Corking Champagne Bottles

[drtomc]

Hi All,

I scored a floor corker for corking champagne bottles for my birthday this week.

I'm just trying to figure out how to work it. It didn't come with any instructions and I can't seem to find any online.

It's clear you pop a cork in the top and the first part of pulling the leaver squeezes the cork from 31mm to an impossible 8-10 (I have not measured accurately). Then a rod pokes it down through an aperture into the bottle. But it seems impossible to have it only partially insert the cork. If you only pull the leaver part of the way (so that the rod only pushes the cork half way in), you can't get the bottle out and the cork gets stuck in the aperture when you pull the leaver up and stop squashing the cork.

My best guess is that I should fully insert the cork, attach a cage and let the pressure push the cork out to fill the cage.

Does anyone know if this is the case?

Once I get it sorted, it'll be nice to have corked bottles of saison and tripel to give away as presents.

cheers,

T.

 

[Fourstar]

app the rod is adjustable.

 

[white.grant]

There's an article on corking belgians in BYO - http://www.byo.com/component/resource/arti...orking-belgians

Not sure if that helps you with your floor corker but it explains the process pretty well.

cheers

grant

 

[barls]

heres one discussion
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=15457
and another
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=19380
and
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=41211
and lets not forget this one
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=12741

 

[drtomc]

Thanks all for the links, all of which I had already read (and have just reread to make sure), and none actually answer the question.

The corker has the jaws which squeeze the cork, but underneath is a metal plate which the spring loaded stage pushes the bottle against. The hole in it is larger than the fully compressed cork but smaller than the uncompressed cork, so with the champagne corks, if you leave any protruding from the bottle, it expands somewhat and gets stuck in the hole. I can see it would work for smaller corks.

Given the observation in one of the linked threads that the pressure pushes the cork tight into the cage, will it work to just push the cork fully in?

T.

 

[barls]

i found that with it adjusted so it pushes the cork in all the way then slip a bung for the one gallon carboys on the rod, its just perfect. also make sure you have the cages with the cap in them otherwise it just breaks the cork
ive had some that have been in too far and dont seem to want to push out at all.
i also double prime the ones in the belgian bottles for this reason.

 

[drtomc]

I'm slightly confused - I think either I haven't understood you, or you haven't understood me. ^_^

I get the idea of using something (e.g. a bung) to stop the cork from being pushed in all the way. That's not the problem. The problem is that if I do so, I can't get the bottle out of the corker because the cork that is sticking out gets stuck in the plate that sits between the cork-squashing jaws and the bottle.

Is the problem the corks? Shouldn't I use 31mm corks?

T.

 

[barls]

right now im on the same age. i use a video tape under the bottle, push the cork in and then remove the tape and pull down the handle again. the bottle pops out. i use the belgian corks from more beer.

 

[drtomc]

Brilliant! Now I just need to find a video tape - since we don't have a telly and have never owned a video recorder, it'll be a challenge, but since it's obviously essential brewing equipment....

T.

 

[barls]

im using the one from coopers with paul macurio on it. took me a while to find a use for it.

 

[BrenosBrews]

Brilliant! Now I just need to find a video tape - since we don't have a telly and have never owned a video recorder, it'll be a challenge, but since it's obviously essential brewing equipment....

T.

Op shops generally have ample supplies of video tapes for like $1 :lol: