Capping Korean Beer Bottles

[Dr. Bubra]

Hey

I just came up on a shit ton of 22 oz. Korean beer bottles, namely Hite & OB. Does anyone have experience capping these? They seem to be a millimeter or two smaller, in diameter, than a US bottle. I tried capping one with a standard O2 absorbing cap and it seems to almost work. It can't be pulled off without an opener but it leaves a small bevel right where the bottle opening becomes the lip & it seems like it can twist a tiny bit with some real force. Would be a shame not to be able to use all these bottles. Are there caps & cappers available for these ones? My Internet research has turned up nothing so far so I thought I would turn to you, my esteemed colleagues.

Thanks!

[Ozwald]

Didn't look them up, just a quick fact from memory. There's 3 (or so) different cap sizes. IIRC our 'normal one' is the middle of the three. Most decent cappers (pretty much anything that isn't a butterfly) will have extra cups available for the different cap sizes. I don't recall what the exact numbers are, but look for the one that's a mm or 2 smaller than the average capper cup. I think my corker came with cups for all 3, but my standard bench capper just came with the regular one & part numbers for the others in the manual.

[spiderwrangler]

I know some European beers and a few here in the US (the Bruery??) use the 29mm... 26mm is standard for us, not sure what the smaller ones are.

[Ozwald]

I want to say 23 or 24mm. Not a clue what happened to the paperwork that came with either one of my cappers. I seem to remember it being just a touch smaller.

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

I know some European beers and a few here in the US (the Bruery??) use the 29mm... 26mm is standard for us, not sure what the smaller ones are.

Jester King uses the 29mm. I'm going to have to look for the cup for it. I have a couple dozen of their bottles. Thanks.

[Dr. Bubra]

Thanks for the help guys! They must accept the smaller cap then, 23-24 mm looks to be the right size.

Didn't look them up, just a quick fact from memory. There's 3 (or so) different cap sizes. IIRC our 'normal one' is the middle of the three. Most decent cappers (pretty much anything that isn't a butterfly) will have extra cups available for the different cap sizes. I don't recall what the exact numbers are, but look for the one that's a mm or 2 smaller than the average capper cup. I think my corker came with cups for all 3, but my standard bench capper just came with the regular one & part numbers for the others in the manual.

Ozwald, do you have any leads on the make/model or where I could purchase the corker/capper that you have that comes with the 3 bell sizes? Or even one with available bell options would be great. At the moment I'm stuck with the el cheapo butterfly capper which I've been wanting to upgrade from to a bench capper/corker. The 3-bell capper that you have sounds like the best option for me, for the long haul. Also, any idea who sells the smaller caps? I have only seen the "normal" size & the larger Belgian size available through online suppliers & LHBS. My buddy lives next door to a Korean restaurant & has access to an unlimited supply of the korean bottles for free! So, being able to use those would def save on cost. Thanks again guys, truly appreciate the help.

[Ozwald]

I have the two at the bottom. I think they're labelled with different brands, but identical as far as I can tell. Apparently NB is only selling the first one with 2 cups, the one I thought came with 3. The 2nd one was the one I thought I saw the extra cups in the manual. My memory could be foggy or there could have been another one in that first box... which is around here... somewhere... IIRC I bought it from the 'local' HBS, 2 hours east of here in Billings. It's been quite some time ago so I really don't recall & I may have just seen it in the manual of the 1st one as well, if I'm not just completely mistaken. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Is your current capper getting a good seal on 'regular' bottles, by chance?

Those butterflies aren't really that bad if you're just using them to do a couple of bottles now & then, but they do tend to wear out fairly quickly. I did my first 5 gallon batch with one & immediately bought the 2nd capper listed. I bought the corker to do a batch of wine & doing it again I would have just upgraded to that one in the first place.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/winemaking/wine-equipment/wine-bottling/corkers/colonna-capper-corker.html
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/super-agata-bench-capper.html

[Ozwald]

If they're that different & your current capper is working fine, is it really worth dealing with them?