Hello,
I made elderberry wine with elderberries I put in the freezer last year. I made juice out of them by cooking them in my steam juicer and followed your wine recipe on the website. I want to bottle the wine but do not have a corker. Do you have suggestions on how to stopper a wine bottle with out a corker?
Thank you for your help.
Becky
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Dear Becky,
You are correct in assuming that you need a corker to put in a regular wine cork stopper. The corker compresses the wine cork and plunges it into the wine bottle opening–something that can not be done by hand. The diameter of the cork you see when it come out of the wine bottle is much less than the diameter when it was forced in.
We do have some other options, as you are expecting. For example, we have push-in corks that you can push-in by hand. They are called mushroom corks. They have a smaller diameter than a full-size cork and have a black, plastic top for easy gripping. You could also go with screw cap bottles with screw caps, eliminating the stopper avenue all together.
We do not recommend using either of these methods of sealing the wine bottle if you are planning on aging the wine for longer periods of time, but if you plan on drinking the wine within 18 months these closures will work just fine.
Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.
