Chimay Clone - Reuse Bottles?

OK...I've been on a HUGE Chimay kick lately and I just HAVE to brew this myself. From what I understand Chimay is fermented a second time in the bottle, and I doubt I'd want to skip this step.

As such...is it possible to reuse the Chimay bottles for my homebrew? I'm talking the corked 750mL bottles. I know getting the cork back in is a real PITA, do I need a special tool to get corks in there? Is this even worthwhile? My other option is to keg...and I'm not sure that would be good in this case.

You will need some sort of corking device. You may be able to borrow one from a fellow brewer or rent one from the LHBS. I don't believe you would be successful trying to cap those bottles.

+1 with ReverseApacheMaster (God that is a long name to type)...you'll need to buy appropriate size corks, soak/boil to soften, then need something to punch them in...

http://store.vinomaker.com/handycorker.html

$8 corker...I have one...hate it...but it is the cheapest and does the job for rare occassions.

Problem with this is the corker is that 75% of the corks goes half-way in then squish, plus 50% ultimately push out due to pressure and will need another punch down the road...

Do some research on corking...it's not so easy...

Good luck...

What about the 'cage' that comes on the Chimay bottles - the wire thing that goes over the cork. Doesn't that keep the cork on?

Worse case I can always make good use of duct tape

I don't think it would take tremendous pressure to pop that off.

Look for corking belgians. There are a couple really good threads on the topic. The presentation looks awesome to drinkers.

I get corks and cages from B3. I use a coloma bench corker/capper. I have an accident that is reaching about 5 volumes of pressure, and those corks aren't anywhere near coming loose.

Corking belgians isnt really that hard. I use a champagne floor corker and I can do 5 gallons in about the same time that it takes to cap. One thing that I do repitch a vial of yeast in the bottling bucket. But if I have a beer at high kreusen I will top crop some that goes into the bottling bucket. I tend to shoot for about 4 volumes