Sour beer cork and capping?

[marqoid]

I have a pseudo lambic that is ready to be bottled. I would like to put it into 750ml champagne bottle and cork with a non champagne cork and use a large belgian cap over the top. I want to end up with a bottle like cantillon or fantome. I've never seen this in a homebrew and didn't see anything in past forums.
What things do I need to consider? Should this be as easy as corking a wine bottle, then crimp a large crown cap?
Anyone know standard sizes for corks? bottles? caps?
Will a standard hand capper work with the large belgian caps?

 

[Aunt_Ester]

I fail to understand your illustration or why you want to do it this way. You want to cork a Belgian bottle as if it were a bottle of wine, then cap it? I don't know any belgian bottles that where a cap would even be possible since the mouth is usually bulbous and large, unlike standard pry-offs.

Bottles like cantillion or the 750ml wine bottles that dogfish use are smaller in the mouth, and I don't think any type of cork (champagne or otherwise) would fit inside the neck. I would just fill and cap. The mouth on those 750ml bottles are standard size and cap easily if you have a bench capper. However, if you're using a hand-capper, the rib near the mouth has a much larger band than standard pry-offs.

This picture might better illustrate. The clear bottle in the photo is reminiscent of the bottle neck of cantillion; whereas, the ones behind it (out of focus) are more akin to standard pry-off. See how the ribbed bands near the mouth are different lengths?

By all means try it. If you are successful, I'd love to see some shots!

 

[Germelli1]

I will have to check the numbers, but our standard caps and capper bells are 26 mm and larbe ones are 29mm. You need both larger caps and a larger bell for a bench capper for the large belgian caps.

I bottle my beers in Korbel champagne bottles all the time and they are the standard beer cap size!

 

[beeraroundtown]

I do this quite a bit, it's much less expensive than cork+cage. Get corks smaller than the "Belgian" corks they sell, I tend to use #9 corks, but you can use the real cork, or other wine corks should work fine. You'll need a floor corker, as the corks need to be compressed before being inserted.

As to the bottles you'll need either 26 or 29mm caps, pending on the size of the lip. If you have a Red Barron hand capper you'll need to buy the 29mm bell ($5) that screws on in place of the standard 26mm bell. Also, you'll need to pop the metal discs out that grab onto the bottle's neck. The 750ml bottles have a wider neck, but the Red hand cappers comes with both sizes on the neck plates, you just have to pop them out and flip them around.

I recommend letting the bottles condition vertically for a week or two, then you can lay them on their side. If you don't let them sit upright at first I've had a few leak a half ounce or so of beer out around the cork before the corks fully swelled up.

 

[marqoid]

Good, to her that someone else has done this. I was primarily concerned that the size of the cork would change the ability to hold pressure. Thanks for the input. Didn't know the Red Barron capper was so versatile.
I want to do it this way so that I can comfortably store my bottles on their side and so that bottles can take extra pressure without risking exploding bottles or having to C&C.

 

[passedpawn]

I've seen corked bottles capped. Looked odd to me too, but it's been done. Good luck.

BTW, most cappers are 22mm. You can replace the bell on most cappers, including the red plastic common one, with a 29mm bell that will cap larger bottles. Some bottle lips just won't accept a cap, like most of the belgian bottles. But others will. You can buy the larger bell and caps from many online vendors, such as Brewmasters Warehouse. I have this and use it and it works fine.

This, from Sam Caligione's Extreme Brewing:

 

[jpoder]

not so strange...this is how Cantillon packages their Lambics. corked with wine corks then capped. I have no idea why it is done this way, but it is.