Reused Bottles

[Jenks829]

What are the concerns with reusing wine bottles? I have 45 gallons of wine that I will be bottling in the coming months and have collected around 100 empty wine bottles. I still need about 150 by my estimation but my question lies around which corks to use and any other issues anyone else has had with reusing bottles: difficulty in filling them, difficulty in using them with a floor corker, any specific bottles to avoid and any other piece of info that anyone has amassed over the years.

I greatly appreciate it.

Happy fermenting!

 

[Runningwolf]

Jenks, the simple answer is;

Avoid screw cap bottles for several reasons

Use a floor corker with 9x1.75 corks

Rinse and wash the bottles ASAP. It will help prevent mold and fruit flies. Hang them on a bottle tree to rinse out. After they dry store them upside down in empty cases (by color and style) till you're ready to use them.

As time permits go back and clean the labels off them as you need them and again store upside down

When you're ready to use them, sanitize just before filling and place on your bottle tree. When you have enough for what you're bottling move on to bottling

This is basically my process as I usally get 15-50 cases of bottles at a time.

 

[joea132]

To remove the labels set your oven to 250 and place the DRY wine bottles in label up. After a minute or so baking remove them with a gloved hand and use a razor blade to start the labels coming up. The American labels come of easily but the French ones are a real pain.

 

[Airplanedoc]

I just soak the bottles in a bath tub of hot water. When ever I get enough to fill the tub
Generally they come off pretty easily, a bit of scotchbrite takes the glue right off

 

[allstarpitcher]

excuse me runningwolf why should someone avoid using screw caps?? ive just ordered a few bottles with screw caps thinking it a great idea

 

[bricklayer67]

I would be curious about why to avoid screw cap bottles as well; I have put corks in them and had no problems. I agree with rinsing the bottles asap, and the method that works best for me is to place the bottles in a 5 gallon bucket - 8 usually fit nicely - then fill the bottles and bucket up with hot water. I pour about a cup of bleach in and let soak overnight. The labels generally scrape right off, and the glue comes off with steel wool or scotch brite.

 

[Minnesotamaker]

I avoid screw cap bottles for several reasons; none of them are super important.
1.) my closure of choice has been cork, so I don't want to keep both cork and new screw caps in inventory.
2.) I don't like to use corks in screw cap bottles because it "looks wrong"
3.) screw cap bottles have thinner glass at the neck and were not designed to support corks
4.) trying to pull a cork from a bottle with a threaded neck can lead to glass chips with some types of corkscrews.

NOW.... if I were desperate for bottles and it was my only choice? I'd likely use the screw top bottles. Maybe some day in the future, I'll switch to screw caps as my closure of choice and buy screw caps instead of corks; just not ready to make that transition yet.

 

[Runningwolf]

Using screw cap bottles with the proper screw caps would be ok. Using screw caps bottles with corks is not a good practice. The neck of the bottle is thinner in screw cap bottles and you risk breaking it as you cork. Worse yet is you could be putting someone else at risk when they remove the cork. Many people pull the corks out on an angle putting additional stress on the sides.

If you were corking for very short term I would use a tasting cork in them.

With all this said, I have friends that have corked screw top bottles with out any issues. I have also heard of some breaking. Why put yourself, your wine or someone else at risk?

 

[captainl]

I soak them overnight in oxyclean. The majority of them come off no problem. Just make sure to rinse the insides out well.

 

[Runningwolf]

This is what I use.

 

[SpoiledRotten]

I just cleaned 100 bottles using the bath tub and Oxyclean solution. "Most" labels almost dissolve off. Not a fun job but the Oxyclean is my process of choice until someone convinces me otherwise. I don't like the idea of working with 250* wine bottles, especially when the comment is made that some come off easy and some not so. At least with the Oxyclean, you are cleaning the inside of the bottles as well as dissolving the labels/glue.

 

[Jenks829]

Thanks guys. I have avoided the twist off's but just became concerned about the variety of different bottles in the stash. Good to hear the consensus is not the cork when it comes to PITA situations.

 

[Arne]

Another thing with the screw caps, If you happen to get a referment in the bottle, they litterally become bottle bombs. If you use em, make sure the ferment is done and stabalized. Arne.