Curses corked again, and other bottle top adventures.

[fishnbowljoe]

Since the old cork thread is now closed, I figured I’d start a new thread for us to relate all of our bottle top failures. So, let’s hear about your experiences with screwy screw tops, bad corks, un-cooperative wax, and ?????  

My most recent adventure (which I kinda posted about) was with a bad cork on a bottle of ER. 
 

Pic #1-Bad corked ER.

Pic #2-Fixed.

 

 

[bayouredd]

I don't pay much attention to wax failures; however, if I don't clean up the mess afterwards, I get the 'maybe you need to quit drinking bourbon' rant from the Boss Lady.

Screw tops are just WRONG on bourbon.

I've only had one failure since I began this adventure and a corkscrew saved that without having to filter.

 

Sorry for the wimpy input...

[steven s]

I have cork bits floating in a recently opened WTRB rye...

[hughewil]

only mishap I have had to this point is a screwtop on a Weller SR.  Had a little to much to drink one night and while removing the top squished it.  its is pretty thin cheap aluminum.  I have a bunch of extra corks so I just corked it.  Now I remove screwtops and just cork them.

 

[PaulO]

Shortly after OF switched to the metal screw caps, I had one fail to separate along the perforation.  The cap plus the portion covering the bottle neck unscrewed as one long closed ended tube.    At first I thought that was some new style of cap.

[Kepler]

Recent mishaps... I was careless and broke the cork on my '17 WLW.  That one was fault.  And the last SAOS 10 yo SiB I opened also broke, not carelessness, just a bad cork.

[fishnbowljoe]

23 minutes ago, Kepler said:

Recent mishaps... I was careless and broke the cork on my '17 WLW.  That one was fault.  And the last SAOS 10 yo SiB I opened also broke, not carelessness, just a bad cork.

Speaking of WLW……… 2007 WLW from 2019. The thing with this one is that it had been open a while. Bad picture. Sorry.

 

Biba! Joe

 

 

[Cibsie]

13 hours ago, hughewil said:

only mishap I have had to this point is a screwtop on a Weller SR.  Had a little to much to drink one night and while removing the top squished it.  its is pretty thin cheap aluminum.  I have a bunch of extra corks so I just corked it.  Now I remove screwtops and just cork them.

 

That's a very good idea.  Weller SR is my only mishap too, but I've never thought to save an old cork to fix it.  Everything I have is 50-90% full, so I better finish something off soon!

[Harry in WashDC]

13 hours ago, hughewil said:

only mishap I have had to this point is a screwtop on a Weller SR.  Had a little to much to drink one night and while removing the top squished it.  its is pretty thin cheap aluminum.  I have a bunch of extra corks so I just corked it.  Now I remove screwtops and just cork them.

 

SEVERAL newspaper articles lately have talked about how wine bottlers are dropping their foil wrapper/cork tops for naked corks, corks with wax, or (SHUDDER) aluminum screw tops.  While I NEVER lay a bourbon bottle on its side (except in the freezer or fridge when anticipating a looonnng day outside), white wine bottles usually get sideways treatment in the fridge due to lack of standing space.  THEY ALMOST ALWAYS LEAK IF THEY HAVE AN ALUMINUM TOP EVEN WHEN I PUT A DOUBLE LAYER OF PLASTIC WRAP IN THERE!  Damn neck diameters are different than cork tops from wines, so saved wine corks DON'T WORK! SOMEtimes, a bourbon cork will work, but usually not.  I've yet to find a wine stopper (like from Rabbit or some other wine accessory company) that makes a stopper that works on screwtop wines.  Even those screw-on champagne stoppers are not big enough.

 

Yeah, I know this is about bourbon, but I've been saving bourbon stoppers for at least five years so can always find at least one that works on a bourbon/rye bottle.  Wines?  ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!

[flahute]

My best one is a doozy.

Most of you know I'm in a group called the Bourbon Crusaders and that every year (except 2020 of course) we do a charity event.

For our very first one we had three special bottles that were donated by members to be the house pours for our VIP ticket holders.

One of those bottles was LeNell's Red Hook Rye. A VERY special bottle. As we were opening it OF COURSE the cork broke. We were not prepared.

We were at Mint Julep Tours in Louisville so we went to the kitchen to see if anything could help us. I saw two things - a French press coffee maker and a mixing bowl with a spout.

I pushed the remaining cork into the bottle and then slowly poured the whiskey through the French press filter and into the bowl.

After catching all the cork bits, I very carefully and slowly poured all the whiskey back into the bottle.

Bottle rescued and all the VIP's very much enjoyed their LeNell's. (One of the best whiskies I've ever tasted.) 

[hughewil]

I have a bunch of empty bottles nd a bunch of these

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09LV7GLVC/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?_encoding=UTF8&aaxitk=b0ec73af31a5904134f6c45ca2a8acdb&content-id=amzn1.sym.53aae2ac-0129-49a5-9c09-6530a9e11786%3Aamzn1.sym.53aae2ac-0129-49a5-9c09-6530a9e11786&hsa_cr_id=5201769370401&pd_rd_plhdr=t&pd_rd_r=2b539707-8424-47d8-a6ff-bcbab2a00adf&pd_rd_w=NXBZR&pd_rd_wg=qPHhZ&qid=1655291409&ref_=sbx_be_s_sparkle_mcd_asin_0_img&sr=1-1-a094db1c-5033-42c6-82a2-587d01f975e8

 

 

[Shizzy]

Not exactly a cork issue per se, but whilst opening (attempting to remove plastic seal) this EHTSmB the top of the bottle just snapped right off. I had to drink the final two pours of 1910 (shucks) so I’d have a bottle to throw it in. Then used the cork from the EHT so I could discern between real 1910 and EHT. Cuz I’m lazy. 

[kcgumbohead]

Not a fan of either flimsy aluminum or corks, if I could wave a wand and convert every damn bottle to a decent plastic screw top, all these issues would be resolved in an instant.

[Mattk]

1 hour ago, kcgumbohead said:

Not a fan of either flimsy aluminum or corks, if I could wave a wand and convert every damn bottle to a decent plastic screw top, all these issues would be resolved in an instant.

I went to open a jim beam yellow lable rye a few years back. It opened fine but the plastic srewcap split the threaded sides from the top when i went to recap it. I think it got a EC cork in it.

[Kepler]

7 hours ago, Shizzy said:

Not exactly a cork issue per se, but whilst opening (attempting to remove plastic seal) this EHTSmB the top of the bottle just snapped right off. I had to drink the final two pours of 1910 (shucks) so I’d have a bottle to throw it in. Then used the cork from the EHT so I could discern between real 1910 and EHT. Cuz I’m lazy. 

 

How did you filter the liquid to remove any glass shards?  For me, if the glass breaks I toss everything out.

 

 

[Shizzy]

On 6/17/2022 at 2:36 PM, Kepler said:

 

How did you filter the liquid to remove any glass shards?  For me, if the glass breaks I toss everything out.

 

 

There were no shards that I could see with the naked eye.  It was a clean snap.  Any micro-particles I filtered with my cast iron stomach and acid reflux.  

[Kepler]

9 hours ago, Shizzy said:

There were no shards that I could see with the naked eye.  It was a clean snap.  Any micro-particles I filtered with my cast iron stomach and acid reflux.  

 

[markandrex]

On 6/17/2022 at 4:36 PM, Kepler said:

 

How did you filter the liquid to remove any glass shards?  For me, if the glass breaks I toss everything out.

 

 

I have used a paper coffee filters on a few occasions.

[Kepler]

43 minutes ago, markandrex said:

I have used a paper coffee filters on a few occasions.

 

Yeah that would probably be fine enough micron filtration to do the job.  Don't know why I didn't think of that because I use coffee filters on broken cork matter all the time. I may be too cautious but injesting glass particles scares me.