Cheap Corkers

I'm a college student and therefore have little to no money, but I need a corker to cork my mead bottles so that they can age for a year or more. I've seen several really cheap corkers, but I'm not sure if they'd actually work. Here's a link to a "mini" corker that's only $3.95: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=5649 And here's a link to a "plunger" style corker that is almost as cheap: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=4351. I was leaning towards the mini corker because you hit it with a mallet (I think), which seems easier than plunging. Do you think that either of these corkers will work for me? Is there any other way to age meads for more than a year besides corking? Or is there a way to cork without a commercial corker?

Thanks for the help!

I use the second one and have for years with wine bottles. I use it with a small hammer and the 'sanitized string tip' with no problems. When finally it breaks (and there's no sign yet!) I'll upgrade to a floor corker.

Can you only use number 8 corks with the plunger style, or will number 9's work too?

What about renting one from a LHBS? When I bottled my wine/mead batches, I rented a really nice floor corker for $5 a day. It was sooo cool. It was just as easy as pulling the handle on a slot machine. It would take any size corks, too.

I'll have to look into renting. Do most HBS's rent equipment? The one in my area is pretty small.

For those of you in the greater Phoenix area, one of the LHBSs LOANS their loaner out. Yep, it's FREE!

You gotta leave a CC#, and if you don't bring it back, you just bought it. But, it is free to use. So far, the only time one has been sold, is when we were out of stock on sales corkers, and we sold the loaner.

As has been posted, they are just as easy as pulling the handle on a "one armed bandit." I bottled up a 6 gallon batch of wine, and it was effortless.

steve

Homebrew HQ in Dallas loans theirs out too. The rental fee was less than the cheapest corker.

Im about to have to go out and buy a cheap one to bottle my mead as well. Anyone in Austin want to loan one to me?

- magno

I just bottled my Pom Wine with the plastic hand corker you had up there, and it works like a charm. Def worth the six bucks you pay for it, and it's yours forever! If you're doing a batch of over thirty bottles it could get tedious though. For small batches it's a workhorse.

mike

MLynchLtd said:

I just bottled my Pom Wine with the plastic hand corker you had up there, and it works like a charm. Def worth the six bucks you pay for it, and it's yours forever! If you're doing a batch of over thirty bottles it could get tedious though. For small batches it's a workhorse.

mike

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Do you have the "mini" corker or the "plunger" corker. From what I've read, it seems like either could work.

I have the plunger, and a hammer is required to finish it off, but no harm seems to come to the corker or the bottle. Good for a first timer, i test corked a bottle of water to make sure there were no leaks and stuff, and that the cork extracted cleanly. So far so good. There's something magical about a corked bottle of your own wine! I'll upgrade to a floor corker when my production volume increases.

mike