Greetings all,
As I walk through the aisles of the local [beer] store, I notice something interesting.
I see some Belgian doubles and triples bottled in Champagne Bottles (with a cork and all).
Now, I was wondering if the same can be done for a Barley Wine.
Seems like a pretty OK way to age it.
Anyone do this or have any input?
Will probably try a BW over the winter in hopes of it being ready for next autumn.
:o
Yes, it can be done. I’ve only done it with plastic corks, which are a PITA.
To do it with real corks, you need Belgian corks, a corker, and a method to stop the corker from pushing the corks all the way in.
You could do it for any beer, so there’s no reason you couldn’t do it for a barley wine.
I’ve given up on the plastic corks and just use domestic champagne bottles because a standard crown cap will fit them.
You can cap champagne bottles because they have a lip. You’ll need the larger 29mm capper bell and 29mm caps if you’re using euro champange bottles. US bottles take regular caps.
Most Belgian beers that use green champagne bottles are sour beers, which lack any real hop bittering compounds and are safe to use green bottles without skunking. Be careful with other beers… Saison Dupont is an example of one that can quickly go bad if it sits on the shelf for a bit.
The plastic corks work but as Joe said they can be a real PITA to deal with. I’ve finally run through a bag I had from several years ago. No more.
You can also get natural corks for these bottles. Beware that there are different size corks and not all fit all bottles. The corks designed for Belgian bottles (the mushroom topped bottles that are falling out of favor) are larger than what you need for champagne bottles and can crack the neck of the bottle when they swell.
I hope there is truth to this and it means the brown 750ml bottles used by many become more widely available to us.
I have a bag of plastic corks I’ll give away.
Good catch on the different size corks. I said to use Belgian corks for some reason. Probably thinking about one of the other threads on corking Belgian bottles.
One of my biggest problems with the plastic corks is the differing sizes of bottle openings. Some too loose, some too tight, very few just right. Taking out a cork with a pair of pliers is stupid.