Champaign corks for belgain beers

[jeremymm]

I have done these before with mixed success using a Ferrari, floor corker. Has anyone else ever tried these? What method do you use? Problems I'm encountering:
-Sometimes the cork will actually get stuck in the corker
-It is difficult to get the right amount of cork protruding from the bottle
-It feels like I am going to break the corker as it is not really made to work with a cork of this size
any help here would be much appreciated as I am getting ready to bottle up a couple lambics.

[Petedadink]

I have a lambic that I hope to bottle next year. Are you using the 750ml bottles most belgian ales come in? Thats what I plan on using.

[macgruffus]

I've got one of the floor corkers too but not the one made for champagne corks. I HAVE to push the cork all the way in to get the corker to release it. What I do is just go ahead and push the corks all the way in, then later back them out half way with a corkscrew and cage them. I've not had any problems yet. I may either replace the corker for one made for champagne corks or just go the route of corking like a wine bottle but putting a cap over the top of it.

David

[barls]

i use the same one that b3 sell, but i use a box under the bottle to give me some way of leaving some space under the bottle so after i put the cork in and its stuck in the corker i can remove the box and hold the bottle and give it another pump and the bottle pops out. also i use the rubber bung off my 1 gallon carboys on the shaft of the corker as a physical stop to leave 10 mm of the cork still protruding here is a couple of pics from some ive already done.



ive also found the belgain corks from b3 are pretty good for this purpose

[Petedadink]

your bottle is empty. I hope you didnt forget to fill it.

[barls]

no that was the test bottle i could find one that had filled.

[jeremymm]

Those corks seem awfully small barls. Is that just a #9 wine cork? Do they seal properly and hold pressure? The corks I have been working with are much larger in diameter.

[barls]

here is the corks
http://morebeer.com/view_product/6632/102304
ive never had a problem with sealing im up to 8 batches now. even the standard wine corks didnt leak they just didnt mushroom