I want to use the larger Chimay bottles to bottle my homebrew. After searching the forums I did not find any accounts of successful re-corking of the bottles - either plastic, champagne or cork. It seems that the best solution, in the end, would be to cap with a large metal crown cap. Are there simply no larger crown/crimp caps that will fit the Chimay bottles.
Thanks,
Those will only fit Champagne style bottles. Most Belgian corked bottles, including Chimay, have no lip and cannot be capped.
What do you mean by “large”?
The 750ml bottles with the large lip will not accept any type of cap. Champagne style bottles will accept a 29mm cap but the Belgian 750ml bottles will not. There are lots of people who cork them with regular Belgian corks. I have had decent success with plastic champagne corks in those bottles. The problem is that the bottles do not have uniform mouths and sometimes the mouth is slightly too large for the plastic cork. I have never heard the same problem about wood corks.
If you mean the larger size bottles, like the 3l Chimay bottle, there is no chance you can cap those. (Some of the 1.5l bottles out there might accept the 29mm caps.) The diameter of the exterior of the mouth is too large for a 29mm cap. I haven’t tried a plastic cork in the one I have but they will fit regular champagne corks if you have a corker that will accommodate a bottle that large. I would imagine you either need to use a handheld corker or a large floor corker like the Italian models. I believe there is a bench corker for those larger bottles but I seem to recall it was ridiculously expensive for hobby use.
I would recommend the champagne corker. The Italian model usually doesn’t fit champagne/Belgian corks.
At the shop I work at, we rent these out for $6.00 per day. You could check your local home brew shop.