sremed60
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2015
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I don't know if this has been addressed yet. If it has I apologize.
Several months ago I decided I wanted to brew some Belgian style beer and use the 750ml Belgian bottles with cork and cage for packaging. It seemed like an easy enough plan and I figured with so many home brewers brewing beer since forever, I'd have plenty of resources for help along the way.
Step one, I bought a Portuguese floor corker. Step two, now to buy some reference corks and cages. This ended up being a research project that lasted several months. The vast overwhelming majority of home brew supply stores I spoke with never heard of a "reference cork." Some had heard of Belgian corks, but they didn't sell them so they tried to tell me wine or champagne corks were the same thing. I finally ordered the corks Northern Brewer sells. I wanted the reference corks that actually have the (REF) stamped on them, but it was frustrating enough just to try and find actual reference corks at all, or to find someone who knew what I was talking about, so I gave up on being too specific.
After settling for the corks Northern Brewer sells and reusing some cages I saved, (The price of cages at NB and Midwest is ridiculous), I did a test run on a couple bottles. The corks fell apart and tore trying to get them out of the corker. When I contacted NB they told me the corks seem to work better with an Italian floor corker, not the Portuguese floor corker.
To make a long story short - the hole on the bottom plate of the Portuguese Floor Corker is smaller than the diameter of a Belgian cork. The jaws clamp the cork narrow enough to allow it to pass threw the hole and into the bottle, but since you don't insert the cork all the way into the bottle for a cork and cage set up, when you release the handle the half of the cork that is still in the corker re-expands bigger than the small hole in the plate, which cuts it and tears it.
So the fairly easy fix was to take the jaws out and use a step bit to ream the hole out to the size of a Belgian cork. It works like a charm. Now to bottle my beer.
Several months ago I decided I wanted to brew some Belgian style beer and use the 750ml Belgian bottles with cork and cage for packaging. It seemed like an easy enough plan and I figured with so many home brewers brewing beer since forever, I'd have plenty of resources for help along the way.
Step one, I bought a Portuguese floor corker. Step two, now to buy some reference corks and cages. This ended up being a research project that lasted several months. The vast overwhelming majority of home brew supply stores I spoke with never heard of a "reference cork." Some had heard of Belgian corks, but they didn't sell them so they tried to tell me wine or champagne corks were the same thing. I finally ordered the corks Northern Brewer sells. I wanted the reference corks that actually have the (REF) stamped on them, but it was frustrating enough just to try and find actual reference corks at all, or to find someone who knew what I was talking about, so I gave up on being too specific.
After settling for the corks Northern Brewer sells and reusing some cages I saved, (The price of cages at NB and Midwest is ridiculous), I did a test run on a couple bottles. The corks fell apart and tore trying to get them out of the corker. When I contacted NB they told me the corks seem to work better with an Italian floor corker, not the Portuguese floor corker.
To make a long story short - the hole on the bottom plate of the Portuguese Floor Corker is smaller than the diameter of a Belgian cork. The jaws clamp the cork narrow enough to allow it to pass threw the hole and into the bottle, but since you don't insert the cork all the way into the bottle for a cork and cage set up, when you release the handle the half of the cork that is still in the corker re-expands bigger than the small hole in the plate, which cuts it and tears it.
So the fairly easy fix was to take the jaws out and use a step bit to ream the hole out to the size of a Belgian cork. It works like a charm. Now to bottle my beer.
