I finally got around to bottling the final gallon of grape/elderberry wine
that's been sitting in my small oak keg for several months. I've been
topping it off all along and it tasted great. Unfortunately, when I was
corking the five bottles, one shattered. When you only make five bottles,
losing one is a 20% loss ratio. In reviewing my notes on this batch, when I
bottled the other two gallons of this wine straight from the secondary
several months back, one of those bottles broke, also.

I have a bench corker and soaked the corks for about ten minutes before
corking. This is my usual soak as if I let them soak too long, they are too
limp to force through the neck of the corker and end up with mushroom heads
protruding above the bottle neck.

All of the bottles were originally from commercially bought wine which came
with corks, not screw tops, so the bottles were made for corking. Also, I'd
used all five previously at least once for my home brews. I'm wondering if
maybe my mechanical home corker puts more stress on the bottles than does a
commercial corker. Maybe I should throw the bottles out after one round of
corking for homebrew? I hate to waste good bottles, but I'd rather throw out
a half dozen bottles than lose a bottle of a special brew, as I did today.

Any similar experiences, comments, or theories?


Paul

Hi Paul

Both of these problems are caused by inadequate head space
in the bottle. When a long cork is fully seated, there should be
~3/4 inch of head space remaining between the bottom of the
cork and the top of the wine. I have a friend that actually made
up a gauge for checking this until he had enough experience to
do it by "eye ball". HTH Happy holidays !!

"Pavel314" > wrote in message
...
> I finally got around to bottling the final gallon of grape/elderberry wine
> that's been sitting in my small oak keg for several months. I've been
> topping it off all along and it tasted great. Unfortunately, when I was
> corking the five bottles, one shattered. When you only make five bottles,
> losing one is a 20% loss ratio. In reviewing my notes on this batch, when
I
> bottled the other two gallons of this wine straight from the secondary
> several months back, one of those bottles broke, also.
>
> I have a bench corker and soaked the corks for about ten minutes before
> corking. This is my usual soak as if I let them soak too long, they are
too
> limp to force through the neck of the corker and end up with mushroom
heads
> protruding above the bottle neck.
>
> All of the bottles were originally from commercially bought wine which
came
> with corks, not screw tops, so the bottles were made for corking. Also,
I'd
> used all five previously at least once for my home brews. I'm wondering if
> maybe my mechanical home corker puts more stress on the bottles than does
a
> commercial corker. Maybe I should throw the bottles out after one round of
> corking for homebrew? I hate to waste good bottles, but I'd rather throw
out
> a half dozen bottles than lose a bottle of a special brew, as I did today.
>
> Any similar experiences, comments, or theories?
>
>
> Paul
>
>

>
> Any similar experiences, comments, or theories?
>

I have a winged corker not a floor model, I find that it is
very sensitive to the stiffness of the corks. I've bottled
with dry #9 corks and even after a dousing in boiling water
they tend to leave mushroom heads. Then I started storing
my corks in a potassium meta humidor and that seems to have
solved the problem. I assume it was the long term storage in
high humidity making the corks softer.

Don

A bottle filler would fill all bottles to the proper height all the time. One
came in my kit. They cost about $3.

Sounds overfull to me too. I just use a cork as the fill gauge, I set
it even with the top of the bottle and aim for 1/2" to 3/4" headspace.
Be careful with 'Mondavi' style necks, they have that goofy top-hat
type lip to contain drips. They can line up offset and the cork throw
the bottle right off of the corker if you are not careful.
Regards,
Joe

"Pavel314" > wrote in message >...
> I finally got around to bottling the final gallon of grape/elderberry wine
> that's been sitting in my small oak keg for several months. I've been
> topping it off all along and it tasted great. Unfortunately, when I was
> corking the five bottles, one shattered. When you only make five bottles,
> losing one is a 20% loss ratio. In reviewing my notes on this batch, when I
> bottled the other two gallons of this wine straight from the secondary
> several months back, one of those bottles broke, also.
>
> I have a bench corker and soaked the corks for about ten minutes before
> corking. This is my usual soak as if I let them soak too long, they are too
> limp to force through the neck of the corker and end up with mushroom heads
> protruding above the bottle neck.
>
> All of the bottles were originally from commercially bought wine which came
> with corks, not screw tops, so the bottles were made for corking. Also, I'd
> used all five previously at least once for my home brews. I'm wondering if
> maybe my mechanical home corker puts more stress on the bottles than does a
> commercial corker. Maybe I should throw the bottles out after one round of
> corking for homebrew? I hate to waste good bottles, but I'd rather throw out
> a half dozen bottles than lose a bottle of a special brew, as I did today.
>
> Any similar experiences, comments, or theories?
>
>
> Paul

In article >,
Pavel314 > wrote:
>I finally got around to bottling the final gallon of grape/elderberry wine
>that's been sitting in my small oak keg for several months. I've been
>topping it off all along and it tasted great. Unfortunately, when I was
>corking the five bottles, one shattered. When you only make five bottles,
>losing one is a 20% loss ratio. In reviewing my notes on this batch, when I
>bottled the other two gallons of this wine straight from the secondary
>several months back, one of those bottles broke, also.
>
>I have a bench corker and soaked the corks for about ten minutes before
>corking. This is my usual soak as if I let them soak too long, they are too
>limp to force through the neck of the corker and end up with mushroom heads
>protruding above the bottle neck.
>
>All of the bottles were originally from commercially bought wine which came
>with corks, not screw tops, so the bottles were made for corking. Also, I'd
>used all five previously at least once for my home brews. I'm wondering if
>maybe my mechanical home corker puts more stress on the bottles than does a
>commercial corker. Maybe I should throw the bottles out after one round of
>corking for homebrew? I hate to waste good bottles, but I'd rather throw out
>a half dozen bottles than lose a bottle of a special brew, as I did today.
>
>Any similar experiences, comments, or theories?

You're not very clear about how the bottles broke. Did they break during
or after corking? Are the necks breaking or are the bottles just shattering?

Are you using #8 or #9 corks? (#9's are wider.) Are your corks low or
high quality - are they cork all the way through or are you using the ones
with the plastic cores?

If the bottles don't break until after you put the cork in, is it possible
fermentation is still going on and the bottles are breaking under pressure?

Personally, if the answer isn't apparent after you've asked yourself all
these questions, and you got the bottles all from the same source, I would
ditch the bottles.

--
"Nonsense. If your eternal balance is destroyed, | ^ /o\ |\ |\
why did the sun rise? If I'm a demon, why do I | |/\v/--- | |/
have such a headache?" -- Tamora Pierce, | b ^ | | | |
"The Woman Who Rides Like A Man" | | / \ V \| |

> You're not very clear about how the bottles broke. Did they break during
> or after corking? Are the necks breaking or are the bottles just
shattering?

The top of the neck broke off while the cork was being inserted.


> Are you using #8 or #9 corks? (#9's are wider.) Are your corks low or
> high quality - are they cork all the way through or are you using the ones
> with the plastic cores?

High quality #9 corks, 1.75 inches long.


> Personally, if the answer isn't apparent after you've asked yourself all
> these questions, and you got the bottles all from the same source, I would
> ditch the bottles.

These were bottles from wine I'd purchased; after drinking the wine, they
ended up in the recycle pile in my wine cellar.

Paul

In article >,
Pavel314 > wrote:
>> You're not very clear about how the bottles broke. Did they break during
>> or after corking? Are the necks breaking or are the bottles just
>shattering?
>
>The top of the neck broke off while the cork was being inserted.
>
>
>> Are you using #8 or #9 corks? (#9's are wider.) Are your corks low or
>> high quality - are they cork all the way through or are you using the ones
>> with the plastic cores?
>
>High quality #9 corks, 1.75 inches long.
>
>
>> Personally, if the answer isn't apparent after you've asked yourself all
>> these questions, and you got the bottles all from the same source, I would
>> ditch the bottles.
>
>These were bottles from wine I'd purchased; after drinking the wine, they
>ended up in the recycle pile in my wine cellar.

Sounds like you need #8's for those, then...

I actually did a batch that I accidentally found out was sparkling by
coming home one day and finding that 3 #8 corks had popped. Better than
glass grenades, I guess, or I would have lost more than just 3 bottles!!
I generally use #9's now.

--
"Nonsense. If your eternal balance is destroyed, | ^ /o\ |\ |\
why did the sun rise? If I'm a demon, why do I | |/\v/--- | |/
have such a headache?" -- Tamora Pierce, | b ^ | | | |
"The Woman Who Rides Like A Man" | | / \ V \| |

(She Devil With A Rubber Chicken) wrote in message >...
> In article >,
> Pavel314 > wrote:
> >
> >High quality #9 corks, 1.75 inches long.
> >
> >
> >> Personally, if the answer isn't apparent after you've asked yourself all
> >> these questions, and you got the bottles all from the same source, I would
> >> ditch the bottles.
> >
> >These were bottles from wine I'd purchased; after drinking the wine, they
> >ended up in the recycle pile in my wine cellar.
>
> Sounds like you need #8's for those, then...
>

I would stay with the 9's. Much better seal. I even use them for thin
necked 375ml bottles (like Canadian ice wine bottles) with no
problems.

I would check for the over filled bottle first and I would make sure
the bottle lines up straight below the cork. If the bottle is at even
a slight angle, front to back or side to side, it can put a lot more
pressure on the neck plus require more force to drive the cork home.

Andy