Can you cork beer bottles?

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JBEE

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I recently read where you could use beer bottles to put wine in, by using caps. My question is can you use corks instead of caps or do they make a cork that size?
 
NO!!!!!!!! You can not as they dont have strong enough side walls nor can you cork a wine bottle that is a screw top. Please dont try this as a few people over the years have on a few of the forums and were injured peretty good while either opening these or in the process of putting tye cork in. One of them cut a few of the tendons in his hand and had to go through many surgeries and still dont have much of his movement in that hand.
 
Thanks

Thanks for the info!! They are pop off bottles instead of screw off but I won't risk it. Thanks for the warning.
 
No beer bottles will take a cork.

Wade:

Which are you saying?

a) No (you are incorrect), beer bottles will take a cork.

or

b) 'No beer bottles' will take a cork.

I have succesfully put corks in beer bottles with a compressed air corker. I think it can be done with a floor corker. Probably using #9 corks.

I prefer to use caps for two reasons....
1) Depending on your cork screw, they can be difficult to remove.
2) Caps are cheaper than corks.

Steve
 
I would never put a cork in a beer bottle cause they just arebt designed for it and yiou are risjing your health doing so. The people who have been hurt from this that Ive read were actually on Winepress.
 
What about caps?

So you can put wine in a beer bottle but use a cap instead?
 
Hmmm, wine in beer bottles. Sounds like something Ricky and Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys would do.
 
Lots of people put mead in them.

Yup... I did that with my first batch of mead because I didn't have a corker yet and wasn't sure if I was going to stick with the wine/mead side of the hobby. What was I thinking? LOL

Anwyay, the mead that I capped in beer bottles was great when it lasted. ;)

As Wade said, there's no way I'd cork a beer bottle unless it was a belgian beer bottle that had a cork in it originally. Those bottles have thicker necks and are designed for corks. They're like champagne bottles.
 
i don't like the grolsch or other wire-capped beer bottles for wine because i think the rubber gasket affects the wine after a time, unlike beer which is not meant to age in the bottle, wine in contact with that rubber gasket for years is going to take on some unpleasant aspects i think. plus it is not an ideal seal and with age will be difficult to sanitize as the rubber develops microscopic cracks over time.
given the overabundance of perfectly good wine bottles everywhere, i don't have much reason to use anything else.
 
i don't like the grolsch or other wire-capped beer bottles for wine because i think the rubber gasket affects the wine after a time, unlike beer which is not meant to age in the bottle, wine in contact with that rubber gasket for years is going to take on some unpleasant aspects i think. plus it is not an ideal seal and with age will be difficult to sanitize as the rubber develops microscopic cracks over time.
given the overabundance of perfectly good wine bottles everywhere, i don't have much reason to use anything else.

The appeal to me for smaller bottles is the obvious concern of having to open a larger bottle when I only want a single serving.

I'm looking at purchasing 375ml 'halfs' for jalapeno wine, but I sure would like to spend that cash on a larger carboy instead.

I have a few Grolsch bottles around I may use instead. The good news is that new rubber washers for Grolsch-style bottles are pretty cheap.
 
i don't like the grolsch or other wire-capped beer bottles for wine because i think the rubber gasket affects the wine after a time, unlike beer which is not meant to age in the bottle, wine in contact with that rubber gasket for years is going to take on some unpleasant aspects i think. plus it is not an ideal seal and with age will be difficult to sanitize as the rubber develops microscopic cracks over time.
given the overabundance of perfectly good wine bottles everywhere, i don't have much reason to use anything else.

Some beers are indeed meant to be aged in the bottle. I've had some 10% beer aging in Grolsch-style bottles for a couple years and they still taste great. I've never had an issue with the rubber gasket adding any flavor whatsoever. Part of that could be that beer is stored standing up, though. Maybe it would leach some sort of flavor from the gasket if laid down so the beer/wine is in constant contact with the gasket.

To your point, most commercial beers meant to be aged tend to be corked and capped/wired in a champagne-style bottle or simply capped in a normal beer bottle. I definitely wouldn't think to age a bottle of Grolsch (or drink it for that matter... Grolsch is only good for the bottles :) ).
 
BobF - purchasing a case of splits or double-splits is a good investment. that's what i did, maybe $20 for 24 bottles. i use a few with each batch to give me some early tasters for the 6mos-12mos period.
 
BobF - purchasing a case of splits or double-splits is a good investment. that's what i did, maybe $20 for 24 bottles. i use a few with each batch to give me some early tasters for the 6mos-12mos period.

+1... I did the same thing.
 
BobF - purchasing a case of splits or double-splits is a good investment. that's what i did, maybe $20 for 24 bottles. i use a few with each batch to give me some early tasters for the 6mos-12mos period.

Thanks - that's what I'm mulling right now.

Everywhere I've looked a case of 375's is basically the same price as a 5 gallon carboy - $33 - $35

There's a winery a bit of a drive from here that I get bottles from gratis. Next time I'm near I'll see if they have any smaller than 750ml
 
I value my ligaments too much to try to put corks in bottles that aren't made for them.
 
I value my ligaments too much to try to put corks in bottles that aren't made for them.

Me too. No corked beer bottles here! Grolsch style is an option I'm still considering - no corks though.
 

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