Corks for beer bottling

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fully_krausened
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Corks for beer bottling

Post by fully_krausened »

Hey folks,
I searched the archives but did not come up with any hits on this. I have a bunch of the bottles you get Belgian ales in, the kind woth corks and the wire baskets. I want to reuse them and that means using corks. What size corks would I need? I have never worked with corks before. I realize some folks frown on corks but they seem to work fine for the commerical brews and ones that are cellared at that... Also, is there a source for those wire baskets? I was able to figure out that apparently the corks are straight when they go in but mushroom from the pressure. So I assume standard corks would work, I just do not know how they fit size wise. Any ideas?
Thanks.
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fully_krausened
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Post by fully_krausened »

Okay,
Strike that. How about this. Anyone who also bottles wine, could someone explain that process as a starting point for my experiments? :?:
What is involved other than a corker and corks? Is there any special preperation of the corks to make inserting easier (soaking?) Or do you just plunge them in? Any tips would be great. I am going to give it a try and see what happens. Thanks.
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Post by slothrob »

There's a couple threads about this you can read if you do a search over at forum.northernbrewer.com. You can get Belgian corks from morebeer.com that require a floor corker and plastic champagne corks from northernbrewer.com that might not require a fancy corker.

That's the sum total of my knowledge of corking.
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fully_krausened
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Post by fully_krausened »

Excellent.
Thank you once again slothrob. I Found plenty of information there to get me into all sorts if trouble... :lol:

I have not really looked into the many other sources on the web as of yet. Just been brewin' it alone off "in the wilderness" 'til now. This is great. Glad to find such a helpful community "out there"
:D
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Post by slothrob »

You're welcome, just trying to give back. I don't cork, but I remember stumbling on a couple threads at one point and curiosity made me read a bit.

The web has been an invaluable resource for my brewing. Without the web and Palmer's How to Brew, I'd be making real swill.
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