Carbonating with a #8 cork

[solbes]

If you force carbonated the bottles (from keg), the corks won't see the same pressure that a sugar primed bottle would. So I'm not at all surprised that the cork hasn't moved up against the cage yet.

Same argument for why you can easily pour in force carbed beer into a growler, but you may have issues if you naturally prime in one. I know some have tried it with success, but its still a watchout.

 

[theQ]

But in time the beer will still ferment... creating that pressure right ?

 

[solbes]

But in time the beer will still ferment... creating that pressure right ?

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, the beer is already fermented. You fermented in primary or primary/secondary at which point the beer reached final gravity. Then you force carbonated in a keg with CO2 gas, no additional fermentables added.

The CO2 from your force carbing will equilibrate with the headspace in the corked bottles (I'm guessing somewhere around 10 psi). But this CO2 pressure is going to be less than a bottle primed beer where additional sugar was added at bottling. Depending on how much was added, beer can see between 20-35 psi as the CO2 is created and slowly forced into suspension. At these types of pressures, the corks would push out against the hoods.

 

[theQ]

I am under the impression that as long as the yeast is active and as long as the beer while bottled still contains some small level of sugars the yeast will have at it. I could be wrong...

 

[tennesseean_87]

The yeast won't eat any more sugar if the remaining sugar is unfermentable. If you let the primary go long enough and reach stable gravity, you'll be fine. This is assuming you don't have a wild yeast infection that can eat more complex sugars that brewer's yeast can't--then you might run into issues (gusher bug). Otherwise, they can only eat so much, and then they're done.

I have bottled some trippel in these bottles and carbed them on the higher side (2.75 I think) and the corks were fine. Sorry, no video, but hopefully you'll believe me.

 

[theQ]

So you used #8/#9 with belgian bottles and everything was good enough ?

 

[tennesseean_87]

Yup. See the videos if you're not convinced. I only used the #8 (smaller) corks. I'm not sure the #9s will fit through my corker:

 

[theQ]

Did you put any cage on it ? Or did you cap it to hold the cork down ?

Some belgians require a 80F temp for bottle conditioning, usually that moves the cork up a bit, even with a cage

Update: Never mind I do see you are using a cage on top of them. that makes more sense. I have seen some belgians being corked with #8 maybe even #7 but they are caped so the cork stays in. That won't work with belgian style bottles thou. I only saw a video. You used the plural, can you point me out to the other one or many videos ?

Thanks!

Yup. See the videos if you're not convinced. I only used the #8 (smaller) corks. I'm not sure the #9s will fit through my corker:

 

[tennesseean_87]

There are 2 videos in post #3 of this thread. I have continued to use these bottles for a few brews and have never had an issue. I have no desire to put a cork under a cap--I'll just cap the bottle if that's the way I'm doing it. What is the point in corking with caps?

 

[theQ]

thanks for geting back to me.

I have seen some belgian lambic makers using that technique. They cork the bottle flush, then they cap it. It might be a cheaper alternative. I am not sure but seem to be enough to contain the high co2 volume.

I will look at the other videos. I search for them on your channel but couldn't find them. will try to find them here.

 

[tennesseean_87]

They aren't listed for search, so you can only get them from here. Just scroll up the page or go to thread's beginning.

Corking and capping can't be cheaper than just capping, so why put the cork in? If it's for presentation, it doesn't seem much nicer to me than just capping, while the wire hoods do look a lot nicer.

 

[theQ]

It's not about presentation - it's just to make sure the cork stays in place. Without the cage the cork will fly high at 2.3-3.4 CO2 volume!

They aren't listed for search, so you can only get them from here. Just scroll up the page or go to thread's beginning.

Corking and capping can't be cheaper than just capping, so why put the cork in? If it's for presentation, it doesn't seem much nicer to me than just capping, while the wire hoods do look a lot nicer.

 

[tennesseean_87]

It's not about presentation - it's just to make sure the cork stays in place. Without the cage the cork will fly high at 2.3-3.4 CO2 volume!

Corking and capping can't be cheaper than just capping, so why put the cork in? If it's for presentation, it doesn't seem much nicer to me than just capping, while the wire hoods do look a lot nicer.

I was talking about corking with a cap over it (not corking and caging)--the cap can hold the pressure, so why put a cork in it? The reason to go cork-and-cage instead of cap is presentation, but cap and cage seems to accomplish neither ease/cheapness (like a cap alone) or superb presentation (exposed cork with cage). Why do it?

 

[theQ]

So you think that 3.0 CO2 volume won't be an issue for bottle conditioning belgians at 80F in regular bottles ?

I thought there is a reason the belgians corked.

I might be wrong...

 

[tennesseean_87]

:smack: I'm not talking about bottles, I'm talking about closures. There are beer bottles that take caps and hold more pressure than standard 12oz or bombers. Most Champagne bottles can be capped. Some Belgian bottles take caps as well.



The reason normal bottles can't take the pressure isn't because the caps pop off, it's because the glass will shatter.