Reuse wine bottles

[James0816]

As title states, can you reuse cork top wine bottles?

 

[MWS]

Yes, but you need new corks and a corker tool of some sort.

 

[Kent88]

Agree with @MWS , and you also need to clean and sanitize them. But you probably already knew that.

 

[hamiltonkiler]

I re use bottles screw or corked with once used rubber fake corks. I use sanitizer and a rubber hammer to cork

 

[jonereb]

I re-use bottles, #8 size corks, and use a cheap hand corker. Works for me.

 

[James0816]

Yes, but you need new corks and a corker tool of some sort.

Kewl, i have plenty of corks and a corker. Just didnt know if i need to be buying cases of bottles too. Thought about collecting certain types for my wines.

 

[bernardsmith]

You can reuse wine bottles without any problem.. but bottles that held screw tops can sometimes pose a problem. The glass where the screw threads are seems to be less strong than the straight edged tops and what can sometimes happen is that when you insert the cork the pressure on the glass walls at the top of the bottle breaks the neck. Does not bhappen often but it does happen and it does happen often enough for me not to cork screw tops.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

I have read that screw tops must not be used with corks, too thin at lip. But I reuse bottles all the time. I even reuse screwtops, just install new tops. But these are mainly for ciders, and none of them sit for more than 6 months before they are recycled again.

 

[Mallerstang]

The inside diameter of the neck may be different. I just compared two that I have - the opening of the screw top is 20 mm across and the opening of the cork bottle is 18 mm. Also something I never noticed before - the inside walls of the screw top bottle, right where the cork would end up, are not straight.

I reuse cork-top wine bottles over and over. If I get more from the recycling depot, I'll soak them in the pink Sani-Brew, which gets most of them completely clean - and if not, they just go back. The worst thing is getting the old labels off.

 

[Blacksmith1]

Getting labels off is as easy as sterilizing the bottles with boiling hot water. Pour it in, wait for the glass to get hot, peel the label. If the bottles are very cold, warm them with hot tap water first to avoid shattering them. I was using just hot tap water but that leaves some paper behind. a scotch brite type scrubber and plain water will remove any residual glue.

 

[passedpawn]

I have tons of bottles - tell your neighbors you need them and you'll soon be overwhelmed. I only keep the wine bottles with the straight sides, since they stack well and lay in my wine rack properly. This type of bottle is called a bordeaux or claret bottle. It's #2 below.

White wine usually comes in a slightly rounded bottle (#1 or #4) and becomes an issue, and champagne/prosecco bottles don't stack at all (#3). However, if you ever want to make a sparkling (carbonated) wine, you'll need to start saving #3's.

For corking, I use #9 corks and a floor corker. This cork size is a nice tight fit and won't ever leak, but it might be difficult to use with a hand corker.

 

[beernutz]

If you have a recycling center you can typically pick up all the wine bottles you'd ever need there.

As to reuse, when I first started making wine 5 years ago I bought 24 new bottles and have reused them each many times. The labels that come with wine kits are thankfully a lot easier to remove than many commercial bottle labels. A good soak in oxyclean will normally get most of them off and the ones that don't come off easily get recycled.

 

[passedpawn]

If you have a recycling center you can typically pick up all the wine bottles you'd ever need there.

As to reuse, when I first started making wine 5 years ago I bought 24 new bottles and have reused them each many times. The labels that come with wine kits are thankfully a lot easier to remove than many commercial bottle labels. A good soak in oxyclean will normally get most of them off and the ones that don't come off easily get recycled.

I have a large rubbermaid garbage can that I fill with oxyclean solution and bottles. 24 hours later I pull them out and use a SS scrub pad on them - that will remove all of them. My experience is that about half of them don't come off without it, especially the glue under them. Won't hurt the bottle at all.