using corks

[sixfinleys]

I have been reading a lot on here and have seen a lot of different points of view. With corks it seems there is an old school of thought that you have to soak the corks to sanitize before use. But, that can result in corks that are very difficult to remove. The new way of sanitizing seems to be the humidor version. My question is, don't the corks come sterilized / sanitized from the manufacturer? Wouldn't that be why they coat them with powder of some sort for easy removal? Also do wineries do this step with their corks? I worked at Kendall-Jackson as a teenager on their bottling line one summer.We would just open the bags of corks and dump them into the bottling / corking machine. Do the commercial wineries buy different grade / types of corks than we do? Or are we just being extra cautious by doing this extra step?

 

[Wade E]

We buy corks in quantities that do not always come pre packaged like this or even when we do them in a big bag bulk that is sanitized we do not always use them all at once so we do need to keep them from drying out and or becoming unsanitary. So this is why we use a humidor, to keep them from drying out and with the k-meta solution it keeps them sanitized. As for soaking them that is not a good thing to do as like you said they will likely get stuck in the bottle. The powder is really a glazing that eases the insertion and extraction of the corks. The people with dble lever hand corkers usually need to give them a quick soaking with k-meta to get the corks into the bottles as that corker does not compress the corks or have as much leverage as a floor corker.

 

[scotty]

i spray each one before inserting into the floor corker but never buy more than 100. i keep them in the original bag till using.

 

[scubaman2151]

i spray each one before inserting into the floor corker but never buy more than 100. i keep them in the original bag till using.

With a small handheld spray bottle?

 

[dfwwino]

I do not sanitize corks if I use them immediately after opening the bag. They are sanitary when opened.But because I make various quantities of wine (1, 3, 5 and 6 gallons), I rarely use all corks in a bag and store them for some time. Therefore, I store them in a cork humidor to keep them sanitized. Based on personal experience, if you soak the Agglomerate corks, it removes the outer coating. Upon insertion, it is damn near impossible to remove the cork and you may break several corkscrews like I did. This does not occur if you use the cork humidor. I don't have a similar problem if I soak the Altec corks before insertion.