Winemaking Corkers
There are many different styles of corkers out there. What differentiates them from one another, beyond price, is how easy it is to insert a cork. Smaller, less expensive corkers are convenient for those reasons, however, they often don’t provide the mechanical advantage needed to make it an “easy to use” corker.
In this episode you’ll get introduced to the most popular amateur wine making corkers. I’ve covered how they work, how much they cost, and which ones require the use of a mallet to use. Additionally, you’ll get introduced the both the mechanical and vacuum corkers that small wineries use.
Corkers Mentioned During The Main Topic
- Mini Corker
- Plunger Corker
- Dual Lever Corker (Matt’s recommended corker for beginners)
- Gilda Compression Hand Corker
- Colonna Capper & Corker
- Floor Corkers (Matt’s recommended corker for amateur wine maker’s making larger batches)
- Large Format Corkers
- Mechanical & Vacuum Corkers
Listener & Reader Questions Answered
- To make a sweet wine do I just add sugar to taste?
- After two months my banana wine is not clearing. What should I do?
- Should I put my fruit in a blender to extract more flavor?
- My wine was clear when I bottled it but now it’s cloudy. What happened?
- What is the equation for calculating alcohol content?
Articles Mentioned
Photograph by: Jameson Fink
Good podcast Matt, floor corker is one of the best pieces of kit I have bought. the first one I bought was a Portuguese floor corker, these have hard plastic jaws, mine got damaged, unsure of how but bad enough to put a cut all the way down the cork, I managed to repair it sort of to cork the batch I had bottled (note to self check your corker first 🙂 ) I have just bought a replacement and went for the Italian corker as they have brass jaws and therefore should last so much longer. I would say go get one and you won`t look back.
Gary
Thanks Gary! That’s an interesting difference between the standard floor corker and the Italian models. It explains the difference in cost. When I do get a floor corker I think I’ll go ahead and spring for the Italian model.