Best option for corking american champagne bottles?

[bottlebomber]

I just got 10 cases of what I believe are american champagne bottles, the mouth is 16.7 mm according to the blueprint. They are the only champagne style bottles my wholesaler had. I am looking for the best/most attractive method for corking these. I had somebody pick me up "corks" and they came back with plastic stoppers that are an absolute devil to get in. Someone is going to get injured with these, either corking or uncorking them. And also with all the work I put into making the cider that is going in to them, I want them to look as attractive as possible. What are my options? Can I use belgian corks? I have a Portuguese style floor corker from wine making. Can that work? Also, these bottles evidently have a crown top. It seems like I've seen bottles that have a cork and cap, and that looks nice as well. I would really appreciate it if someone with experience could chime in.

 

[DeNomad]

I was actually looking at some bottle mouth diameters yesterday.
Ommegang Belgian Bottle: .726/.730 in (18.44/18.54 mm)
Green Brasserie Dupont Bottle: .696/.700 in (17.68/17.78 mm)

You might be pushing it a bit much with Belgian cork with a 16.7 mm mouth, but it might work. I recommend you do a test run with a Belgian cork and fill your bottle with water, sugar and yeast primed to around 4.0 volumes. Place the bottle in a bucket or safe container in case anything breaks. You may need to dip your corks in some sanitizing solution so they slide in easier. If you do this let us know how it goes.

 

[bottlebomber]

That's a fine idea to do a test rune with sugar water. I've never bought bottles in my life and these things were not cheap.

 

[DeNomad]

Just an idea, if you have a local restaurant or bar with a selection of Belgian/craft beer you can usually score some empties for free or a small charge. My favourite place in Edmonton let's me buy Belgian type bottles for $1-2/each, my LHBS doesn't carry those kind of bottles.

 

[bottlebomber]

I still need to know about what kind of equipment you need for belgian corks though

 

[bottlebomber]

Surprisingly 23.5 mm belgian corks are the ones to use in 16.5 mm american champagne bottles. The rule of thumb I've found through research is 6 mm O/S for still wine, 7 mm for beer, and 8 for champagne. I figure on going about 3 volumes on my cider so this should work well.

 

[smokinghole]

You are just fine as you already found out using belgian corks in the american champagne bottles. In fact even if you got the 25.5mm belgian corks you'd be fine. Remember they are champagne bottles and champagne corks are huge compared to belgian corks. If you were going 5 volumes or higher I would have suggested champagne corks instead of belgian beer corks.

You should be able to use your portugese corker but I use a champagne floor corker. It has a bigger opening that makes life easy. If you can borrow a champagne corker I highly suggest it, I bottle some beer from most every belgian batch I make in some corked bottles. There's a thread around here somewhere about using a portugese corker though. So all you'll need is some cages then at that point once you figure out how to get the corks in the bottles.

 

[bottlebomber]

Thanks smokinghole... there MIGHT be a champagne corker among my homebrew club members. If not, I think I found the thread you referred to. The guy was basically setting the cork, releasing the lever and using the back of a screwdriver to push the cork free of the jaws from the top while pulling the bottle out. Luckily I'm working with the smaller of the corks so this shouldn't be AS much of an issue.