Carbonating with a #8 cork

[tennesseean_87]

I know you are supposed to use a bench corker and champagne corks for carbonating, but I recently came into some champagne bottles for free and thought I'd experiment in the name of science. So I dropped two carb tabs and a few drops of slurry in a bottle, filled it with water, stuck the bottling wand in for proper head space, and used a rubber mallet and my $5 corker to get a #8 cork most of the way in. I then fashioned a hood from some scrap wire and let it sit for a week or so. I just popped it and it was at least as carbonated as I would expect a beer to be, the mouthfeel was nice and tingly, though it smelled foul and had poor head retention. Maybe Revvy's 3 weeks in a bottle would have conditioned the smell away, but I called it a success.

I went ahead and bought some 29mm caps and bell to use, but in a pinch this will probably work for beer levels of carb, though I'm not sure it would completely hold 8-9 volumes like champagne (maybe that'll be my next experiment!).

 

[tennesseean_87]

I decided to bottle one each of my recent India Brown and Saison in Belgian 750ml bottles with #8 corks. We'll see how they are carbed in a few weeks. I also made the hoods myself; I love DIY and am a huge cheapskate.

 

[tennesseean_87]

Here is the popping of the Saison. It seemed perhaps a bit undercarbed, but not bad. I definitely wouldn't try going really high with this, but I'm tempted to try some #9 corks.



This is not undercarbed at all! Listen to that pop!

 

[bellmtbbq]

Just watched this thread. They really don't look like Champagne bottles, more like regular Bordeaux bottles, but if you say so.

But it looks really interesting! Belgian beer corks are much more expensive then regular wine corks for some reason... I couldn't see myself DIYing the hoods, I'll leave that to you haha, but the cork idea is cool. Once I get a sour ale and a Tripel through the pipeline, I might try this.

 

[tennesseean_87]

The bottles pictured and video-recorded are Belgian beer bottles. The un-documented first test was a sparkling wine bottle, which also worked.

 

[solbes]

Interesting. As I am playing around with lambics now, I'd like to get a plan for how I might bottle some in 2014. I also have 5-10 of the Belgian 750's (or whatever they are).

I was going to use plastic corks and a hood (cheap, easy, and reuseable), but the fit is a little loose. I might try something around the plastic cork to make it a hare larger. The pressure will eventually force it against the neck ID, so this might work. But your idea looks to be a solid back up plan.

The plastic corks work well with recylced champagne bottles. I try to bottle a few higher gravity Belgian's this way to age for 3-4 years. BTW, I have that same crappy $5 wine corker and a rubber mallet

 

[tennesseean_87]

Yeah, I'm really surprised it works, since it isn't really supposed to, so that's why I wanted to get the word out a bit. I had some extra corks because I'd been bottling apfelwein still, but decided it is much better carbed, so I started picking up champagne bottles (which I can cap), but I also have a few Belgian bottles.

 

[looneybomber]

Without hoods, #8 corks will hit the ceiling in the middle of the night...Lesson learned.

 

[tennesseean_87]

My hoods didn't seem stretched, but maybe that's a temp thing. I did have some wine this springthat wasn't de-gassed properly that blew out a #8 cork once the temp got up. I'll keep using them (hoods).

 

[looneybomber]

It could be a temp thing. I had my bottles right around 80 to help get them to carb.

 

[thetmaxx]

Last year I bottled a bunch of RIS in various bottles with wine corks. the bottles that were made for corks seemed to hold carb, but the regular 750ml's didn't, they were quite flat. Based on this I am going to cork my sour next year with corkable bottles and wine corks.

 

[tennesseean_87]

What bottles didn't hold carb? Were they 22oz bombers that you corked?

 

[thetmaxx]

What bottles didn't hold carb? Were they 22oz bombers that you corked?

Yes. I didn't have enough belguim bottles. The beer is still really good though!

 

[tennesseean_87]

Pop some carb tabs in them and cap as usual!

 

[thetmaxx]

HA HA, never thought of that, wish I hadn't drank them all flat

 

[hoppymonkey]

I carb ciders in champagne bottles with regular #9 corks with no problems. I age with them a wooden box stuffed with paper towels just in case. occasionally I even see where a cork or two has pushed up 1/4", but no popped bottles yet and some have been going on a year. I put between 1 and 3 carb tabs per 750ML bottle for experiments sake with no issue.

 

[tennesseean_87]

no hoods, huh? I'd be a bit nervous about that.

 

[hoppymonkey]

Didn't say it is especially smart, but I've got at least 4 different batches done that way.

 

[theQ]

I just found this thread after posting a question the results of a dry test I did with my floor corker and a #7 or #8 ( I need to measure the corks) on a belgian bottle.

So what's the the final conclusion of your wet test. Is #8 the way to go ? can you tell me the process of making those wire hoods ?

Thanks!

 

[theQ]

It was a #9 I think I should be ok with that size.

 

[smokinghole]

I know its the cool factor of corks, or even thrift because you have them left over from something else, but why skimp? You spend all the time and some money to make the beer, then risk having a product turn out not as intended to save a couple bucks. If you want corks in champagne, seat them all the way, and finish with a crown. I do that on long term beers like my lambics and other long term brews. Otherwise I use proper Belgian beer or champagne corks (only in my 3L and larger bottles) and a wire hood. The big bottles get custom made cork retainers though due to their size not accepting a standard cage. If its worth doing halfway why not do it all the way? Its not like you are corking 4-5 cases at a time so the financial outlay is not that much. I do a lot of corked beer and lucked into 1000 Belgian corks for $120. If not for that I would only do a case or less per batch because the homebrew shops really put a markup on corks compared to what I paid.

 

[theQ]

All valid points - don't get me wrong here. I only want to bottle some belgians to pass around to friends. for the ones I am going to age I will use proper corks.

I am mainly going to keg it.

Since we are talking about bottling and since I never bottled yet - (totally new here, my first beer ever is a trippel and is in the 1st fermenters as we speak) do you bottle and condition it or do you keg to carbonated it to the style and then bottled it ?

 

[solbes]

Usually you bottle condition Belgians. If you had a counter pressure filler or something similar you could force carb and bottle I suppose.

 

[theQ]

What would be the best way to bottle condition them. I hear some people are using sugar. What's good resource ? I am planning to bottle some to age them.

 

[solbes]

Corn sugar or dextrose should impart no flavor at all, so most people use that as its simple to use. Invert syrup, belgian candy syrup, or DME are some other possibilities. You want to make sure the Belgian is completely fermented out prior to bottling, as sometimes they can be reawakened in the bottle.

Usually they can be carbed higher in the 2.5-3.5 volume range. You might want to stick 3 and below though to avoid issues of over carbonation. Link to priming calculator below:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

 

[theQ]

Thanks. So the main idea is to wait is to make sure the carbonation is controlled.

So if I want to keg 4 gallon and bottle 1 gallon using the Belgian bottles what's the best way to do it ?

 

[solbes]

Make sure the thing is completely done. Fermented in primary for a few weeks and I like to give them a month or two in secondary.

Then plugging in the numbers for 1 gallon to bottle, I get 1.1 oz of corn sugar added (assuming the beer is at 68F at time of bottling, which affects residual carbonation already in the beer). Boil up 1/2 cup of water and the 1.1 oz of sugar and add to the bottling bucket.

For the Belgian bottles either get a good corker and the real corks & hoods, or do the #8 method described above (but use a hood!).

 

[pkalder]

Just to give a little more info, I just bottled some belgians with #9 1 3/4 inch and a hand corker. It is possible, but it is not fun. The corks needed to be wet, I had a little vodka on them and they slid in. I had a yellowish heme breakdown from the bruise on my palm for about 3 weeks though. This is probably before I wetted the corks. They would not go in dry. Make sure you use hoods. I pasteurized some and they definitely needed them.

 

[theQ]

I just bottled 6 22oz belgians using the belgian thick and long corks. It went pretty well. I soaked the corks in a little plastic back with starsan for 30 minutes.

I have a Portuguese floor corker - the secret is to leave the bottle on the stand till next bottled is filled. then pull up the corker's handle. the bottle will be coming out very quick.

What I find interesting also is that the the cork got in and it seems that the mesh is not needed, i see no pressure yet.

I force carbonated the beer that I bottled (from the keg) - I want to age it to see if gets better.

 

[theQ]

One additional note here the Portuguese floor corker inserts the cork a little bit more than then bottles you buy from the liquor store. One week in the corks didn't move up - the mesh is still above the cork (there is a gap in there)