# popped corks



## offdagrid (Sep 15, 2011)

I bottled my mead a month ago, all but 2 were put in colored bottles, the 2 in clear bottles popped there corks after a couple weeks all the rest are fine, is there somthing about putting mead in clear bottles that will cause the them to pop?


----------



## djrockinsteve (Sep 15, 2011)

No. Corks pop because,
They are filled to much. 
Refermenting. 
Wrong size cork. 
Increased interior pressure from heat ex. sunlight or heater.
Corks were to wet when put in. 
Corks were swolen then shrunk. 
Excess vibration where they are stored. 

Open a brown bottle and see if it fizzes.


----------



## Wade E (Sep 15, 2011)

No, unless these 2 bottles have different size openings like maybe a foreign bottle? Other then possibly that I think you better keep an eye on that batch for sediment and or other popping corks.


----------



## Runningwolf (Sep 15, 2011)

I agree with Steve on inside pressure or over filled. I bottled 2200 bottles of wine today and one bottle had a cork sticking part way out of it. Each time I pushed it in it popped 1/8" back out. Finally I dumped some out and filled it back up to level and it was perfect.


----------



## Julie (Sep 15, 2011)

Runningwolf said:


> I agree with Steve on inside pressure or over filled. I bottled 2200 bottles of wine today and one bottle had a cork sticking part way out of it. Each time I pushed it in it popped 1/8" back out. Finally I dumped some out and filled it back up to level and it was perfect.



Yes, I agree, done the same thing.


----------



## winemaker_3352 (Sep 16, 2011)

Runningwolf said:


> I agree with Steve on inside pressure or over filled. I bottled 2200 bottles of wine today and one bottle had a cork sticking part way out of it. Each time I pushed it in it popped 1/8" back out. Finally I dumped some out and filled it back up to level and it was perfect.



Ditto to that!!


----------



## mrzazz (Sep 16, 2011)

Runningwolf said:


> I agree with Steve on inside pressure or over filled. I bottled 2200 bottles of wine today and one bottle had a cork sticking part way out of it. Each time I pushed it in it popped 1/8" back out. Finally I dumped some out and filled it back up to level and it was perfect.



2200 ?????  Really !!


----------



## Midwest Vintner (Sep 16, 2011)

Yeah, that's about what we do in a day. 400-500 gallons. In 3 weekends, with doing a heavy bottling day and then very easy day, we got over 7,000.

I would agree with the rest here. Either they are all fermenting, by chance those two had something or the bottles being different caused them to pop.


----------



## robie (Sep 16, 2011)

My aging area stays between 62 and 67F all the time.
I like to warm my wine up to about 75F before bottling, because, although I have never actually seen it happen, IMO, a rise in temperature might contribute to corks popping out, if head space happens to be too small to start out.

Since corks are not perfect seals, I figure over time the pressure in the bottle will try to equalize with the surrounding pressure, but it is nice to start out at a good place until the corks form a good seal with the bottle.


----------



## RLWinemaker (Nov 29, 2011)

Because honey contains a variety of sugars, some of which are very complex, the yeast starts using the simplest, most readily-fermentable first. Sometimes the mead will clear and appear to be done fermenting, but really the yeast are manufacturing the proper enzymes to make the more complex sugars fermentable. So, if you bottle at this point, your mead undergoes fermentation in the bottle, and whoosh! Flying corks! 

I give my mead from three to six months after clearing to ferment its complex sugars, then add just under 1 tsp. of priming sugar per bottle if I want to carbonate.


----------

