(Part 2) Best wine making bottles & corks according to redditors

Or you buy these

Don't buy a kit! They sell you all kinds of shit you won't use when there are better options for similar money.

Get a brewing bucket as if you don't have a bottler then this will make your life so much better.

Get 2 carboys (glass is best but better bottles will work too). Check Craigslist for these...you can get some awesome deals.

Get 1 Refractomoeter instead of a hydrometer because they use WAY less of your must to calculate and they aren't mega fragile like hydrometers are.

You will want an auto siphon

You will want a carboy brush that fits on a cordless drill because cleaning a carboy without one fucking sucks (and for 18 bucks this is a no brainer).

You will need sanitizer. I personally like Iodophor because it's super cheap, it doesn't really foam up and it lasts forever. I bought one of THESE bottles like 2 years ago and it is about half full even though I brew between 50-100 gallons a year.

I always advocate people start with beer bottles rather than wine bottles. The reason for this has less to do with the bottles and more to do with equipment. The Ferrari Bottle Capper is 14 dollars while a good floor corker for wine bottles will set you back 60 bucks. In addition, it's cheaper to bottle in 20 ounce beer bottles with caps rather than in wine bottles with good corks. Use of a double lever corker for wine bottles should be considered a war crime...seriously...unless you're a masochist who loves dumping wine everywhere and having to clean it afterwards...then just avoid them...they are absolutely awful.

If you go the wine bottle route then NEVER use agglomerated or colmated corks (the ones made from tiny pieces of cork glued together) as they fall apart and will leave chunks in your bottles. In addition they don't age well, so you are much more likely to lose your brew to spoilage. I like synthetic Nomacorc but you can also buy very good quality solid natural corks as well.

Good oxygen absorbing bottle caps on the other hand are mega cheap. Again...this isn't about one being better than the other, so you can use either one.

For wine bottles, I REALLY like the ones with screw tops because they make it nice and easy to cap your bottles once opened. But for all of your bottles buy these locally...shipping will double or triple the cost of these vs buying locally. I get them for 15 bucks a case a few miles from my house...they're almost 30 a case on Amazon or close to that from Midwest or from Ohio (shipping is like 11-15 dollars a case.)

For beer bottles...I prefer clear, but they'll be tough to find locally so I often end up with brown ones. Again...buy these locally not online due to shipping costs. Your local brewing supply stores buy these pallets at a time so even Amazon can't compete with the lack of shipping costs.

I bottled mine in 375ml bottles so there would be more of them.

I think that's a plastic cork, these specifically.

https://www.amazon.com/Knowhow-Brews-Foods-All-Plastic-Reusable/dp/B074Q6PHK6/targid=pla-834472227816

It's a tasting cork, they don't seal particularly well so they won't grenade. They may be too oxygen permeable for long term aging.

I couldn't figure out what to get my dad for his birthday this year so I decided I may as well make him some cocktails.

I bought the bottles from amazon, the labels are Avery Pearlized Ivory 3"x3 3/4", and designed using their online software, printed at home.


This gave me an excuse to pick up a few bottles I have been meaning to get but just hadn't gotten around to yet - Elijah Craig Small Batch Bourbon, Punt e Mes, Carpano Antica Formula Vermouth, and Avua Prata Cachaca.

Boulevardier

• 45ml Elijah Craig
  
• 22.5ml Campari
  
• 11.25ml Carpano Antica
  
• 11.25ml Punt e Mes
  
• lemon twist to garnish
  
  Black Manhattan
  
  
• 60ml Buffalo Trace
  
• 30ml Averna
  
• 1 dash ango
  
• 1 dash Peychaud's
  
• 1 dash Fee Brother Black Walnut
  
• bar spoon Luxardo Cherry syrup
  
• Luxardo cherry to garnish
  
  Cartographer
  
  
• 22.5ml Bols Genever
  
• 15ml Avua Prata Cachaca
  
• 7.5ml Appleton Reserve
  
• 15ml Amaro Abano (I can't lay my hands on Abano, so after playing around, I used Meletti)
  
• 15ml Punt e Mes
  
• 1 dash Peychaud's
  
• 1 dash Bittered Sling Clingstone Peach Bitters
  *no garnish
  
  The credit for Cartographer goes fully to Blake at Amor y Amargo. I fell absolutely head over heels for this cocktail when we were in NYC last month and he was more than happy to supply me with the spec so I could take it home and continue to enjoy it.
  
  All cocktails are stirred and served in a chilled coupe, for the purposed of bottling them, they are all pre-diluted so they can simply be poured and enjoyed.
  
  ETA:I suck at formatting

I’ve had great luck with the Northern Brewer 187ml bottles off of Amazon. We cap them

187 ml Clear Champagne Bottles, 24 per case https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0089WIAP8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_2T8ZBbGTM8HT7

order plastic carboys. They'll survive the trip. Alternately, buy a 1 gallon jug of apple juice. Bonus that you can use that as a start for apple wine or apple cider.

I'd use a food grade bucket for primary fermentation, and a plastic carboy for secondary, in your situation.

Same thing with plastic wine bottles: https://www.amazon.com/Plastic-Bottles-Screw-Green-750ml/dp/B00ILC4A7S

just save the bottles!

I would not use Tetrapak containers.

Would placing what's left into a smaller bottle like this, then sealing with parafilm help? That's what I've been doing lately but I haven't opened any back up to check.

You should use a champagne corker, champagne corks, and champagne bottles for sparkling. Regular wine bottles can't handle the internal pressure and will explode.

For everything else, I generally use clear claret bottles and #9 1 3/4" natural corks. You can also use #8 1 3/4" corks. Or if you can't lay the bottles flat to age, use synthetic corks of the same size.
Good bottles: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071NH97MF/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_JHkQBbP8JBQRB
Decent corks:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M110D66/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_LJkQBb1SH5FGR

For special batches, I use some good looking 375ml bottles with #9 1 1/2" synthetic corks.
Bottles: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MYF170W/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_UMkQBbTGW0S5Y
Corks: Nomacorc Synthetic Wine Corks #9 x 1 1/2" Bag of 30 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0064GWTJE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_BNkQBbVBDY8EB

they make screw top wine bottles these days. They work just fine.

https://www.amazon.com/North-Mountain-Supply-Flat-Bottomed-Screw-Top/dp/B07NDVXG1N

​

Though for a red, perhaps cork is better. My local homebrew store rents them out for $5.00/day.

​

https://www.tastingtable.com/drinks/national/screw-top-wine-vs-cork

This style is my favorite for ciders. I use crown caps (same 26mm my 12/22oz take) and have no trouble using a wing capper. Can you get them where you're at?

They don't have the same aesthetic and can't hold as much carbonation, but 22oz bombers aren't a far cry short in volume and I suspect much easier/cheaper to come by.

To piggy back on u/stormbeforedawn's comment.

This is the equipment I used that I've had good luck with so far. It's what he recommended, I'm just providing links to the specific product I used.

• 2 gal primary bucket
  
  
• 1 gal secondary glass
  
  
• Autosiphon
  
  
• racking cane
  
  
• Hydrometer
  
  
• Starsan
  
  
• GoFerm
  
  
• I used Fermaid O, not Fermaid K, because I was following a specific nutrient regimen. It's called TONSA 2.0. Popular, but apparently not cost efficient with larger batches. People better at this than I can answer nutrient schedule questions.
  
  
• Bubbler/Airlock.
  
  
• Bottles and cap method are your preferance. You can get bottles of tons of shapes, colors and styles. Corked, capped, swingtop, etc. Just make sure the bottles are food-safe and not decorative hobby/thrift store stuff. If you use corks, same rule, don't use decorative stuff. You'll want #8 agglomerated cork and a hand corker tool to put the corks on. #9 corks work too, but you'll need heavy tools (like a floor corker) to do that..

Alternative idea: American Sparkling Wine bottles will take beer bottle caps and hold a lot of pressure. The size is a downside. At the next celebration, rummage through the recycling. Note that (real) Champagne bottles and other wines of European origin need bigger caps. Alternatively, you could “Belgian cork” them. Just an idea. ...

Edit: morebeer has brown 750 ml “champagne” bottles

Edit: Amazon has green 375 ml ‘Champagne’ bottles.

I got your back.

https://www.amazon.com/Home-Brew-Ohio-Winemakers-Multicolor/dp/B071RN55BY/

Champagnes are easier. The bottles are usually tinted so you can put any light-colored liquor in it, and cheep champagne foils cover your tampering. Only difficulty may be trimming the cork down to get it back into the bottle.

These I'm pretty sure. I got them to use behind the bar so I had them on hand for bottling.

Way too much work. Get one of these, some of these, and some of these. Buy dark wine bottles, drink the wine, buy whatever booze you want, fill empty wine bottles, cork, seal, and be done with it. For $20 you're set for 30 bottles.

Pretty sure he could have just bought a thing of corks.

Yup, amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Premium-Recycled-Corks-Natural-Around/dp/B006BF7BBE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417744403&sr=8-1&keywords=corks