Corks, caps, and swing-tops - which is best? +Wax sealing and shrink wraps how-to 

My dad had these weird red rubber corks with a finger grip frame operated with a thumb plunger (I think he got them from my uncle who made a *lot* of wine, like dozens of 5 gallon carboys in his rec room/den at all times). You'd stick them in the neck of the bottle and depress the plunger, which would expand out much like some types of wall anchors, sealing the bottle..

Storage for 1-2 years and what I would call “taster bottles”: swing-tops with rubber gaskets that get swapped out after just a few times. The bottles aren’t too big which means you get 2 glasses out of them, just enough to have a proper taste and judge how your mead, wine or cider is developing. Corks: provided a good quality cork is used, for long term storage. I use shrink caps over te corks in order to keep out dust etc. I’m seriously considering getting sealing wax but haven’t gotten around to it. Incidentally, I use exactly the same method to shrink on those caps! My corker is a heavy duty one that allows me to cork the ‘normal’ 750 ml bottles, but also smaller 350 ml or 500 ml bottles. I got it on sale and love it. Not only are corked bottles my preferred go-to for long time storage, but somehow people seem to appreciate a corked bottle more than a swing top. Maybe because it looks more expensive and professional to them? As for T-corks? I’d only use them for short term fridge storage. Maybe a few days at most. Even then, I tend to re-seal still home brewed beverages with vacuum stoppers (Vacuvin). And yes, in the fridge they go. Those stoppers are re-usable many times over and the cheap little pump that goes with them helps to get any air out that might spoil the remnants still in that bottle for the few days it’ll be sitting in the fridge.

I've used all these, each, like 69 times each, and I agree with your list 100%.

Love the wax set-up! Giving cyser to the in-laws as Xmas gifts and wax will class it up big time 👍

Great Video, as always. I hope it reaches the audience well. Great info and production!

In Belgium we still have lots of breweries that bottle in swing tops, no additional cost just a higher deposit fee. We can bottle a couple rounds of homebrew in them and then cycle them back to the store and buy new beers from the deposits.

Very important subject in wine making! Only problem with corks is that it's impossible for them to be all identical. Therefore you're gonna have your bottles micro oxigenating at different rates depending on the individual cork; it's been tested over and over. You can always find a wine that became sherry like in the bottle, in Italy we call it "marsalato" meaning "marsala like". More and more wine producers are abandoning the corks in favor of crown caps, in fact. They prefer bulk aging to oxigenate the wine before bottling with the hermetic seal to keep it as similar to when you put it in as possible.

Love your style. Engaging and entertaining…and educational ❤

Another amazing video. Thank you 👍

Nice vid as always!

I use t corks with shrink wrap I have a few bottles left that are about 2 years old, just opened one up the other day and it was still good.

Thanks! When trying to research this you get so many people saying that screw tops will ruin your mead every time and stuff like that. There are times (especially when first starting) when you don't want to do the most.

I use T-corks only for bottles that have been opened, not finished, and need to go in the fridge. Otherwise for long term storage I use a Vintersence #9 x 1¾" Premium Cork from Portugal. At less than 50¢ a cork, I feel it's worth it. I get them from Amazon.

Really Enjoyed your Video , Thanks ! 🐯🤠

Anything that has booze in it works for me. I use mostly bottles with caps but just started using flip-tops for my ginger beer mead.

#1, Belgian cork and cage on a Champaign/Prosecco bottle

Great video. We still haven't tried caps, yet. We started out using only swing-tops and T-corks for the reasons you described, then about a year in we wised up and switched to good non-recycled #9 corks. We kept a dozen T-corks and use them for the couple bottles per batch we set aside for drinking within a couple weeks of bottling. Not knowing any better, we aged our first acerglyn 1½ years with a T-cork. Thankfully it was good, and the shrink wrap may have helped. The taste hadn't changed much (just slightly smoother) which isn't surprising since it was under 2 years, but I sometimes wonder if it would have been noticeably different had we used a regular naked cork.

i had to buy a bench crown capper after my first time trying to use my winged capper. The old cider bottles i had collected didnt have a big enough lip for the hand held capper to grab! So if you dont have the right bottles, just get a bench cappper, so much easier and worth the extra money.

the swingtop bottles hold an insane amount of pressure. I use them for my wild fermented fizzy drinks, and it takes like 5 mins for all the air to slowly release to stop it spraying everywhere XD

Very informative

Love the video I was curious what type of bottles would work best for me

I re0use screw top wine bottles for my meads and wines. The original pattern labels helps to ensure you have the same lid with the same bottle and if it was good enough for the mass-produced winery, it will be fine for me.

Was literally digging for a answer for this

I use crown caps and didn't know about double crimping. I now have to grab all 100 bottles and crimp them again.

New brewer here. Doing my first batch of mead and plan to use corks. What is the difference in the numbers? I have a had corker and want to get corks soon

There are some swing tops that you can use caps with. So I use the caps for the long-term age, then the swing too to reseal after opening.

Btw thanks for this video. I use crown cap for my homebrew wine. But, i have a question. Micro oxidisation over time is good for slowly improves wine ageing. And for it better use cork than crown cap? Or crown cap can do it too? I'm sorry if my english bad.. Thank you..

As a beginner I can use swing top bottles? I just buy a mead kit, and looking for bottles in the process of fermenting, or is more recommended wine bottles or beer bottles to the crown caps and corks?

I have Lorina Sparkling water bottles for Ciders and corks for Wine or Mead.

I bought my first set of wine bottles they came with those plastic caps with sealing material inside that you showed so my question is can I use shrink wrap tops with those plastic caps to make it look better?

I once re-used a bottle with its t-cork for a mead. It sat in the closet for about a year, and when I brought it out, the cork had fallen out at some point. Still tasted good, though.

That is much simpler than the hair dryer I was using to shrink wrap 🤣

Nice video

I only bought 1 before our WalMart quit carrying them, but the 32oz Corona Familiar bottles are nice. Aldi for swing tops.

Great video. I use crown caps for my ciders and some wines; and screw tops for some wines. I need a corker. I like the look of wax, and thinking of implementing it in my practices. I have seen some really well done waxed tops. So, how does this ranking system work? I see it a lot in my Stardew groups, and yet to know the reason for the letters, colors, etc. Lol

What are your thoughts on T corks coupled with shrink capsules? I'm asking because I need to get some more bottles soon (using swing top so far, bought Grolsch, drank the beer and saved the bottle, coupled with some Ikea swing tops), and would like to step up the bottling game. I'm all for getting synthetic corks but... like everything in Europe that's a bit more "specialized", it's either hard to find, ridiculously expensive, or out of stock (don't get me started on trying to find other honey flavors than wildflower). I don't want to have to keep bottles on the side with normal corks, and T corks have the added bonus or reusability (limited times like you mentioned of course)... would using a capsule mitigate the poor seal and oxidation problems? Thanks for the great content, loving the channel!

We miss Zork closures! They were so easy to use. Our house has a drawer full of the reusable tops. RIP

Doe you need to store a bottle of mead on the side when you use corcks? Some people say it will dry out when you store it upright. I personally dont like to store it on the side because of sendiment that drops on the side of the bottle. When i try to pour some out sendiment comes with it. What should i do? Im aging for maybe 2 years max.

Would a T cork with shrink seal work well?

Swing tops I use very rarely and only for carbonation. Have plenty of brown ones from craft beer stores. Even gathered about half a dozen of 1L transparent ones I trust, but that's about it. Using crown caps is something I've never picked up at all, simply because of a personal preference or in this case lack thereof. I just can't see mead or wine bottled as beer or cider. For me, it's been corks all the way, preferably natural ones made out of one cork piece. They're more expensive but well worth it, however I've recently been switching to screw caps, following the super popular trend among European winemakers. It's so popular in fact that at this point most commercial wine bottles in Europe actually come with a screw cap. If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me, plus the screw caps, even the best ones, are dirt cheap here. I do however put shrink caps both over corked bottles and those with screw caps. Using tte same method as you. :)

I like T corks for the convenience of resealing a spirit bottle I’m definitely not finishing in one sitting.

What about T cork which has been wax sealed on the bottle?

Is there a brand of cork you like to use? I've been using the entry level nomacorc since I won't have to age on their side. It's hard to find the higher quality nomacorcs in homebrewing batches.

If you make an update to this video, you should talk about different cork types, natural, agglomerated, micro-agglomerated, colmated and synthetic corks. Might be other types, but these I know.

What about Mason jars? Many may laugh but I have oodles of them anyway, and for some folks the "hillbilly appeal" of homemade wine, cider, "apple pie" etc in a mason jar is a great aesthetic for gift-giving. I definitely use new lids each time, and check the rings for any signs of corrosion. I'm just wondering if there's any other safety issue or something I'm overlooking. In any case your list makes good sense to me for normal bottling, thanks for clearing up some questions I had.

I've been using brown 500ml PET bottles with screw caps. They seemed ideal as I could buy new caps (with seals). However, I have found that the seals are not so great if you reuse the caps and don't really screw them down firmly.

Anyone remember Zorks? I liked them, but can't find anymore

I know swing top gaskets are somewhat universal but I'm not sure about the wire bale assemblies. Have you tried swapping the assembly on questionable Trader Joe's bottles?

I like making high proof spirits and honestly it's not the best looking thing but masen jars work beautifully I just open them up every couple of years to make sure no rust has built up on the rim

Here in Australia most commercial wine is produced with screw tops. They're metal with a soft disk inside to keep it airtight. Would you consider re-using these types of screw tops more appropriate than the ones you mentioned in the video?

What would you recommend for a batch of mead that you want to age for around 20 years? Or is that just a dumb idea to try aging mead that long?

Brewin the Most

Modern Screw Caps are superior to aging wine as high quality metal screw caps have a membrane that can be adjusted for different oxygen ingress rates. They can be nearly hermetically sealed as well as approximating high quality cork in porosity without the risk of cork rot. Not all screw tops are the same however, cheaper ones do not have the same quality membranes that allow for aging but the good ones are being used today in some very high quality wines instead of cork.

When using natural cork, I understand it is necessary to store bottles on sides so as to keep the corks moist. My question is, if you are using the wax seal method do you need to still store them on their side or is this moot after sealing with wax? In addition, I know that distilled spirits should be stored upright especially if corked, as the high ABV can have a corrosive effect on corks, so would this also apply to high ABV mead (22%)??? Right now, I use ceramic swing-tops exclusively, but I am considering moving up to natural cork and wax. Thoughts? Comments?

Wait!! There’s ways to close my wine bottles that isn’t tin foil!? Dang… so these years… 😅

Nevermind found the video 😂

I'd like to add a few comments on your rankings. I think the you devalued the utility of swingtops by not mentioning one important feature. They can be opened and closed quickly for tasting/testing unlike any of the other closure methods. Not that this is always helpful but it is a unique feature. One downside to crown caps is that not all bottles are equally recappable according to their profiles. Some bottles require a bottling stand which can add to cost of bottling if one normally relies on a manual twohanded capper. There was also no mention of the fact that crown caps are made in 26 and 29 mm sizes. I've also found it even more handy to use recycle prosecco and 'champagne' bottles since they require the larger 29 mm caps.

First!!!!!!

My takeaway from this is be very wary of craft beers as the material involved are clearly not food safe, ignoring how 99% of them taste like literal ass.

I know it's counter-intuïtive, but grolsch is actually pronounced grols haha

why are you sealing water inside your shrink wrap? doesn't sound like a really good advice imo...

I call biased. You always you those anyways, doesn't seem like fair judgment

Doe you need to store a bottle of mead on the side when you use corcks? Some people say it will dry out when you store it upright. I personally dont like to store it on the side because of sendiment that drops on the side of the bottle. When i try to pour some out sendiment comes with it. What should i do? Im aging for maybe 2 years max.