Customer Reviews

Great product Review by James

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I bought this a few months back to do Belgians with. After you get your depth figured out and marked it makes bottling a breeze. It also works well for odd shaped bottles that a twin lever capper has trouble taking care of such as Corona or Heineken bottles. My only complaint it that there is a magnet inside the bell with slots that the knurls on caps go into when capping and doesn't crimp them all the way down. To solve this I just press and rotate the bottle three times. I haven't had and issues with leaky caps yet. (Posted on 5/8/13)

Excellent! Review by Chris

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Have only used for corks - makes it a snap to bottle! (Posted on 2/15/13)

On great machine! Review by Blake

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I just capped 54 bottles of Irish Red Ale last night and it was a breeze. When I first started using it I was pulling the arm down slowly and the cap would get stuck in the capper.
Then I started bringing down the arm smartly with a bit of force and that stopped the stuck caps.
I can't wait to cork with it as well. (Posted on 3/13/12)

Fantastic buy Review by McEpicurean

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I bought my Colonna just over a week ago. Last weekend I bottled a batch of Rhubarb wine and this weekend I bottled beer. The corks were a breeze and I didn't mess up a single cap, they all looked like a machine did it. This is one of the best tools I've bought to make things easier!

(Posted on 6/5/11)

Works great, but the instructions are lacking Review by Josh

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I bought this because the local homebrew shop no longer let you "borrow" corkers for free. I figured it was time to make the jump and anything which corked and capped in the same sentence, sign me up!

From the factory, I believe it had simply been assembled with little regard to the actual operation of capping something. The manual is two paragraphs, if you don't have a decent idea of what's going on here, the adjustment might escape you. Fortunately its no more complicated than building your mash tun. Here's the secret: Lower the plastic ram to it's fully "down" position, then insert the handle to it's fully "compressed" position (to the right). Now when the cork funnel comes down on the bottle it will fully ram in the cork. How it came from the factory would produce bottles without fully seating the cork. Your experience may vary, but be aware.

Secondly, unlike corkers with longer cork rams, you can't seat the cork in further than the lip of the bottle. This is just a minor annoyance, but if you want to dress the bottles up, be aware of it.

Otherwise it's a fantastic tool! (Posted on 10/4/10)

Wish I'd bought it years ago Review by bakins

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It corks, it caps, and it works on European caps! One of my favorite brew gadgets. (Posted on 7/20/10)

Works great Review by Mike

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Pretty much the same story as Robert's review. I bottled 5 gallons (24 750ml bottles) of Belgian golden ale today and it went smooth as could be. I didn't find the need to remove the base as recommended in the BYO article. I left the corks a little farther out so I could just work the bottle loose from the corker collar without removing the base. I gave the cork a good push with the palm of my hand to insert another 1/8" or so, but even that probably wasn't necessary. I compared my bottles to a commercial Belgian and the cork looked exactly the same depth. You should definitely get this corker if you want to put beer in Belgian bottles. Well worth the price. (Posted on 4/25/10)

Good corker, not the best capper Review by D

I recently got this to cork and cap beer bottles. The corker works for Belgian style bottles but it is difficult to hold the bottle (full of beer), remove the metal shelf and push the cork through. The capper is pretty bad. It dents each cap and holds onto the caps after raising the capper back up. A wing style capper is easier to use. It is all plastic but seems durable. (Posted on 3/30/10)

Does the job of bottling Belgian-style bottles for low price Review by Robert

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I bought this for corking Belgian bottles and it works quite well. I will rate it "4pints" for value. Since there is not currently a product available to the home-brewer market that is actually designed to cork Belgian bottles, those who wish to do so must accept some compromises and fooling around to get it to work. This is the cheapest way to accomplish that, and involves an easy, little "technique" to cork with success. It is half what a champagne corker costs, and my understanding is that even the champagne corker must be modified in order for it to work with Belgians.

I followed this guide exactly:
http://www.byo.com/stories/beer-styles/article/indices/11-beer-styles/1941-corking-belgians

I practiced with one empty bottle and cork, and a mere few bottles into the "wet-run" I felt complete confidence in using this.

The unit is quite large and made mostly of thick plastic. Feels stronger than the double-handled capper, but I wouldn't characterize it as heavy-duty. It does easily and smoothly drive those fat Belgian corks.

It is a universal capper/corker in that it comes equipped with three separate "bits:" one for normal caps, one for large caps, and a corking cylinder.

I have not yet capped, but do see that to cap a batch of mixed-height bottles would require moving the floor height--not a huge concern.

I feel that the abilities this tool provides are worth cost. I say this even after just one batch of Belgian Tripel: I have my Christmas list taken care of already! It will also be fun to re-use those occasional, funky large cap-able bottles: like the kind La Chouffe (http://www.achouffe.be/en) arrive in.

If I can get close to duplicating the panache of delivery of the Belgian-style ales it is all worth it.
(Posted on 3/17/10)