In article >,
Pavel314 > wrote:
>I finally got around to bottling the final gallon of grape/elderberry wine
>that's been sitting in my small oak keg for several months. I've been
>topping it off all along and it tasted great. Unfortunately, when I was
>corking the five bottles, one shattered. When you only make five bottles,
>losing one is a 20% loss ratio. In reviewing my notes on this batch, when I
>bottled the other two gallons of this wine straight from the secondary
>several months back, one of those bottles broke, also.
>
>I have a bench corker and soaked the corks for about ten minutes before
>corking. This is my usual soak as if I let them soak too long, they are too
>limp to force through the neck of the corker and end up with mushroom heads
>protruding above the bottle neck.
>
>All of the bottles were originally from commercially bought wine which came
>with corks, not screw tops, so the bottles were made for corking. Also, I'd
>used all five previously at least once for my home brews. I'm wondering if
>maybe my mechanical home corker puts more stress on the bottles than does a
>commercial corker. Maybe I should throw the bottles out after one round of
>corking for homebrew? I hate to waste good bottles, but I'd rather throw out
>a half dozen bottles than lose a bottle of a special brew, as I did today.
>
>Any similar experiences, comments, or theories?

You're not very clear about how the bottles broke. Did they break during
or after corking? Are the necks breaking or are the bottles just shattering?

Are you using #8 or #9 corks? (#9's are wider.) Are your corks low or
high quality - are they cork all the way through or are you using the ones
with the plastic cores?

If the bottles don't break until after you put the cork in, is it possible
fermentation is still going on and the bottles are breaking under pressure?

Personally, if the answer isn't apparent after you've asked yourself all
these questions, and you got the bottles all from the same source, I would
ditch the bottles.

--
"Nonsense. If your eternal balance is destroyed, | ^ /o\ |\ |\
why did the sun rise? If I'm a demon, why do I | |/\v/--- | |/
have such a headache?" -- Tamora Pierce, | b ^ | | | |
"The Woman Who Rides Like A Man" | | / \ V \| |