# Is airspace necessary under cork



## garymc (Jul 27, 2012)

I corked a bottle of red wine tonight and it was so full that the cork is in contact with the wine. It's one of those new rubbery corks. Is this a big problem? I'll probably be drinking it relatively soon (week or 2.)


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## joeswine (Jul 27, 2012)

*Head space*

ITS THERE FOR EXPANSION--- TO ALLOW GASSES TO ESCAPE.................::
,AFTER BOTTLING THE INSTRUCTIONS STATE TO LET STAND FOR A FEW DAYS UPRIGHT,THIS IS TO ALLOW FOR THAT PROCESS TO HAPPEN,THEN WHEN YOU LAY THEM ON THEIR SIDE THE CORK AND THE LIQUID FOR A BOND AND SEAL THE BOTTLE,(HOPEFULLY)AT LEATS THATS MY TAKE ON IT.....................


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## GreginND (Jul 27, 2012)

Joe is right. Without any air space your cork is likely to pop out due to the hydraulic pressure of expanding liquid. All it would take would be a little bit of increase in the temperature of the bottle. Liquid cannot be compressed like air can to cushion the pressure changes.

I would drink it sooner rather than later.


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## robie (Jul 27, 2012)

As the temperature goes up, it will need to compress something in the bottle, in order to release the pressure.

You can't compress water (wine), so something has to give and it will be the cork popping up (almost a guaranty that it will). If air is present, it will compress instead, absorbing the pressure.

You really need to open that bottle, pour our two finger's width of wine and recork.


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## Arne (Jul 27, 2012)

robie said:


> As the temperature goes up, it will need to compress something in the bottle, in order to release the pressure.
> 
> You can't compress water (wine), so something has to give and it will be the cork popping up (almost a guaranty that it will). If air is present, it will compress instead, absorbing the pressure.
> 
> You really need to open that bottle, pour our two finger's width of wine and recork.


 
Robie is spot on if you are going to be keeping it for a time. If only a week or two, I think I would just stick it in the refrigerator. I would leave it standing up and keep an eye on it especially the first day or so. Just my opinion, don't take it as gospel. I have had my share of oops, maybe I shoulda done that another way. Arne.


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## JohnT (Jul 27, 2012)

By "Rubbery", do you mean that you are using synthetic? 

You want to leave a small gap (as said by the others) to allow for expansion. If you have overfilled the bottle and are using natural cork, you can count on a least a little wine to be absorbed by the cork which will (slightly) add to the gap in the bottle. If you use synthetic, however, there would be none of this absorbtion. This mean that the gap you leave is even more important when using synthetic. 

In either case, if you plan to drink the wine in a couple days/weeks, I would simply store the bottles upright until you are ready to drink it.


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## Bartman (Jul 27, 2012)

I have to disagree slightly that wine can't be "compressed" - chilling it below the temperature it was bottled at should have the reverse (constricting) effect that everyone is warning him about if it warms - expansion. It's not a huge difference, but cooling (and keeping it cool) without freezing it would prevent the expansion arising from strictly temperature change. I've had full glass carboys lose 1/2 inch or so of volume when the temperature dropped ~10-15 degrees (Better Bottle carboys seem to contract accordingly so the volume *appears* to not change). Now, if it wasn't fully degassed or if there is any residual fermentation going on, that would override the temperature change issue and lead to increasing pressure on the cork.


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## roadpupp (Jul 27, 2012)

Just drink it now! Problem solved.


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## JohnT (Jul 27, 2012)

Bartman, 

What about barametric pressure? Even if it is kept cold, won't the pressure still change?

johnT.


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## robie (Jul 27, 2012)

Maybe just a misunderstanding, concerning compression versus expansion/contraction. I am not a physicist, but...

I didn't say water can't contract or expand. In high school an experiment was done on a shot put. A hole was drilled and tapped; a tablepoon of water was placed in the hole, followed by a tight screw. The shot put was then frozen. Next day, the shot put was cracked from the freezing of that small amount of water.

Under normal circumstances, water cannot be "compressed" and wine is mostly water. If you ever had a water well and you let all the air out of the water tank you would know. The tank requires air so pressure can be built up enough to push the water through the water lines.

When you put a cork in a bottle of wine the cork acts like a little compressor as it goes in. For a cork to go in, something has to give.

If temperature goes up in the bottle, the water tries to expand. Without air on the top of the wine, there is nothing to compress besides the wine or the cork. Since the wine cannot be compressed, all the pressure is on the cork.


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## ibglowin (Jul 27, 2012)

In this case barometric pressure is not the problem. It is the expansion of ethanol at higher temps that will cause the boom. Either the cork will give or the bottle if that bottle warms up too much. So, safest thing is to put it in a fridge. If you bottled it at 70 degrees and store it at 50 degrees the wine should contract enough for you to see some headspace in it.


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## keena (Jul 28, 2012)

Hmmm. So if I bottled my wine and layed it down right away I might have corks poping from it in the future? It was my first bottling session a couple days ago and that's what I did.


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## Bartman (Jul 28, 2012)

keena said:


> Hmmm. So if I bottled my wine and lay it down right away I might have corks popping from it in the future? It was my first bottling session a couple days ago and that's what I did.



Yes, that could happen. If you keep the bottles chilled and it was fully degassed, popping is not likely. You should leave a little headspace not only for expansion issue but so it has a small amount of oxygen to age it 'gracefully'.

One question, on the two occasions where I overfilled my bottle and get the wine too far up the neck, when I put the cork in, it sprayed a little wine at me. That's usually a good hint that it is too full - did that happen to you?


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## keena (Jul 28, 2012)

I had the correct air space but I didn't leave the bottles up right for a couple days, I layed them down right away... Well I have corks popping?


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## Runningwolf (Jul 28, 2012)

keena said:


> I had the correct air space but I didn't leave the bottles up right for a couple days, I layed them down right away... Well I have corks popping?


 
No worry. If everything else is right the only issue you would experience would be leaky corks.


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## keena (Jul 28, 2012)

Ok cool, had me scared for a min


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## Dugger (Jul 28, 2012)

I believe the main reason for leaving the bottles upright for a while is to allow the corks to expand back toward their original size and thus seal the bottle well. There may also be some equalizing of pressures at this time.


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## Runningwolf (Jul 28, 2012)

Dugger that is correct about the corks relaxing and expanding back toward the original position. This is my reason for mentioning leaky corks since he did not do this.


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## Dugger (Jul 28, 2012)

Yes, I figured that's what you meant and I probably should have included that in my comment.
Hey. look .. 1000 posts - at this rate it'll only take me about 60 years to get where you are and maybe 150 years to get to Wade's mark!!


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## Runningwolf (Jul 28, 2012)

Dugger said:


> Yes, I figured that's what you meant and I probably should have included that in my comment.
> Hey. look .. 1000 posts - at this rate it'll only take me about 60 years to get where you are and maybe 150 years to get to Wade's mark!!


 Holy Smokes Dugger and congratulations on exceeding 1000 posts. You're a great contributer and it's because of so many members like you that this forum is as great as it is.


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## garymc (Jul 28, 2012)

I did this with a couple of bottles. But they were both bottles I'll be drinking soon. They were the last little bit in the bottom of a 5 gallon and 2 one gallon vessels. I call it the dregs wine. Not something I'd give anybody. Since it's muscadine wine, I can put it in the fridge and have it chilled and ready to drink. I started this wine in August or September of 2011, so it's pretty well on the way to being aged.


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## garymc (Jul 28, 2012)

It strikes me that these predictions that temperature change causing the wine to expand and blow the cork might be a bit exaggerated. I think the liquid might expand a quarter inch or maybe a half inch. The same laws of physics will cause the liquid to contract when I put it in the fridge. Going from 75 degrees to 80 or 85 wouldn't be near as much expansion as the contraction from putting it in the fridge and going from 75 to 40. I'll check to see if it sucks the cork into the bottle. I think the big cork popper is fermentation. Anyhow, I'm going to have to be more careful how full the bottles are when I fill them to keep this from being a problem in the future. The time standing upright to allow the cork to expand without contact with wine is not available with this bottle since it's in direct contact in any position.


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## keena (Jul 28, 2012)

garymc said:


> It strikes me that these predictions that temperature change causing the wine to expand and blow the cork might be a bit exaggerated. I think the liquid might expand a quarter inch or maybe a half inch. The same laws of physics will cause the liquid to contract when I put it in the fridge. Going from 75 degrees to 80 or 85 wouldn't be near as much expansion as the contraction from putting it in the fridge and going from 75 to 40. I'll check to see if it sucks the cork into the bottle. I think the big cork popper is fermentation. Anyhow, I'm going to have to be more careful how full the bottles are when I fill them to keep this from being a problem in the future. The time standing upright to allow the cork to expand without contact with wine is not available with this bottle since it's in direct contact in any position.



When you insert the cork it builds alot of pressure itself, so the contraction would only probly equalize the pressure while an increase in pressure is working with the pressure already there. Know what I mean Gary? So the small increase in temp would do more damage than a large decrease in temp. I think anyways.. Lol


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## garymc (Jul 29, 2012)

Sounds good. But if wine can't be compressed, then the cork won't compress it. I'm guessing the iris of the machine squeezes the cork small enough that air and wine can exit around it as it goes in. I could see it compressing air if the cork expands out quickly enough to seal as it enters the neck of the bottle.


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## keena (Jul 29, 2012)

I think that's why they are saying we need a little air space below the cork, cuz that air can be compressed. I think... Haha, maybe I'm wrong


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