Apple wine storage on side?

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joer189

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I searched high and low on this site and did not find anything mentioning storage of apple wine on its side? maybe everyone just knows this so its a no brainer? First time making wine, brewed 5 gallons of Apple Wine, bottled and corked last night. Should I now store on side to keep cork wet?

Thanks in advance.

joe
 
I plan on putting mine in swing top bottles. I'll have enough for the entire batch.

Good question.
 
From what I understand.......it depends. If you used real corks you will want to store vertically. If you used the artificial corks they won't dry out and shrink so it doesn't matter.
 
Are you using natural corks?

Are you carbing it?

If #1 is a yes, the store side.

If # 2 is yes, then even if #1 is also true, leave them upright.

The only reasons wines are stored on the side is to keep the natural corks wet. That's it.
 
Ya I believe the corks will dry up and essentially shrink if not left on their sides. This can result in evaporation of your drink and infection.

But listen to Revvy, he's the expert.
 
+1Revy

There is also oxygen, albeit a small amount, in the cork, which helps (so it has been written by wine gurus) to age the product and improve it. If you use synthetic you can just leave a little more head space. I believe the current mantra on head spacing is 3/4 inch for cork and up to 1 inch for synthetic.

I will say that the apple wine does in my opinion improve with the right headspace. I just sulphited 30PPM a demi john of mine and got 6 cases of wine. I remember thinking at bottling that the wine was just ok. Well, after as little as a few weeks the head space must have dulled the sulphites out, and there was a much better flavor coming from the wine.
 
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