Corks

[the golden heap]

I have had a bit of a bottling frenzy, however the corks go in nicely but end up with a dented top with the impression of te order, seems to do te job but don't look too pretty. Tried three types of corks all done, I didn't soak tem only San then drained, should I soak them?

 

[oldbloke]

I find the dents disappear after a couple of months in the winerack. I think. I might have to check now. [nips to garage] Oh, no, the dents don't come out.
I don't think soaking will make any difference.
If it really bothers you you can get those nice covers in heatshrink plastic.

I wonder if fitting a sleeve over the pushrod on your corker, that fits the bottle neck almost exactly, would help? Risk of glass damage if not perfectly centred, of course.

 

[Winchester]

Pleased to read this happens elsewhere as I had the same on my first ever homebrew in January and assumed I'd done something wrong!

 

[oldbloke]

The few where the cork is exactly level with the top of the bottle look better than the ones where it's a bit further in. Can't easily control that though.

 

[Crastney]

find a coin ever so slightly larger than the size as the internal diameter of the bottle, or make a blank from some sheet metal, put that on top of the cork inside the cork inserter, then the force of the plunger is equally distributed, and the cork gets pushed fully in, and the blank doesn't - simples. So simple that I've only just thought of it, and never done it myself!

 

[oldbloke]

Sounds good, the corker would lift itself off the bottle if there was any travel left in the plunger when the cork was fully in - I might be tempted to put a bit of thin silicon rubber sheet on to provide some cushioning.
Starts getting hard to clean/sanitise, it'd be handy if this was fixed to a removable sleeve that fits the plunger
Shall we patent it?

 

[DrD]

Figure out a way to emboss the end of the corker with a stamp of your own = logo embossed corks :thumb: .

 

[AdyDnt]

I've not been worried about the state of the cork but I like the idea of stamping your own design in the top