cork

I have some bottles of mead aging in my cellar since May, and yesterday I noticed a few bottles have an amber-colored sap-like substance on the exterior of the cork (see photo). The substance is highly viscous (like the sap of a pine tree) and lacks any distinguishable smell or taste. The corks...

As you can tell from the heading I want to get your advice on two completely different topics. Firstly, I want to know how you manage "free" sulfite concentrations in your wines. I know there's a sulfite testing kit called "Titrets", which I have understood can be unreliable. I wonder if...

The last few times I made champagne I used plastic stoppers, which worked fine and popped out by hand as expected. This last time I actually used real champagne corks. When I went to un-bottle the first one, the cork wouldn't pop, and I had to use a corkscrew. The champagne was fine, but I'm...

Hi everyone, I've been making wine for a little while now. Had some wine in storage for a few months. I cork my wines and also started using shrink caps. I opened a bottle of wine around a month ago and there was some grey stuff growing around the cork and it was quite dry when opening. I just...

I usually buy #9 corks. however, a friend just gave me several hundred #8 corks for free. I know they aren't great for long term storage...that is the extent of my knowledge of this size cork. I would only be using it for blueberry, strawberry, and dragon blood type wine...stuff that I will...

If anyone is interested or is using a Portuguese floor corker please take a look at a new kit I have put together to turn it into an automatic corker. I have it online. Evidently you will need to put 2 and 2 together to find monarchwines web site! Any feedback would be greatly appriciated...

Up until this point, I’ve been using screw caps for my wine. I’ve stalled out a bit on the wine making. I plan on starting up again soon and would like to try corking instead. I’ve searched the forum, but still have a few lingering questions. I was a bit overwhelmed with the options...