Corking Tips?

[Butler]

I'm looking for help, tips, lessons-learned, etc for corking my first batch of wine.
I have a hand-held corker and want to know...
Do I need to clean/sanitize the corks?
I read something about soaking the corks. Is this necessary?
Any tricks or secrets to share?

Thanks!

 

[jeepingchick]

i soak my corks in the sanitizing solution for maybe 10-20 min, it makes em pop right in, never have had an issue hand corkeing and ive got some serious hand issues !

 

[Wade E]

Soaking corks is not a good thing. Yes they should be sanitized. The best thing to do is make a corkidor which is just a bucket that seals tightly and a bottle of sulfite solution in there open along with the corks, you see its the gases given off from the solution that really does the sanitizing. If you dont want to do that then the next best thing is to use your primary bucket with a colander over it and your corks in the colander, Pour some sulfite solution over the corks and into the bucket and then cover all for about 5-10 minutes and let the gases do their thing.