Bottling With Crown Caps

I have been bottling my own pop and kombucha for a long time now using crown caps. They are fairly inexpensive and you can use them with recycled bottles. Bottling your own beverages makes it easy to give  away drinks as gifts and funner* to drink out of.

Tools Needed

1. Capper: These can be found for $10-$20 online. Mine is a Red Baron.

2. Crown Caps: Available in many colors online for $0.05- $0.10 each. They are sold in a bag of 144, called a "gross".

3. Bottle Brush: Essential for getting dried goop out of the nicks and crannies; $4 at the home brew shop.

4. Bottles: screw-top bottles are easy to get for free, by the side of the road or from friends and family. Non-screw bottles are more durable (less likely to explode!) but harder to find, and in my opinion, harder to open. Be careful before capping a used bottle though. Make sure there are no cracks, and also that it has a wide lip for the capper to grasp.

Directions:

1. Fill all of the bottles. My process for this is to use a funnel, leaving 2-3" of headspace in each bottle. With a big funnel it is easy to pour in too much liquid and have it overflow and make a huge mess.

2-3" headspace

When I get to the end, there is usually a half bottle left, which I will use to top off the rest of the bottles (remember my 2-3" headspace?). You can go however full you want, but I normally leave about a half inch or air space on the top.

2. Cap all of the bottles. First you set the cap on the bottle. Then put the capper on top of the cap and pull the levers down.

View from the bottom

Bottling is a lot of fun. It allows you to make naturally carbonated beverages with nothing but yeast, and also adds perceived value to your drink.

Plus it is just plain cool to twist the top off and watch a puff of vapor emerge.

Happy capping!

-Bethany

*Funner should be added to the dictionary.