Beer caps for champagne bottles?

[projectman]

Are the metal caps and capper used to put caps on beer bottles the same as are used for champagne bottles or am I missing something important? I made a batch of wine to turn into champagne (sorry, "sparkling wine"), added a yeast/sugar mixture and it it into champagne bottles for the primary fermentation. I intended to cap the bottles with beer caps using the capper I used with beer bottles. The capper crushed the tops of the first two bottles and ended up having to use plastic champagne corks. These will be a lot harder to do the disgorging than the simpler bottle caps would have been. I purchased the champagne bottles new and they appear "normal". Do champagne bottles accept the same caps as beer bottles? Do I need a special capper, different from the one I use for beer? Did I just mess up with the capper? Is there something I don't know about this? Thanks for any advice.

 

[djrockinsteve]

Caps are the same and yes you can use them pre de gorging. The capper is different because of the extra rim on champagne bottles.

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

My beer bottle capper works just fine on champagne bottles, its one of those Colonna wine corker and beer capper table top models. Sometimes I run into a bigger opening, I guess the Belgian caps would work on them, havent tried it yet. WVMJ

 

[FTC Wines]

Very interesting, never thought of beer caps! I use regular #8 corks, in my champagne bottles, they go in fine, come out in a mushroom kind of shape, but work fine. Roy

 

[JohnT]

A standard beer capper works just fine. Just make sure that the champagne bottles are domestic! European champagne bottle have a slightly wider, slightly thicker lip. Standard caps will pulverize a European bottle.

 

[Geronimo]

Be careful of the pressure limits is all.

 

[JohnT]

Be careful of the pressure limits is all.

I could not agree more! The good thing about champagne bottles is that they can hold a lot of pressure. The bad new here is that this pressure can turn your wine into a hand grenade.

Use precautions when handling your champagne. Always wear eye protection. I also use nice thick leather gloves too. Believe me, I have had them explode in my hands (especially when I added too much priming sugar).

 

[djrockinsteve]

I always add less sugar than commercial wineries. Still get a great carbonation.

Goggles, long sleeves, gloves and caution. Always.

 

[Geronimo]

Those bottle caps can become projectiles... people have been seriously injured by champagne corks. I've heard of the bottle caps from Belgium beer (highly carbonated) getting embedded in sheet rock ceilings. There's a reason champagne corks have wire baskets plus heavy foil over them.