# Bad Corks



## whino-wino (Jan 8, 2009)

I made a ghastly discovery tonight. I was checking my wine cellar inventory and noticed a couple of bottles of Elderberry wine that I had made last summer with mold on the corks. Upon closer inspection it turned out that of the 22 bottles I have on the rack, 8 of them apparently had bad corks. The wine had soaked clear through the cork and there was mold on the outside of it. Furthermore, there was a lot of stringy black stuff, obviously bacteria of some kind, floating around inside the bottle. The other 14 bottles were still clear as a bell when held up to the light and the ends of the corks were dry with no mold on them.


I had bought some natural corks last year on e-bay. No, they were not used corks. Brand new in a bulk package of 200. They were #9 x 1.75 and only cost $30. Sometimes a deal is too good to be true. It seems that some of these corks were a bit too porous and let bacteria get inside of the bottle. The 8 bad bottles I have set aside and will have to be dumped tomorrow. Please remember them in your prayers.













As for the rest, I plan on pulling the corks and putting new ones in. Risky, but I think it has to be done. 


I've already thrown the remainder of what I had from those corks in the trash. They are not worth the risk.


Fortunately this was the only batch I had used these on. I'm getting all my corks from George from this day forward. I even ordered 100 more tonight.


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## whino-wino (Jan 8, 2009)

Just had a crazy thought and figured I'd throw it out there for some opinions.


What if I took 5 of these 8 bottles, dumped them into a 1 gallon secondary and gave it a real stiff dose of K-meta. I'm quite sure I can kill off all of the bacteria and rack off the clean wine.


I'll have to see if the bacteria altered the taste of the wine before I try this. If it tastes or smells bad then It gets dumped. If not, treat it.


After it's treated I could put the cleaned up wine in a secondary, take it upstairs to a different room, put a tsp of vinegar in there and let the conversion happen. I think the bacteria would have a hard time coming back if I turn it into vinegar.


I just can't stand the thought of dumping wine and I'd like to make vinegar on purposeat least once in my life.


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## grapeman (Jan 9, 2009)

Sorry for your loss Whino. It is always sad when a wine goes bad. Natural corks can be a funny thing to determine quality of. As amateur winemakers we need to rely on reputable sources to make these determinations for us. Can you always rely on a purchase from Ebay to be flawless and of highest quality? Some you can - some you can't. You made the right move in buying your new corks from George.




On to the next post. I would dump them and flush! It is not worth the risk to be trying to salvage something that has obviously gone bad. Is less than $100 worth of wine worth the chance of someone getting very ill? I don't think so. As far as making vinegar from it, I wouldn't do that either with a known bad wine. You use Mother of Vinegar to get a batch going, not just simply some vinegar. Have you ever heard of Elderberry vinegar? I haven't. Maybe there is a reason.


I'm not trying to bring you down, but 8 bottles of wine is just not worth the risks involved in any of it. Dump it, learn from it and move on.


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## Tom (Jan 9, 2009)

One thing that comes to mind is sanitation. I would never put my corks in a meta bath. Rathermake a small amount of meta, add a collendar and then add your corks. The "fumes" of the meta will kill any "beasties" on the corks. If you left the corks in the "water" to long and you added a shrink wrap that would help in make mold on the corks traping the water. Another thing is where you had them I bet they were pretty close to the floor. The dampness may have caused it also.


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## K&GB (Jan 9, 2009)

tepe, I always douse my corks ink-meta solution right before inserting them. I don't soak them for more than 5 minutes. If there's a good reason not to do this, I need to know so I can alter my practice. Please advise.


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## Tom (Jan 9, 2009)

Remember, the strength of the meta. If you smell it it takes your breath away. The same idea if you let the meta fumes kill the beasties on the cork. Also the cork is not wet so elimanites the possibilty of the cork absorbing any water. This not to say you may have a batch of bad corks.
Keep unused corks in a ziploc.


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## hannabarn (Jan 9, 2009)

I don't think I would want to drink any of that tainted wine. It could turn out to be the grapes of wrath or in this case the "elderberries of wrath"!!


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## hannabarn (Jan 9, 2009)

I keep my corks in a cork humidifier with K-Meta in a perforated container. I also douse them in K meta solution before inserting. However, it makes sense to me now not to douse them. I never thought about them absorbing moisture. Why take the chance. No more dousing!!


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## montyfox (Jan 9, 2009)

I was following the same practice of droping them in my k-meta solution for a couple of seconds before using them. I guess I should like into building a cork humidor. 


I seal my corks in a vacuum sealed bag if I'm not going to use them for a long period of time. I have no idea if this is good or bad, I just didn't want them exposed to the elements.


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## whino-wino (Jan 9, 2009)

I don't think the problem was sanitization. I also use a humidor for my corks. I think the corks in question were actually too porous.


Here is my evidence:


Side view of cork from a "bad" bottle:








Here's what's inside that bottle:








Side view of cork from a "good" bottle:








Notice that it's still soaked about 3/4 of the way through on the above picture.


Now here's what the inside of that bottle looks like held up to the light:








I pulled the worst cork from the 8 that I had. Here's what that cork looks like. Please note that the dark end shown in the picture is the opposite end from the one that actually was in contact with the wine:








I think it's bad corks.


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## Tom (Jan 9, 2009)

Yep, looks like bad corks.

Neat pictures, explains alot maybe even defective. Seams like the wine was sucked thru the cork. I doubt the wine can be saved. But, taste it you never know.


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## whino-wino (Jan 9, 2009)

tepe said:


> Yep, looks like bad corks.
> 
> Neat pictures, explains alot maybe even defective. Seams like the wine was sucked thru the cork. I doubt the wine can be saved. But, taste it you never know.




You just made me start thinking with that statement. Do you think perhaps I keep my cellar too dry? I run a dehumidifier in there constantly. During the summer I have to empty the tray on it every other day, but this time of year I can go a whole week and it'll only be half full. 


It isn't exactly "climate controlled" in there. I can keep the temp constant, but I have no way to control humidity. I just run the humidifier basically nonstop since I don't want any mold growing in my wine cellar. 


I'm wondering if the humidity level is low enough to actually aid in "sucking the wine through the cork" as you put it.


p.s.I wasn'tbrave enough to taste the wine with those little nasties floating around in there. It's definitely bacteria some sort and I don't want to end up in the hospital or anything. I've thought better of it and have already dumped these bottles. The only bright side is now I've got 8 more empty bottles in my cache.


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## Tom (Jan 9, 2009)

_"I'm wondering if the humidity level is low enough to actually aid in "sucking the wine through the cork" as you put it."_


Gee Whino I don't know. 

maybe someone can jump in and answer that about being "to dry"


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## FineWino (Jan 10, 2009)

Whino,


I have looked at your pictures and yes, the cork is the problem.


The wine did not get "sucked through the cork", it seeped around the side of the cork. The same thing was happening to the bottle that was not spoiled, it was just happening at a slower rate.


A poor quality cork will not maintain the compression in its cellular structure and so it will not continue pressing on the side of the bottle. It lets wine go out, and air go in.The wine will dry out at the top of the cork and nastie critters will grow there.


The lower humidity will not pull wine out of the bottle, although changes in barometric pressure will.


If you are worried about your humidity being too low, you might get a plug-in timer for your dehumidifier so that it only runs for a short time each day, adjusting the time so the average humidity is 50-70% or so.


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## whino-wino (Jan 10, 2009)

FineWino said:


> Whino,
> 
> 
> I have looked at your pictures and yes, the cork is the problem.
> ...




Thanks FineWino, that makes sense. 


The unspoiled bottles are getting new corks as soon as I get my shipment from George, which should be next week.


Should I sanitize the new corks and just pop them in or do you think it would be a good idea to put a few drops of a highly concentrated K-meta solutioninto each bottle before inserting them? If so, how strong should I mix it and how much to add? I wouldn't have much space in each bottle to work with.


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## grapeman (Jan 10, 2009)

You could pour them all back into a bucket, add some k-meta, rebottle and then cork. The extra k-meta would be a good idea. If you dont put in the bucket, make a solution in a cup and then addlike 3-4 ml per bottle. Decide how much room ther is. If it is 4 ml and you have 20 bottles lets say, then start with 80 ml of water(or wine)- add about 1/8 to 1/4 tsp k-meta to that, stir well and add the 4 ml to each bottle. If the corks are from an unopened bag and you have a floor corker, just put them in it and bottle- no need to dip.


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## AlFulchino (Jan 10, 2009)

dont you know someone who has never brought your tools back? or someone who is always trying to leech wine off of you?


sounds like the perfect recipients


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