I am a new chum in the forum. I have been a grain brewer for 44 years and never done a extract beer.
The question I ask, is there any person using the SEDEX CAPS that were on the New Inventors some 12 - 18 months ago. These caps are only suitable for screw top bottles, NOT CROWN TOP.
I over the past 44 years have bottled conditioned, kegged and now because I'm retired and travel a lot have gone into the brown 740 ml plastics mainly due to the rattling of glass and breakage in the bush. Also the weight of the empty plastic bottles which I can bring home. Also the trub seems to stick better in the claw tooth on the base of the bottle.
Now here is the clanger. I purchased 150 of these so called Sedex caps and I'm far from happy with them.
Here are my reasons.
1. The valve which is spring loaded fails to open far enough to allow the trub to fall through. I also point out the fact that of 100 x 375 ml Crown stubbies that were filled I find the sediment clings to the side of the neck. The rest of the bottle is bright (clear) Because of the a fellow grain brewer who in his employment Xrays metals and I gave him 6 bottles at random out of the 100. He Xrayed them and all have the valve leaning over to on side of the cap which I now consider the reason why the trub is not falling through to the catcher below.I have every second day swirled the stubbies to get it to fall through but to no avail. This swirling has been going on for near on 3 weeks. I'm Peeeeeed off. I gave my mate who done the Xrays 6 of these Sedex caps also and he has the same problem of the valve leaning over to one side which again I stress fails to allow the trub to fall through freely.
2. I also find the bottles are top heavy for the base and when put into plastic crates you pull one out to swirl and the rest if not careful will fall over.
3. I have arthritis in my hands and I find it virtually impossible to unscrew the catcher from the cap when putting the two parts together when bottling. I don't have a problem with separating the catcher from the cap when the beer is ready to drink not that I have drank one yet. I CAN'T GET THE FINAL PART OF THE TRUB THROUGH TO THE CATCHER. I have tried many prototypes of ways to screw the both together and unscrew. The 6 little lugs on the cap ( 3 on each side ) part of the Sedex are not pronounced enough to grip and I find this a bad design.
4. After the purchase of these I now learn that you may have to use a food grade silicon spray to help separate the cap from the silicon seal in the catcher if both parts are hard to put together. My belief is there should be NO spray as it may induce an off taste or infect the beer.
5. Now for the sterilising of the Sedex caps and catcher. I'm instructed that they are to be washed in cold water and DO NOT use hot water. In my 44 years of brewing HOT water is the go. Also the two O rings that are in the cap part of the Sedex one to seal the bottle and the other to seal the cap when the catcher is removed after the trub has cleared. I cannot remove the two O rings to sterilise behind them. The silicon seal is VERY HARD to remove for cleaning. To me they MUST be removed to sterilise properly.
6. There are other faults with this Sedex system that I won't go into at this stage but all I can say is I parted with just on 600 bucks and I should have known better after 44 years of good brewing, IF IT AIN'T BROKE DON'T FIX IT.
Finally before I sign off, I inform you that grow my own hops each year, I malt my own barley and other grain and propagate my own yeast.
Cheers and I hope this can be of benefit to other brewers. I don't run other products down but I think this Sedex cap system may be OK for Extract brewing but not grain. By the way I gave 10 of these caps to 3 other grain brewers friends and all find the same problems with the trub not settling through the valve in the cap closer.