Corks warping on corking

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Star6966

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So, I recieved a bunch of old home wine making equipment from my parents and recently tried making and bottling my own mead. One problem I had during this process is that when I corked the bottles, the pin of my hand corker pressed down on the center of the cork and left a deep, misshapen imprint about 1cm into the cork. It doesn't seem to have affected the seal, and I'm pretty confident it won't effect me removing the cork, but it's ugly as hell. Is it cause I'm doing something wrong? Could it be old corks (around 15-20 years since they were bought)?

thx
 
Good morning. I have two suggestions:

First, your corks at way too old for use... 100 decent quality corks will cost you $18 (worth it).

Second, consider getting a floor corker. It makes the process go by quick and easy. You’ll still get some imprinting, but it won’t be anything that makes you think there’s anything wrong. If you’re going to make any volume of wine, a floor corker is a must-have piece of equipment.
 
The hand corkers leave that dimple and it never fully goes away. Does not seem to impact the quality of the seal though.

I agree with @jgmann67, though. Those corks are too old and probably won't last long.
 
The impression is caused due to the pressure per square inch from the plunger being more than the cork can rebound from. This can be caused by a 100 different things, but some of the obvious ones are if you jaws are compressing the cork sufficiently and in the center of the bottle? Is the cork rubbing against the hole as it exits the corker; is it smooth and easy to run a cork through without a bottle? Are you using #8 or the skinnier #9 cork? Try with a used cork and install it upside down to see if it is now easier. Try other bottles too, to see if it is tied to perhaps a smaller than usual opening. Try wetting the cork to see if that changes anything.
In other words, try some things to figure out why it is taking excess pressure to install this cork in your bottle. I am assuming you are using older equipment, but new corks, because like others have said, your corks could just be dried out and list their elasticity .
 

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