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Twist-off caps for aging jugs

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pwizard

pwizard

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 17, 2015
587
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Birmingham, AL
I'm doing my bulk aging in one-gallon glass jugs, basically the kind high-end unfiltered apple juice comes in. I have lots of these empty jugs since I drink that juice all the time and they make great mini-carboys. Each of them originally came with a metal twist-off cap. I normally use drilled bungs + airlocks for these jugs when I put mead in them. Unfortunately, I forgot to get the solid bungs the last time I was at my LHBS. :mad:

When I racked my latest batch today, I filled up my 3-gallon carboy and one of these juice jugs. Since I didn't have an extra drilled bung lying around, I took one from a jug of finished mead. That jug of mead is just sitting there, crystal-clear, stabilized, and backsweetened with no gas pressure at all. I then put one of the original apple juice caps on that (after sanitizing it) to keep the jug sealed, at least temporarily until I can replace it with a solid bung. I was planning to go to my LHBS this afternoon to get some solid bungs, but stuff happened and I couldn't get over there today.

I can get some solid bungs early next week but I was wondering if it is ok to use these twist-off caps with jugs of thoroughly degassed/stabilized mead long term. They do a great job of keeping raw apple juice sealed during transport, are presumably airtight since they don't leak, and can maintain a good seal even after multiple openings (plus they have no rubber smell like those bungs do).
 
If you can get something to use as a seal to put inside the cap they should be fine.

I still have some half gallon jugs I can use for excess meads etc. The paper/plastic seals have long since died (jugs and caps are 30 plus years old). I scraped the paper/plastic out of the caps, washed, rinsed and sanitised them all. Then I got some pieces of 3mm PET packaging foam sheet, I use the cap as a cutting guide for size, cut out a disc of the foam, rinse and sanitise it then put it in the cap and screw it into place.

Been doing that for about 5 years now and not had any issues - in fact, if I get it right this method even retains a bit of pressure.........
 
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