Hello

[pervis]

This is my first time on here and my first time brewing and i wanted to know how i should prepare my corks for bottling and do i just use standard corks as i am using old sterilized wine bottles? Ty.

 

[BamaProud]

Welcome to the site.

Sterilize your corks. Star san is a popular no rinse sanitizer. #8 or #9 corks will work fine with most wine bottles.

 

[brazedowl]

Happy brewing! What are you bottling?

You should only need to sanitize your corks if the package is already open. They're fine straight out of a new package. I just dunk them in some clean water before trying to use the corker as it helps them go in much easier.

Remember to let them sit upright for a while before storing them on their sides. The corks have to re-expand in the neck of the bottle for a snug fit. I've never had any leak, but I can tell because the color line on the corks is higher on ones I quickly laid on their side.

As far as bottles, I get all mine from the recycling bins behind an Italian restaurant in town. They're pretty gross and covered in food and junk when I get them, so I soak them for a while in a kiddie pool with oxyclean, or a weak bleach-borax mix on a warm day. Sparkly clean. Store them upside down or sideways, and rinse them with a little sanitizer before bottling.

 

[slimbiggins]

Make sure your corks are dry going in the bottle or they will work there way back out.

 

[brazedowl]

Make sure your corks are dry going in the bottle or they will work there way back out.

a) My SWMBO teaches 7th grade writing and wanted me to say "there = their *hugs*" She's sweet really.

b) Very true. For sparkling wines, they will pop right out of there if the cork is wet. Also true if you haven't degassed and there's a lot of ambient carbonation in the wine at the time bottling. I had one batch that started refermenting in the bottle shot the cork out, and launched the bottle out of the storeroom, across the kitchen and into my microwave, at 3 am. Sounded like a shotgun. Oddly neither the microwave or the bottle were broken. That being said. If you have a properly stabilized, still wine, you shouldn't have any problems with bottle rockets.

c) I also collect these sparkling water bottles that a restaurant recycles. They come in 1L and 500ml sizes and will accept a regular beer cap. I often bottle wine with crown caps either in these bottles, or even beer bottles. Crown caps are much cheaper. Normally when a wine ages oxygen VERY slowly seeps through the cork, contacts the wine and aids the aging process. I've been told that crown caps don't allow that to happen, but I've never noticed a difference between the capped and corked bottles of the same wine even after as much as two years.