Is there any corker made for homebrewers to be able to put “mushroom corks” in these Belgian Style bottles? Anybody doing this? How do these things work?
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Belgian Style Bottles
- Thread starter bwible
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I use a Portuguese floor corker that looks a lot like the one sibelman linked, but it's cheaper on Amazon. First time I just adjusted the plunger as far out as it would go. It seemed to work fine, but it turned out that the corks actually went in a little too far and the bottles were very difficult to uncork. So I added a couple of washers so the corks only go about halfway into the bottles. You will also need to get the cages on really tight if you want the corks to really mushroom.
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Climb
Well-Known Member
I have used plastic mushroom style corks from champagne bottles with these heavy style Belgian bottles. I hammer them in with a rubber mallet and then add a wire cage to hold the cork in place as it naturally carbonates.
DuncB
Well-Known Member
Will a champagne sized crown cap fit???
Climb
Well-Known Member
I don’t believe that any crown cap will work with these style bottles.
This is correct.
DuncB
Well-Known Member
They certainly have an atypical neck / opening.
Most Belgian beer is in normal bottles or champagne bottle style for high carbonation 750ml or 375ml corked or crowned.
To say that an American breweries unusual bottles of Bock ( a German style lager) are Belgian seems odd.
I wouldn't want to champagne cork these bottles to high carbonation as probably not safe.
Recycle them and get some other bottles would be easier.
Most Belgian beer is in normal bottles or champagne bottle style for high carbonation 750ml or 375ml corked or crowned.
To say that an American breweries unusual bottles of Bock ( a German style lager) are Belgian seems odd.
I wouldn't want to champagne cork these bottles to high carbonation as probably not safe.
Recycle them and get some other bottles would be easier.
Highly carbonated Belgians most definitely do not come in normal bottles, and the bottles pictured above are the 750 mL* cork and cage bottles that Belgian breweries use.
*edit - sorry, the bottles pictured are 375 mL not 750 mL, but they're still real Belgian bottles
I have carbonated my Belgian homebrews to 3.5 volumes in bottles just like those that originally contained barrel aged RIS from a local craft brewer. The bottles are the real deal, not some kind of knock-off. They are safe as long as you don't think they're champagne bottles or something and try to go above Belgian beer levels of carbonation.
If OP wants to package his beer in corked and caged bottles, then I'm guessing "easier" isn't a high priority.
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My thanks to the OP for the thread as I've been thinking of same, for my upcoming tripel. Really expensive, but I wouldn't be using them that often. Nice to have in the arsenal. Morebeer doesn't have the cork finish, but their crown-cap Belgian/Champagne is listed for 5.5 vCO2. Northernbrewer doesn't list their carbonation rating, but wondering if they are also rated for this high a load (not that I'd ever get close - I think like you mac, I'm shooting for about 3.5 volumes).
Not sure what you mean. They sell the corks and the cages. And their bottles will also take 26 mm crown caps. But I drink a lot of that local RIS, and I think my BIL keeps that brewery profitable almost single-handedly, so I never have to buy these bottles. Or any other bottles for that matter. I could probably set you up with a couple of cases if you were closer.
Oh, OK thanks. Morebeer doesn't specifically indicate "Cork Finish" like NB indicates, and when I saw this on the MB site:
-I presumed they weren't compatible with a cork and cage (I didn't think to look for the cork and cages themselves on the MB site accordingly). Good to know, because I vastly prefer to work with MB than NB. Thanks again.
(edit: added more from MB re crown cap use).
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Yeah, and I prefer William's to both of them (except for the higher threshold for free shipping). They sell the corks but apparently not the bottles.
beren
Well-Known Member
Hah let me know if you ever come closer to Philly I’d love to take you up on that offer. I don’t even mind doing the hard cleaning. Love bottled Belgian and saison beers at high vol. slowly getting a set of the small duvel/choffe ones.
Lol, sorry man. I meant, expensive to buy but because I can reuse them (don't have to keep acquiring a bunch of cases) not too bad in the long haul. I've none to sell! I can see how that reads now.
beren
Well-Known Member
Gotcha. No worries ;-)
DuncB
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the extra information.
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