Why are my corks pushing up?

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Lamarkeiko

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Two days ago I corked 4 bottles of wine from a 1 gal. carboy. The corks kept pushing back up over 1/4" after pushing them in the bottles several times. I know my wine is very stable. The SG hasn't changed the last ten months after three rackings. I soaked the new corks in a sulphite solution for 12 hours as recommended by my book. I am using a hand corker which manually pushes the corks about 1/16" below the top of the bottle. I have been leaving about 1/4" space between the wine and cork after pressing in. This morning I pushed the corks back down and finally they seem to be staying down. Is this a normal proceedure?

Lamar
 
I don't think you are supposed to soak cork for that long. That would make the cork very wet (slippery?).

While your wine may be stable, the other issue is whether it is fully degassed. Degassing will push out the cork.

If you can push the cork down with a hand corker, IMHO, you are not getting a tight seal. When I used a hand corker, it was one and done.
 
It sounds like your wine is stable, so I don't think it is a problem with pressure building up from renewed fermentation. Was it fully degassed? After 10 months it should be ok, but sometimes dissolved CO2 is a problem.

When you cork your bottles you are pushing down the air and creating a little bit of pressure in the bottle. If your corks are too small and too slippery, they can slide back up. You said you were using a hand corker, so I would guess you are using #8 corks. They are easier to insert using a hand corker. But they are smaller and form a seal which is less tight. You should use #9 corks. A floor corker is best for them as they are harder to insert. But they make a better seal.

Also, DO NOT SOAK YOUR CORKS! This is likely the main problem as they are likely too soft and slippery. You can quickly rinse them before using with sulfite solution. But it is best to dry sanitize them. Get a bucket with a good tight lid. Place a bowl of sulfite solution in the bottom and lay your corks in the bucket around the bowl. Seal it up and let that sit overnight or so. That way the sulfite fumes will sanitize the corks but they are not soaking in water. If you have a brand new sealed bag, they should already be sanitary and you can just open them and use them dry.

After corking, let your bottles stand upright for a few days before laying them on their side. This will help the pressure to escape around the cork and it will equalize better.
 
Another potential source of this is the small air space you left, only 1/4 inch. This probably compressed a lot and could have pushed your corks back out, especially if they were wet. You should leave about 3/4 - 1 inch of ullage (air space).
 
Thanks for the replies back. I am using #8 corks. The book I've been using as a guide mentioned to allow 1 cm of air space between the wine and cork, so even 1/4" is less than that. I have another 3 gal. carboy of wine to bottle still, so I think I'll not soak the corks this time, and also give more air space. I just measured the airspace of 3 store bought bottles of wine, and they were 1/2", 5/8" and 7/8". That averages out to 5/8", so I'll shoot for that measurement.
As far as degassing, I don't even know how to do that.

Lamar
 
The best way to degas (for a home winemaker, anyway) is to use a vacuum pump while racking. The cheapest is to use a spoon.

The middle ground is a degassing "wand". They're about $15 and attach to a drill. You stick it in the carboy and run the drill until the wine foams to the top of the carboy, let settle, repeat. Repeat until there is next to no foam, just normal bubbles, and most of your CO2 will be gone.

(the spoon method is identical but you do all the work, so I highly suggest the wand)

You CAN also use a pouring method, where you dump the wine from the carboy to a bucket, then from that bucket to another, etc, but I don't suggest it, WAY too much exposure to air for my tastes.

Once in the bottle there isn't much you can do about it other than keep on pushing the corks down and decanting before you drink (you can shake the decanter and degas it then). You'd need to open all four bottles and put back in a bucket or your fermenter to degas at this point. If you choose to do this, just be ready to quickly rebottle, you want as little exposure to air as possible. Good luck!
 
Imwith Dugger. Just keep pushing. Shrink some capsules on them after pushing. That might be just enough to keep them down.
 
I've had this issue in the past also. My first problem was not properly degassing. I bought a wand and it works wonders. One of the veteran wine makers told me to warm the wine as well before bottling. This also had a significant impact. Most my wine is in the basement which stays cool year round. So now I bring the carboys up into the house or garage to let them warm up before I start bottling. Something about the cold temps suppressing the suspended CO2. What's cool is that if you still have the airlock installed and it has had no activity for quite some time...it will begin to start bubbling again after the wine warms.

My second issue is that I also use a hand corker and #8 corks. So thanks to the post above related to using #9 corks going forward.

However, I was a bit surprised to hear you can use the corks dry right out of the bag. I was under the impression the cork had to be sanitized with k-meta to kill any bacteria there might be on the cork itself. I'd hate to ruin a good bottle of wine due to a bad cork.


Sent from my iPad using Wine Making
 
Last edited:
Charlesthewino said:
However, I was a bit surprised to hear you can use the corks dry right out of the bag. I was under the impression the cork had to be sanitized with k-meta to kill any bacteria there might be on the cork itself. I'd hate to ruin a good bottle of wine due to a bad cork.
Click to expand...

Several things about that: 1) Corks are usually sealed in a bag with some SO2 gas and should be sanitary until they are opened. 2) If kept dry, bacteria growth on them would be unlikely, even after opening the package. 3) Your wine should already be aseptic due to the alcohol level, the high acid and the sulfites you add. So any tiny trace of bacteria on a cork will be pretty irrelevant. 4) If you suspect your corks are not ideal you should sanitize them in a corkidor (sealed bucket with the SO2 fumes as I described above).
 
I must agree with everyones comments -
too little head space
corks too wet
I use # 9 corks on hand and floor corkers - but I do use synthetic corks

Be glad you only bottled 1 gallon !!
 
greyday said:
The best way to degas (for a home winemaker, anyway) is to use a vacuum pump while racking. The cheapest is to use a spoon.

The middle ground is a degassing "wand". They're about $15 and attach to a drill. You stick it in the carboy and run the drill until the wine foams to the top of the carboy, let settle, repeat. Repeat until there is next to no foam, just normal bubbles, and most of your CO2 will be gone.

(the spoon method is identical but you do all the work, so I highly suggest the wand)

You CAN also use a pouring method, where you dump the wine from the carboy to a bucket, then from that bucket to another, etc, but I don't suggest it, WAY too much exposure to air for my tastes.

Once in the bottle there isn't much you can do about it other than keep on pushing the corks down and decanting before you drink (you can shake the decanter and degas it then). You'd need to open all four bottles and put back in a bucket or your fermenter to degas at this point. If you choose to do this, just be ready to quickly rebottle, you want as little exposure to air as possible. Good luck!
Click to expand...

When I go to bottle my 3 gal. carboy of wine, I plan on sweetening it prior to bottling. My intension was to rack the wine into a clean 5 gal bucket, add sugar to taste, then bottle. Will the racking into the bucket and stiring in the sugar help degassing? I fear that using a wand to stir the wine is going to stir up setiment at the bottom of the carboy that I don't want in my bottles.

Lamar
 
When I go to bottle my 3 gal. carboy of wine, I plan on sweetening it prior to bottling. My intension was to rack the wine into a clean 5 gal bucket, add sugar to taste, then bottle. Will the racking into the bucket and stiring in the sugar help degassing? I fear that using a wand to stir the wine is going to stir up setiment at the bottom of the carboy that I don't want in my bottles.

I would suggest you rack to another clean carboy first with a wine thief or pump. This will leave most of the sediment in the first carboy and your wine much clearer. Make sure you add Potassium Sorbate or your backsweetening could cause refermentation. I would also try to avoid using the 5 gallon bucket as you are giving the wine too much exposure to air. I typically add backsweetening after bottled to reduce air exposure via a simple sugar liquid mix.

Many of the veterans will tell you that you should not consider backsweetening until at least 12 months after fermentation. Many of the wines self-sweeten with age. I just can't seem to wait that long.


Sent from my iPad using Wine Making
 
Lamarkeiko said:

When I go to bottle my 3 gal. carboy of wine, I plan on sweetening it prior to bottling. My intension was to rack the wine into a clean 5 gal bucket, add sugar to taste, then bottle. Will the racking into the bucket and stiring in the sugar help degassing? I fear that using a wand to stir the wine is going to stir up setiment at the bottom of the carboy that I don't want in my bottles.

Lamar
Click to expand...

You didn't state it, so I don't know if you know. Make sure you stabilize any sweetened wine with Potassium Sorbate and adequate sulfites.
 
Lamar, you have received a lot of good information here. If your corks are pushing out of the bottle it means that the pressure (force) inside the bottle is greater than the force of friction between the cork and the glass neck of the bottle. A number of things that you have stated lead me to the conclusion that you could possibly avoided this situation by:

1. not soaking the corks. (the liquid reduces the friction between the cork and the glass and has a long term deleterious effect on the cork)
2. using a #8 cork. A #9 cork has a greater diameter and after insertion the "memory" of the greater diameter results in greater friction.
3. leaving more head space between the cork and the level of wine in the bottle. The small amount of head space you allowed (1/4" or so) would result in greater pressure due to changes in temperature of the wine and barometric pressure. Both of these could result in greater pressure inside the bottle against the cork, pushing it out of the bottle.

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger. Many of us have been there, done that and have the T-shirt to prove it.
 

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