Belgian style bottling (Champagne bottles)

I remember seeing a thread on bottling beer in wine bottles and leaving the cork 1/2 out and caging it with wire.

My LHBS sells champagne botles, corks and cages.

I re-used a champagne bottle to bottle an imperial stout with fantastic results.

Maybe they are not readilly available at some locations, but surely they are available online.

Other than a little up front cost, am I missing something?

I am thinking of bottling exclusively this way.

Unless you have a domestic good quality sparkling habit, you are going to find that bottling exclusively with sparkling bottles to cost you a lot and also you will run into problems using import bottles because of different sized caps. The belgian bottle is bottled as such for the look more than anything else. If you want good results, just use a crown cap on sparkling bottles and you will do just fine.

Sparkling bottles typically run you at least double the cost of normal bottles at LHBS. I find that I will buy a cases of Korbel sparkling wine for $10 a bottle (so $120) and can reuse those bottles just fine. Don't go with less expensive "imitation" bottles though that lack the punt and the crown cap fitting. Those are the keys that make the sparkling bottle able to hold so much pressure. All that said, this way makes sense becasue we drink a bottle of bubbly weekly if not more often. Just like buying a regular bottle of wine for $9, just sparkling instead.

Domaine St. Michelle out of Washington puts out a good quality bottle for about $7 here in California. Most likely all of the wine prices I am quoting will cost you more in your neck of the woods though.

Thanks for the tips!

I re-used the cap and cage that came with the bottle (I forget what kind of bubbly it held).

You mean that a normal beer cap will seal a bubbly bottle?

Normal crown caps are how sparkling wine is held for the entirety of its life at the winery. They cork and cage directly before shipping to retailers. It is just for looks. So yes, a normal beer cap will fit domestic bottles that are cappable. Again though, make sure that the bottles have a deep punt in order to be strong for a lot of pressure. If you buy the cheap sparkling wines, they don't have a punt and are force carbed and then counter pressure filled, which means they don't have to withstand the same force.

Great info. Thanks!

i used Martinelli’s sparkling cider bottles. they can be recapped with a standard bottle cap. walmart sells them for about 2.50 a bottle. i was lucky and bought them in bulk from sams club for less. plus you get to enjoy their yummy cider.