Screw Top bottles

Can I re-use the screw-top wine bottles for my home-brew wine, or do I need to get hold of some bottles and corks?

yes and its much more convenient from what I hear...I havent used them yet, but there are many who do

Thanks for the reply!

Good news on that front then - I've been saving up screw top bottles for ages, but then today my mate who's been doing home brew for years said it wouldn't work.

I have to say I didn't believe him for long - he went on to claim that the bottles weren't air/water tight once the seal had been broken, and that that's "why you can't lay them down" obviously he was wrong on that count (I always keep half full screw-top wind horizontal in my fridge), but he planted the seeds of doubt, so I thought I'd best check.

Can anyone who's actually done this confirm?

Re-use of screw top bottles is very viable, in any direction.

I don't use them and I don't know any experienced home wine maker who does. Screw caps are a good option for commercial wines but the equipment required is too expensive for home wine making. Without the seal that's present in the commercial process, the wines capped with finger tightened screw tops might be good for wines consumed within a few weeks but certainly not wines meant to be cellared of several moths or years.

Now just to be cleaer, there's two possible answers here dependign on what you mean.

1. No, you can't achieve same seal as original just by reattaching the screw on caps by hand, and you will suffer oxygenation and lose quality of your wine.

2. Yes, you CAN use corks in screw top bottles, and thus safely reuse them. Some of these bottles will require a #8 cork though, rather than a standard #9, if memory serves. Esp if you're using a hand corker instead of a floor corker.

etp777 said:

Now just to be cleaer, there's two possible answers here dependign on what you mean.

1. No, you can't achieve same seal as original just by reattaching the screw on caps by hand, and you will suffer oxygenation and lose quality of your wine.

2. Yes, you CAN use corks in screw top bottles, and thus safely reuse them. Some of these bottles will require a #8 cork though, rather than a standard #9, if memory serves. Esp if you're using a hand corker instead of a floor corker.

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Thanks - I was originally asking if I could just screw the caps back on, BUT having got a resounding "NO!" I guess my next question would be "can I cork 'em" (they're the only bottles I have), so you saved me a job

etp777 said:

2. Yes, you CAN use corks in screw top bottles, and thus safely reuse them. Some of these bottles will require a #8 cork though, rather than a standard #9, if memory serves. Esp if you're using a hand corker instead of a floor corker.

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Will - one thing to consider: yes, you can cork screw-cap bottles but the mouth area that accepts the cork is much thinner than a standard corked bottle. There are a lot of reports of the necks breaking during the corking process. If you think about it you can see that a bottle designed for screw tops just doesn't need to be as strong as a bottle desgned to accept the downward pressure from the corking process. The same is true that sparkling wine bottles must be much stronger than corked bottles in order to withstand the extra pressure. Just be careful.

Ah, Thanks solstice. i've seen complaints about that trying to reuse screw cap beer bottles, hadn't seen it with scrrew top wine bottles.

Luckily, I invested in a floor corker to start years back, so never had to worry about things like that.

etp777 said:

Luckily, I invested in a floor corker to start years back, so never had to worry about things like that.

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Sorry for being a bit thick, but what are you saying here? - do you not have to worry because a floor corker can get the cork in without breaking a screwtop bottle?

The issue with hand corkers (or at least hand cappers), is that they grip the neck of the bottle to supply the upweard force while pushing down on the cork/cap with a plunger.

Floor corker (or benchtop capper, which I have to find), press up on bottom of the bottle, so they're not applying torque to the thin wall near the screw top. Same reason I can recap screw top bottles. Rarely do it just because there aren't many beers I like in screw top bottles.

Ahh, now I understand - thanks.

I just experimented getting a cork into an (empty) screw top wine bottle with a hammer (Placed a short dowel over the cork and hit that) and it worked great - guess that should be okay as the upwards force on the bottle came from my counter top...

You should talk to your homebrew shop about renting a corker. They'll often have floor corkers available for rent very reasonably, and may even let you have it for a day gratis if you continue to buy from them and develop a good reloationship with them.

etp777 said:

You should talk to your home-brew shop .

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Nice thought, but I'm afraid I live in a no-horse town. More to the point a no-home-brew-shop town, in the middle of no-where.

How well did the cork survive your hammer experiment. The biggest benefit of a corker is that it actually squeezes the cork inward, compressing it as it is pushed in to the bottle. This is because, to get a good seal, the cork must be larger then the opening. Just shoving a cork in often results in tearing or cracking of the cork.

Tusch said:

How well did the cork survive your hammer experiment.

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No problem at all.