Corked bottles

[Dave Warner]

Lay down or stand up to carbonate?

Lay down or stand up to age?

There seem to be both views floating out there.

[Bill Lawrence]

I stand mine up for both. I have no rational reason for doing this other that it makes life easier when storing them. I have four cases of Belgian 750's which I store in my "hobby room" (aka the shit room 'cause I rarely clean it). Anyhow, what I try to do is keep them full of something, currently a Dubbel and a Blond. I also have a couple of cases of champagne bottles which I use to hold my Saison (but those I cap). I natually carbonate all my "specialty" stuff so it doesn't take up cold storage space plus it adds to the snob appeal. I guess one reason it might make sense to store and carbonate standing up is because then the sediment is all at the bottom of the bottle. If I am doing something wrong, hopefully somebody will point me in the right direction.

[Brewboy]

Bill, you're doing it right though neither would be wrong except for the sediment issue.

The Belgian corks are Micro Agglomerated cork closuers. This basicly just means that they're made from cork granules and glued together. These don't breathe like natural cork closures do. This means that oxidation is minimal with these corks when stored in an upright position.

[ClayMahone]

i used to make a lot of wine, and i was always told to store laying down because the cork needed to stay moist in order to keep a proper seal. if the bottle is upright for extended period of time, a natural cork could dry out and let in oxygen, or let our carbonation.

[Dave Warner]

Thanks all. I used the manufactured corks so I'll stand them up. Any hints as to when I should see the top mushroom out completely?

At 2 weeks it looks pretty close to the way it did right out of the champagne corker. A couple have pushed out 1 mm (but maintained shape) so I know it's carbonating in there.

[Brewboy]

Unless you really primed with a lot of sugar for high volumes of co2 you won't see a really big mushroom head like you do on sparkling wines. I primed my Saison for 4 volumes of co2 and they're puffed out a bit but not like a champaign cork which can be carbed up to 6 volumes.

[Dave Warner]

Thanks. I primed with 1 cup of corn sugar and fresh yeast to up the carbonation. Is there a handy rule of thumb for sugar volume to beer volume yielding volumes of CO2? I've just been going by the standard 3/4 cup sugar or 1 1/4 cup DME per 5 gal for normal carbonation levels (2.5-3).

[Jimmy Orkin]

Here is a web based calculator:

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html