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Author Topic: Plastic champagne stopper warning  (Read 5910 times)

Offline nateo

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Plastic champagne stopper warning
« on: August 16, 2012, 07:32:18 pm »
I bottled ~10gal or so of a mead/saison hybrid using the Methode Champenoise a few months ago. I opened a bottle the other night and it was petilant. All of others have held their carbonation pretty well, so I was suprised. I'm not really sure what happened, but I suspect the plastic stoppers may not be as reliable as bottle caps to hold in the pressure.
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Offline punatic

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Re: Plastic champagne stopper warning
« Reply #1 on: August 16, 2012, 07:35:37 pm »
Champagne bottles will take a crown cap.
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Offline nateo

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Re: Plastic champagne stopper warning
« Reply #2 on: August 16, 2012, 07:37:48 pm »
Champagne bottles will take a crown cap.

Theoretically, yes. Put 5 volumes in them and store them at 80*F and things can get exciting.
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Offline gmac

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Re: Plastic champagne stopper warning
« Reply #3 on: August 16, 2012, 07:44:41 pm »
Champagne bottles will take a crown cap.

Theoretically, yes. Put 5 volumes in them and store them at 80*F and things can get exciting.

Plus they don't look nearly as cool.  Would regular cork ones work or is there a special "mushroom" shaped one?  I ask cause I've got some high-test, soured/brett saison that I want to put in champagne bottles some day.

Offline Jimmy K

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Re: Plastic champagne stopper warning
« Reply #4 on: August 16, 2012, 07:51:26 pm »
Special corks and corker. You need a champagne corker that compresses the corks before inserting them.
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Offline nateo

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Re: Plastic champagne stopper warning
« Reply #5 on: August 16, 2012, 08:13:00 pm »
If you get the American champagne-style bottles, they'll take a "standard" North American crown. I just had issues with about a dozen crowns leaking under high pressure, and a few crowns flying off unexpectedly. They were carbed to between 5-5.3 volumes at that point, and at a warm room-temp. If you can keep them colder (60*s) or pressurize them lower (I dunno, <4.5 vol?) you probably won't have the same problem. I used a double-lever and a bench capper on those bottles, and I think the double-lever capper actually gave a better seal than my bench capper.
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Offline punatic

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Re: Plastic champagne stopper warning
« Reply #6 on: August 16, 2012, 09:52:36 pm »
I've been crown capping champagne bottles for 23 years without any problems, ever.
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Offline nateo

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Re: Plastic champagne stopper warning
« Reply #7 on: August 17, 2012, 06:53:08 am »
I've been crown capping champagne bottles for 23 years without any problems, ever.

Cool, thanks for the advice.
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Offline punatic

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Re: Plastic champagne stopper warning
« Reply #8 on: August 17, 2012, 12:09:17 pm »
When I first started brewing I bottled in champagne bottles because I had access to a lot of them, but not so many cappable beer bottles.

Later on, and now I use them for special presentation.  Pouring from a champagne bottle is a bit more impressive than pouring from a 12oz longneck.  Especially if you cover the top with a shrinkwrap wine bottle neck seal.  It's not cork and cage fancy, but much easier if you don't have the proper equipment to cork and cage with.
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Offline kraftwerk

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Re: Plastic champagne stopper warning
« Reply #9 on: August 30, 2012, 12:09:30 am »
Special corks and corker. You need a champagne corker that compresses the corks before inserting them.

Many brew shops rent out cork presses for a few bucks a day. Has anyone used glycerin cork lube before? I'm curious if this is actually necessary.
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