Wine and crown caps

[Ken L]

As I'm just staring back up wth the home brew, my stock of wine bottles is pretty low and with the current fashion for screw caps, good ones are going to be hard to find.
I do however have a good stock of brown ale bottles.
I'm thinking of knocking up a batch of WOW as everybody seems to be raving about it but my question is simply "Are there any reasons why I shouldn't put wine in a beer bottle and use a crown cap ?" - other than pure estetics ?

 

[streamer13]

I was never in the position to be out of wine bottles. I am in the opposite position in that I'm now going to go back to crown corking my beer and I am trying to build up a stock of magners cider bottles at 565ml as I feel the litre screw tops are only good for sharing a drink with someone as you know we have to pour the lot and leave the lees.
I would think that the beer bottle will do fine as long as you are not laying it down for a year or more. Its an original way but I would think it will suffice. It may have an advantage too in that any secondary fermentation would be safely contained and you could be reporting in on the wurzels champagne.

 

[Alan Clark]

As WOW is a drink straight away concept and doesn't under-go much if any secondary fermentation then I would in principle, no, there isn't a reason why not use crown caps. People seem to put it into PET bottles which have had coke etc in them.

Your only issue, if you could call it one, is that once opened it has to be :drink: . Oh the sacrifice.

 

[Moley]

my question is simply "Are there any reasons why I shouldn't put wine in a beer bottle and use a crown cap ?"

No reason whatsoever, other than pure aesthetics.

Apart from that, I'm loathe to use a 7p cork in a 40p wine which isn't going to be kept for any length of time.

However, I've built up a decent stock of 660ml clear Weston's cider bottles, which don't look too bad at all:

 

[Ken L]

Thanks for the replies guys. I wasn't acticipating any problems unless there were issues relating to the higher acidity of wine and any subsequent corrosion but it's good to get confirmation.

And yes, I had already thought of taking a couple of bottles off before clearing and priming the bottles for a bit of fizz... :

 

[graysalchemy]

Champagne is bottled and then capped with a crown top while it matures and undergoes secondary fermentation. When the bottles are disgorged and the lees removed they are then corked and wire bound. So if its good enough for champagne then i'm sure it is more than good enough for WOW.

:

AG

 

[Moley]

I wasn't acticipating any problems unless there were issues relating to the higher acidity of wine and any subsequent corrosion

All of my corked bottles are stored on their sides.
All of my capped bottles (including a few screw-tops) are stored upright.
Wurzels are rarely kept for more than 3 months so I've never had any problem.


Prime sparingly for a slight sparkle, but bear in mind that a secondary fermentation from a wine yeast will leave a fairly loose sediment and you will have to decant very carefully.

 

[artyb]

ive stored my wines in all sorts of bottles, :thumb:
the small dr pepper bottles, 500ml
newcastle brown 500ml capped,
screw top wine bottles
5 litre water bottles....for 6 moths or more.....

the fruit juce wines do improve if kept like this for a few months, then i siphon into clear white wine bottles to give away or show of with..

i really like 500ml,1 l,1.5l and 2 litre pets for my beers... :party:
as i store them up side down, then crack them open over a sink and it washes the sediment out.....simples... :party:

drink the beer rinse out, and fill em back up with the next brew... : ...no corks capping or faffing about...

also have some 3 gallon water bottles filled with wine,
and a few glass demijons....

and i only started in dec..... :rofl:

 

[Moley]

ive stored my wines in all sorts of bottles, :thumb:
the small dr pepper bottles, 500ml
newcastle brown 500ml capped,
screw top wine bottles
5 litre water bottles....for 6 months or more.....

also have some 3 gallon water bottles filled with wine,
and a few glass demijons....

and i only started in dec..... :rofl:

That's the way to do it :clap: :thumb:

 

[artyb]

thank you sir... :
ive around 150 litres of various suff in stock now....