Corking and bottle selection

[Phished880]

This weekend I was talking with a friend that suggested buying bottles for my first batch because "when you use recycled bottles they all take different sized corks. it can be a corking nightmare." Is there any truth to this? I now have my first batch underway and have begun collecting empties..... Should I continue??
If i do, will i need to have multipe sizes of corks in inventory??

thanks
J

 

[Wade E]

No! If you use a dbel lever hand corker, #8's will work much easier but if using a floor corker, I only use #9's.

 

[TheTooth]

Most wine bottles have an industry standard opening. You can use the same corks for probably 95% of the bottles, if not more.

The only issue I've had re-using bottles was that the outer diameter of the neck is really wide on a few. This did not effect corking, but it did prevent me from fitting shrink wraps on those bottles.

Now I just filter those bottles out for my wife's "cooking wine" kits and keep the thinner neck bottles that will accept the shrink wrap for the nicer bottles that we end up giving away as gifts sometimes.

 

[Tom]

Friends leave wine bottles on my porch all the time. I sort thru them and toss the real tall ones and the more round ones (tends to slide off my wine racks). rarely have a problem corking with my floor corker.

 

[cpfan]

TheTooth:

There are 'oversize' shrinks available from many retailers. These will fit MOST of the large lipped wine bottles. But I have still encountered a couple of nicely shaped bottles that wouldn't take the oversize shrinks.

Steve

 

[phermenter]

One thing worth noting here is that Italian wine bottles have smaller openings. You can fit a dime in most wine bottles, but it won't go through an Italian.

Jim

 

[Wade E]

Phermenter is right, Thats how I was taught in the beginning. Use a # 8 cork when a dime wont fit and a #9 when it does. That being said when using a floor corker I havent had any problems using a #9 on all my bottles.

 

[TheTooth]

TheTooth:

There are 'oversize' shrinks available from many retailers. These will fit MOST of the large lipped wine bottles. But I have still encountered a couple of nicely shaped bottles that wouldn't take the oversize shrinks.

Steve

Thanks, Steve! I'll look for those. It'll be nice not having to sort those bottles out specifically for home-only wines.

 

[NSwiner]

You just make the odd size tops the ones you drink first since they don't have to be shrink wrapped ,problem solved lol .

 

[St Allie]

FYI.. just in case you consider saving screw top bottles for future use?.. They are a standard size.

Allie

 

[Hillbilly Bill]

Phermenter is right, Thats how I was taught in the beginning. Use a # 8 cork when a dime wont fit and a #9 when it does. That being said when using a floor corker I havent had any problems using a #9 on all my bottles.

I bottled my apple wine last night using my double-lever Portugese corker with #9 corks in Bordeaux wine bottles. I got them in ok, but I can only imagine the problems that could present for a lady (read that woman, heh heh) or a small man. I am 6'3" and at 350 pounds the #9's were a pretty good chore on some of the bottles. I know one thing though... they won't leak.
If I come across some bottles that a dime will not fit in, I will definitely use #8's.
Anybody got a dime?
HB

 

[manicorganicgal]

Screw Top Bottles

I read somewhere earlier today that recycled screw top bottles have thinner glass @ the neck making it hard to get a good seal with a cork and that it also may break from the pressure. Does anyone have any experience with this?

 

[Tom]

Yes I would not cork a threaded bottle