Who's all Corking??

I will be corking soon as I am getting into wine making as well. Following this as I want to bottle up some sours as I have about 15 gallons of sour conditioning now too.

 

Little trick I picked up from Oakshire. To put the cage on you can put a hex key into a power drill and use it to twist the cage tight.

 

I use an old Yankee Wine Corker, like this one..(this one is a great price, but will need some cleaning up)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTIQUE-ENG...843?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item54154bcc13
I think I picked one up for $25 many years ago. It works great, I haven't found a bottle yet that it can't cork.

 

I use the Colonna corker/capper, cost is 'bout 70 bucks.

It is an entry level machine which actually sees more duty as a capper, but handles the corks okay. It will also do 29mm caps which you see on some 750's. It takes about six trys before you can cork like a Belgian.

I give away corkers as gifts, this is from last Christmas (you can probably tell by the weather). I have a Saison Rye in the keg that'll be this years fare . . .



The 375's take the same cork/cage and from a drinker's point of view are more convenient. Not sure about using a power drill to tighten the cages. By tradition it is exactly six twists clockwise which is easy to do by hand. Anything else is a misdemeanor citation from the liège constable.

 

I have that same corker. I like it. I don't know about wine bottles, but it works very well on my 750 ml beer bottles, mostly old Chimay, Duvel and Ommegang bottles.
The cork does protrude a bit, and the piston leaves a little cork rim, but that can be easily trimmed. I do not use cages either. I would buy that device again. It really does work well so long as you are using the proper diameter cork.
Cheers.

edit- I do not believe you will be able to use a champagne cork with the model. The slot will hold a shotgun style cork, but the mushroom top ain't gonna fit. And the extra wide corks are a struggle.

 

For heavens sake. Remove those from the Florida sun Man!

 

I inherited one of these: http://morebeer.com/products/italian-floor-corker.html

Works really well. I ruined like 8 corks the first time I used it but once I got the hang of it, no problems since. Do both cork & cage and "Cantillon/Fantome style" cork & cap with it -- 375 & 750ml. You do really want to make sure you get the right sized corks for your bottles though. Most of my cork & cage style still need a corkscrew to open, and one with good leverage at that.

 

Not sure of the number, but if it's tagged as a Belgian cork it will work. The item you linked to states "do not sanitize" which is a little bit squirelly. Not seen in the photo but the Colonna forces the cork through a tapered opening and the sanitizer (starsan) is the lubricant to push the shaft through the orifice (sort of like ky jelly for you-know-what). Pretty sure you can find non-presanitized corks, that's what you want for Monsieur Colonna, without lube it will not work.

Clarity on a few points: All Belgian corks are straight, the mushroom effect is created by compressing the cork over time. If you corked and popped the same day it will be mushroom-less . . . leave it a month or so and it develops.

You want 5/8" cork exposed (that's something in metric?), then the cage will fit nicely. Ease of removing the cork is dependent on the pressure. My Sly Manatee (Rare Vos clone) was bottle carbed at 3.0'ish and that's a mite on the low side. Corks would open but it took some effort. I will never cork again below 3.5 and 4.0 actually makes sense (and is to style). At these higher levels is where the cage earns its money. Grab some Duvel or DuPont bottles and observe how the bottom of the cage wire fits underneath the bottom lip of the bottle. Nothing tricky here, with an example it is obvious. Then notice how easily these corks are to pop open, that's your goal. Also, count the twists in a true Belgian corked bottle. Not having six turns is the social equivalent of serving a Belgian in a shaker or mason jar. Finish with the final loop twisted "up" and St Bernardus will be proud of you.

Nothing here you can't master, everything I know was picked up on youtube/self-taught. Experiment with a few bottles before you put your beer at risk . . . pretty soon you'll be shopping for a beret . . .

 

Composite corks; the pH of starsan *can* cause them to crumble.

 

I picked up one of those bad boys from craigslist. Super easy to use with just one hand, although it is definitely the least cost friendly of your corking options.

 

Cork a lot and it becomes easier, by the time you develop a cork-callous it's second nature:


These were all Christmas gifts, I found the 375s in 4-pack holders were a bigger hit than the grande bottles. This year I'm bottling with a beergun from a keg (3.5v) . . . wish me luck.

Not sure how all this works, I thought cork was cork, but the morebeer product clearly warns against sanitizing. I suppose another type corker would work with that product. My "regular" corks were dipped in starsan and one bottle remains a year later with a solid looking cork in place.

 

I've used a very standard Italian / Portuguese style floor corker like that on 750ml Belgian style corks with cages rather than caps, but it took a trick to avoid pushing the corks too far into the bottles. The trick was to take a standard #7 drilled stopper and place it on the pin that drives the cork into the bottle. It acts as a pretty good stop gap allowing for proper corking with a little bit of practice / finesse. It doubles as a nice cushion for

 

The morbeer product linked is not a single piece of cork, it's ground cork compressed into a cork shape. Some claim that sanitizing them can cause them to break apart. I have not personally had that happen.

 

As if the photos in the What Homebrew Are You Drinking Now? weren't bad enough... now we have this... Show off

 

Has anyone used synthetics? Doesn't really seem like much of a win at my scale. I've been using either the MoreBeer belgian corks or Grade 2 wine corks, depending on what type of empties I have.