Crown Testing

[Smuttynose]

I was wondering what other brewers do to test that their crowns are on the bottles with a consistent tension. I seem to remember a post either here or on the BA forum about using a socket and torque wrench. Anyone using this method?


Cheers,

dave

[PanConsulting]

It depends on how much money you want to spend. You can purchase a bottle cap torque tester. They are priced up to $1,200 for top of the line digital. But you if you don't need digital they are less. This would be for twist-off crowns only.


Contacting Swan-Matic

Automation Devices, Inc.

7050 West Ridge Road

Fairview, PA 16415-2099

phone: (814) 474-5561



______________________________________
Cliff Panneton
Panneton Consulting

[gitchegumee]

Are these twist-off, or no? We used a simple go/no-go gauge to ensure that the crown was swaged on correctly. Basically an aluminum flat with two holes in it.

[Larry Doyle]

The unit in Cliff's picture is the basic "torque tester" which I used at a major brewery. If anyone purchases one of these I recommend the digital version.

To answer the question, yes you can use a torque wrench. We used a torque wrench to verify the readings the torque tester was giving us. We had a fitting on the end of the torque wrench that fit over the crown. Then we'd lock the bottle in place on the torque tester , unscrew the crown with the torque wrench and get readings from both the torque wrench and the torque tester. Obviously, you can use the torque wrench without a torque tester.
Your crown manufacturer should be able to give you a fitting that envelopes the crown.

As for the metal bar the other responder was talking about. This is called a "crimp gage". It measures the post crowning dimensions of the crowns. You don't want them too tight and you don't want them too loose. The poster had a go/ no go gage with two holes. We had a stainless steel bar with several holes ranging from too tight to too loose. With such a gage you can tell if a head is in spec but trending on the loose side or the tight side. We checked crimps on steel crowns but not aluminum closures or plastic caps. Our bar had seven holes with diameters ranging from 1.120" to 1.150"

You really should be checking both torque and crimp. They measure different things. You can have good torques and bad crimps and visa versa. If you have pry off crowns you care about crimps, only.

You will need to know what your specifications are for crimp and torque. That's for another discussion.

[Smuttynose]

Thanks for the responses. We found the crimp gauge that our crown supplier sent a while ago. It should do the trick.

Cheers,

dave

[Larry Doyle]

Are your crowns twist off? if the answer is yes you should check torque as well as crimp.