Need help with cork problem

[winemaker81]

Do you people ever feel guilty about being the enablers that you are?

Not one little bit. If you want to be free of us, you must run away! Far, far away!




@Dover wine, have the answers helped you?

 

[AR324]

Made my first batch of wine recently and am having trouble corking the bottles. I ordered bottles that said they needed No. 8 corks. I bought No. 8 corks and a hand held corker that was for No 8 corks.
The problem is the corks will not go thru corker. I cannot assert enough force to get any of the cork out of the corked. I am a very big and strong fellow and just can’t get it thru and into the bottle.
When I ordered the corks I didn’t realize they made a straight and a tapered cork and I ended up with straight ones. Do I need to order tapered ones or am I doing something wrong?
Thanks for any advice.

Get a floor corker. I bought one for less than $100. Although prices may have changed. Worth the investment given the horror stories I’ve heard about hand corkers.

 

[Fitz]

Do you people ever feel guilty about being the enablers that you are? I use the hand corker but I keep coming back to this thread and tell myself the floor corker is what I need. I am so close to trying to find a bargain.

Guilty as charged! Floor corker is what you need! Opps! Did it again

 

[dgarzaniti]

No, you should not get tapered corks. They are only for temporary use on a bottle.

Get a floor corker. There are basically two types on the market, the Italian and the Portuguese. I have owned both and, while I feel the Italian model is superior in some ways, the price differential between it and the Portuguese model, to me, is not justified.

Search Craig's List, yard sales, this forum for people exiting the hobby and you can normally find a very serviceable model for a reasonable price. Here is an example from Craig's List:

https://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/hsh/d/pittsburgh-wine-making/7828522859.html

Been borrowing/renting a floor corker for years, finally broke down and bought myself one. You won't regret it.

 

[Christopher Anderson]

Don't buy the French corker!! It's obnoxious, snooty and hard to operate due to it is from the left bank.