Belgian corking

[TrickyDick]

Hey,

I've only ever bottled two brews with corks. The latest and first batches both suffer from cork problems. The corks don't eject under the CO2 pressure. I carbonated to style, well above the regular volumes I use when kegging, though I don't have access to details at the moment.
I had a cork break when trying to open by hand. Corks are ordered through Austin home brew I believe. I placed the corks to the appropriate depth such that the hood would fit snugly and the wire base would fit just beneath the rim, with little slack. Need to use a corkscrew or pliers to eject the corks. I rinsed the corks and put in a bowl of StarSan, retrieving them as the bottling proceeded.

Is this the norm for corked home brews? No friends of mine are homebrewers except on just getting started, so I have no reference to compare with besides comical brews.

TD

 

[hecvil]

i'm not that experienced myself, but it sure seems like corking homebrew in belgian bottles is the final frontier- it is hard to find definitive tips or walkthroughs on the different corkers, whether to soak or not, etc. i just gave it my best shot.

i've got a batch that i recently did- i used a floor corker with a #7 bung to create the spacing, soaked the corks in starsan for a minute before popping them in. they've been bottled for 3 weeks now, was going to give it one more before trying it out. I will report back to tell you if mine are stuck, too.

 

[hecvil]

Well, I opened up my 375ml with the cork, and it was pretty tough! It didn't break, but it took a good minute of twisting with a kitchen towel for grip before it came loose. I am thinking the cork was too deep in the bottle, but I am wondering if there is some other trick to employ to make these things come out.

 

[m3n00b]

I've experienced the same thing with homebrew corks. They almost always break for me then I need to use a corkscrew to get the rest out

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

The below is not at all based on any experience just what I thought of first when I read this thread.

The wine bottles I have the most issues with opening generally stored standing up, I have read/heard (thank you Pawn Stars) that wine bottles are supposed to be stored on their side to keep the cork moist so it keeps a seal. Now I am pretty sure I read somewhere that we are supposed to leave our beer bottles standing during carbonation for the headspace and getting the CO2 to dissolve correctly (correct me if I'm losing my mind).

Maybe they corks are drying out? I don't know how much this could really be the culprit considering we're not looking at the bottles sitting for years, its only a couple weeks to months. I just couldn't imagine how these would be that hard to remove from the bottles (not that you did anything wrong, just, it seems baffling to me that this could occur).

 

[TrickyDick]

Yeah I agree it is very strange. It is nothing like the experience with a commercial bottle, where the corks easily eject. I even reuse some chimay and other Belgian bottles, and carbonate to correct volumes of CO2 using the style and charts.
Also, as someone else posted, the corks look nothing like the ones from commercial bottles. I've had some of my homebrew over two years in the bottle and they always look like the one in that pic above.
It's got to be the corks I think. They are harder than the commercial varieties?
Maybe this is one for "ask the wizard" at byo.

There is debate on storage upright vs flat. I have always stored upright. I don't think the cork issue has anything to do with this.

TD