Corking non corked bottles.

Sooo, way back in the beginning of my college days I lived with my good friend from high school. That year we drank a TON of Jones soda, since they had it here and no one seem to know what it was except us, plus it was cheap at the dining halls.

We kept all of the bottles with the intention of doing something cool with them, I intended on building a giant bottle shaped lamp out of bottles... haha Well we never did anything with them, and I have been the one storing them for going on 5 years. I have a ton of these babies, seriously I think the count is like 300 something.

I am collecting bottles for my brewing hobby from friends. Beer bottles work great, especially so I can take a 6 or 12 pack to a buddies, without worrying about an aerating wine bottle. My question is, can I safely cork there Jones Soda bottles? I would use synthetics, so they can be stored as a regular beer bottle, but with no labeling and a nice cork, it would be like a 12oz wine bottle, with a bit a class. They were originally twist off caps (not crown) but the corks I have on hand now seem to fit well. Anyone with experience? I tried to search, but didn't find to definite of answers.

Here's what they look like:




The cork sticks an awfully far way into the bottle, since the neck is not as slender as a traditional wine bottle. If these don't work, no harm no foul. But if I can use these, they would be fantastic.

Corks were not ment to go into anything other than a wine bottle, especally if you are carbing whatever you're putting in them. I'd say buy a bench capper, which can put crown caps onto twist-top bottles, if you want it looking classy, look into some foil to go onto the tops or something.

Well you shouldn't carb anything with just a regular cork anyway, that's not my question. I would never carb these. Can a bench capper really cap a crown cap onto this? These bottles are NOT crown twist offs, they are non-crown twist offs.

Jones's are non-crown twist-offs? What do they put on there, plastic screw-tops? If they can't accept crown caps (mabey they can, I'd probably try with a few) then you're up a creek without a paddle and you'll have to find some other use for them.

Edit: you could probably cork them, then cover in wax if you really wanted to, but that'd be alot of work.

They use an aluminum (I think) cap, shaped much like a standard 20oz pop bottle, but metal. as an example from google images.

It's hard to see, but it looks like the cork is nice and snug at the top and away from the sides from the middle down. That would be a concern, that your wine could seep out, or air could seep in. What happens if you turn it upside down for a while?

I don't see why you couldn't use them. I say bottle a few and see. Hell, if you've stored them for five years already, whats stopping you from storing all but 6-12 for the lenght of time it takes you to make a second batch...

Yooper is right, the cork appears to have contact for the top half. The liquid inside isn't brew, just some Koolaid colored water (hate the stuff) but I will cork one and leave it upside down for a while, checking for leaks, cork movement, etc.

I believe another issue here isn't just the pressure of the expending cork on the inside of the neck, but also that many cork pullers use the rim of the bottle as a fulcrum to pull the cork. The ones that don't, and that are simple a screw with a T-handle leave you potentially holding a bottle by the neck, where it is likely to break, while you forcefully yank the cork out.

The rim, and necks of wine bottles are reinforced for just these purposes.

I wonder if the screw tops for the brown plastic bottles that some brewers use will fit these threads? I think those can even be reused a time or two.

How long do you think it being upside down would serve as a good test?

ma2brew said:

I believe another issue here isn't just the pressure of the expending cork on the inside of the neck, but also that many cork pullers use the rim of the bottle as a fulcrum to pull the cork. The ones that don't, and that are simple a screw with a T-handle leave you potentially holding a bottle by the neck, where it is likely to break, while you forcefully yank the cork out.

The rim, and necks of wine bottles are reinforced for just these purposes.

I wonder if the screw tops for the brown plastic bottles that some brewers use will fit these threads? I think those can even be reused a time or two.

Click to expand...

That's a good point- I never thought of that! Getting the corks in is one thing- getting them out might cause some broken bottles. They are soda bottles, designed to hold carbonation pressure, so they won't explode when capped, but they may not be able to take the pressure on the neck from the opener.

As far as how long a test should be, I'd say a few days would give you an indication as to how far it'll seep down.

My LHBS guy told me that twist-off beer bottles could NOT be re-used with a crown capper.

Yet, I read of it here in this thread.

Please point me to how it is done, and the tools that will do it.

Thanks,

Pogo

FWIW
I store corona bottles with corks for months on end in the fridge...and they are fine.

Great to hear it Kahuna. I feel confident I will be able to use them in some capacity. However, my initial test went poorly. When corking the first bottle (well the second not the one in the picture) I did it by hand and caused some tearing in the cork. This lead to leakage. I think with synthetic corks, and a proper corker, I should be fine. Though I will still test further.

We have Soda Jones bottles around here, and they have the same kind of caps that your classier malt liquor bottles have, like Olde English 800 or Steele Reserve.

I think corking will work fine, but thanks for testing it for us!

pogo, crown cap twist off beer bottles can be reused, but they tend to have thinner necks and prone to breaking if you're not careful. Crown caps that don't twist off have thicker glass and able to take more abuse from us retarded brewers.