I'm getting ready to bottle for the first time, so figured having a practice run with the corker would be good. The first cork I forgot to soak, so that was a problem to get in and crumbled on getting out. Tried it again with a soaked cork and it went easier, but there's a problem - the pressure pin of the corker leaves this deep indentation in the cork, and it crumbles the top edges. I'm pretty sure the cork will crumble when I uncork the cottle.The second pic shows the business end of the corker and you can see that it doesn't put pressure on the edges of the cork.
You can click the pics for more detailed view.
Now these are old corks and an equally old corker - 15-20 years old in fact. Could this problem be due to the age of the corks? I was planning to buy new ones anyway. Or is the corker just not good and is that causing the problems?Help me, interwebs - do I need new corks, a new corker, or both?
Just wondering if you were able to solve the corking problem. I had read that boiling water in a pan for five minutes, removing from the heat , dropping in some corks and covering for five minutes, removing corks as needed, was the easiest way to get this done.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit new to meadmaking.. working on our 4th batch. Nice blog :D