Swing-top Bottle Carbonation Issues

[erockrph]

Whenever I use swing-top bottles for bottling I end up having a couple of bottles that don't hold their carbonation. Are there any tricks to capping these so they hold pressure, or do they just inherently suck? FWIW I am bottle priming and these were all new bottles when I started using them.

[hokerer]

Whenever I use swing-top bottles for bottling I end up having a couple of bottles that don't hold their carbonation. Are there any tricks to capping these so they hold pressure, or do they just inherently suck? FWIW I am bottle priming and these were all new bottles when I started using them.

I've got about 150 swingtops I use and have never really had much problems with them holding pressure.  Since you say they're new, the gaskets should be ok and the wire bails should be plenty tight (two things to check with older swingtops).  The only thing I can thing for you to check would be to make sure that both the gasket and the lip of the bottle are completely clean before closing them up.

But no, there's not really any trick

[deepsouth]

i use swing tops and i've never had a problem with carbonation issues.  maybe some new rubber grommets?

[andrew000141]

Do you mix your uncarbed beer and priming sugar thoroughly?

[erockrph]

Do you mix your uncarbed beer and priming sugar thoroughly?

Yeah, learned the hard way with that. I don't have enough swing-top bottles to handle a full batch, and the regular-capped bottles all come out just fine.

[Slowbrew]

As long as the bottles are smooth (no chips or scratches) where the neck meets the seal,  I haven't had any issues.  I put new gaskets on every 3-5 uses just to be sure I don't have problems.

I have also adjusted (i.e. bent) the wire cages when they seemed less tight than other bottles.

Paul