stopper held in place by a set of wires. Before the crown cork was invented, the normal corks used for capping bottles with carbonated liquid were the flip-top a swing tops, and Grolsch.
There are other types of bottle caps that people use for bottle capping. Some of them are:
- Glass stoppers for wine bottles and a cork stopper.
- Plastic bottle screw cap used to seal a plastic bottle.
- A sports cap is made of plastic that most water bottling companies use in calling their water bottles.
- A reclosable wire, ceramic, and rubber bottle clasp is used on the German mineral water bottle.
- Easy pull bottle cap.
- Pull-off bottle cap.
- Plastic screw caps for bottles. You can easily find these types of bottle caps. They can be applied using a hand or a piece of automated equipment. But the application torque of closures needs to be controlled so the closures can easily work well in the field. The closures need to be applied tightly so they can resist closure back-off. They usually come on top of beers like bud light and coors.
Some closure lining materials
Closures are tools and mechanisms to seal different types of containers like a bottle, jar, tube, can, and others. Closures can either be a plug, cover, lid, or cap.
- Foamed polyethylene (F217)
This is mostly used with plastic screw caps. They have odor resistance and have a nice taste too. They also have a low moisture transmission rate with a great chemical resistance mechanism. The F217 is a very soft polyethylene foam core with its top and bottom covered with clear polyethylene with a 0.050-inch thickness. This material is economical, compatible, and strong.
2. Plastisol
This particular standard lining material is used in metal closures for vacuum packing hard and glass bottles. Plastisol is a flowed-in compound that is a dispersion of PVC resins in plasticizers. Usually, this plastisol creates a self-bonding, sealing gasket in the closures. These plastisol liners can be utilized in metal twist-off and metal continuous thread screw caps used on hot-pack food products that require the protection of a vacuum.
3. Pressure-sensitive liners (PS 22)
These pressure-sensitive inner seals respond to plastic or glass bottle that have normal application torque on them. They are supplied and pressed into closures to respond to the bottle when the closure is applied. These liners easily stick to the container because a part of it is coated with some amount of adhesive. Then, as soon as the closure is applied to the container, the number of adhesive ruptures between the closure and the bottle’s finish. With that done, the pressure-sensitive liners stick to the bottle and remain that way when the closure is eliminated. No additional equipment is needed for that. But the closures are usually supplied with a standard liner as a backing. But this material requires a dry land area on the bottle, so it is only good for dry products like foods, pharmaceuticals, and vitamins.
4. Polyseal cone liners
These liners are molded in low-density polyethylene, polyseal cone liners form to the internal part of the bottleneck that offers a leak-proof seal that protects product evaporation and back-offs. These liners are very good for acidic products and essential oils; these closures are highly recommended for only glass bottles.
5. Linerless designs – land seal (crab’s claw)
This is a sealing technique that is used on a lot of bottles. It is well known. This linerless technique is used in many dispensing caps because it is simple to use and cheap to produce. It comes with a 0.045″ molded inner flange when used with a regular application torque, compresses to about one-half of its thickness while sealing the bottle lip.
Why is bottle capping important?
After you finish brewing your beer and package it, it is not enough to pour the beer in bottles; you should also bottle cap them because you must do. Here is why you should bottle cap your drinks.
- Bottling capping provides security for the drink inside the bottle. This way, the content in the bottle is safe for consumption.
- The bottle cap also prevents the drink in the bottles from spilling or leaking.
- With your bottles capped, you can easily transport them without bothering about spilling the drink.
- Bottle capping your drinks also gives your product an original look; it prevents it from being seen as a fake product.
- Bottle capping also preserves your drinks from being affected by any external environmental factor. This will help to keep your drink fresh.
It would be best if you did not trivialize capping the bottles of your beer because it helps in enhancing the storage ability of the bottles and keeps the moisture and oxygen away.
Conclusion
Using a hammer bottle capper is very easy to use. And you get better at it if you use it consistently. There are different bottle caps you can use to seal your drinks, beverages, beer, or wine.
Hammer bottle cappers are less expensive, you can use them to cap any drink, and they professionally cap your drinks. If you handle it carefully, they won’t break your beer bottles.
Bottle capping is an important aspect of the brewing process too, ensure you do it so the content in the bottles is not affected by external environmental factors.