Corking without a corker?

[solbes]

Natural #8 corks with the starsan soak (maybe 10-15 minutes). Aged bottles only up to 3 years now, but so far so good. I am cellaring the Barolo with 15 left. Drinking 3-4 per year so we'll see how it continues to age. Fingers crossed that the corks remain good.

 

[Yooper]

I certainly wouldn't soak them, but a quick rinse to lube e'm up can't hurt. I completely hate natural corks though. Can't tell you how many times I've had to drink a 20 year old bottle of wine with tiny pieces of cork in my glass. Now I do know that the Ah-so pretty much solves that problem, but I didn't always know that secret. At home I haven't aged anything more than a few years, and the naturals did work fine I'll admit, but I use synthetic only now.

I have accidentally left some naturals in star san all night after bottling day and they were completely ruined!

What I've done for corks that I've had that were repackaged is made a "cork humidor". I heat some water and stir in some k-meta (about 3 campden tablets worth, or 1/8 teaspoon) and put that in a measuring cup, and then place that in a large bowl. Then I put my corks around it, and put on the lid. The corks then are sort of "steamed" by the k-meta. When I take them out, they aren't wet but the smell of k-meta is really strong.

When the solution cools, that's what goes into my bottling bucket for a 3 gallon sized batch.

I hope that makes sense. I don't want the corks to be wet, whether natural or synthetic.

I really like the normacorks, but haven't used them long enough to say if they are as good for long aging as natural first quality #9 corks.

 

[bmd2k1]

I was told to store them air tight. Keep them dry. Don't soak em and don't dip them.

I really wanted to sanitize them but I tried one bone dry and it went right in easy with the little red hand corker.

Still digging this hand corker? Do you use real or synthetic corks?

Cheers!

 

[Blacksmith1]

I have one. use of #8 corks (I used real) is recommended as the #9 tend to stick before they go all the way in. I'm waiting to find a floor corker on craigslist before I start buying 9's.

 

[hamiltonkiler]

I get mine wet and rubber hammer them in. Synthetic corks.

 

[Blacksmith1]

That sounds uncomfortable.......

 

[Nagorg]

 

[JimRausch]

Interesting discussion. I didn't know there was even a controversy. I run my clean wine bottles and corks through the dishwasher sanitizer cycle like I do my beer bottles. Then I toss them in a bucket for a K-meta soak while I'm bottling. I figure the Camden at this point is more for any residual antioxidant action. I definitely use a hand corker. But caveat- I only do 1 gallon batches so far, and that's just 4 bottles (plus a hefty 'trial' glass). So yooper and folks- if getting the corks wet deteriorate them, what kind of time frame are we talking? With 4 bottle batches I generally let them sit for a year, but when I decide to crack them open, they won't last long.