Winemaking Bottles and Corks

One of the things that you have to consider when buying supplies is if you are going to have enough bottles to put your wine into when it is ready to enter the stage where it is going to be aged.  Some people collect wine bottles as soon as they deicide that they will be making wine. The save all the bottles that have long necks so they will be able to cork them. As well they get friends and family to do the same. This does save you the cost of buying the bottles, which really are not very expensive, starting at only around a dollar each, but means a little work to do before you are able to use them.

You must make sure that the bottles you are about to reuse are not only clean but have been sanitized. That is because even the littlest bit of something in a bottle can ruin your wine.  To start with soak all the labels off of them. Then soak them in a strong detergent. Use a good sanitizing agent to make sure they are truly clean. If you have a dishwasher once through that after you have done all of the other things would be a good extra precaution.  You should estimate somewhere between thirty and fifty bottles for your first batch.  Bottles are sold in boxes of twelve.

If you were unable to save enough bottles for your winemaking project than buying them is an easy thing to do. There are no shortages of the types of bottles to need to buy and you will have to decide what shape appeals to you most. Some have different purposes, but most are purchased based on personal preference. Wine bottles come in a variety of colors as well. You can buy them in clear, green, amber or blue for most types of the bottles.

The average wine bottle holds seven hundred and fifty milliliters of wine. There are smaller bottles holding one three hundred and seventy five milliliters or larger ones that can hold one and a half liters. But using the middle one is what most people choose to do. The larger ones are used to conserve space or if you are making your wine with a family event in mind its fine to make them in bigger bottles for ease of serving.

Corks can be either synthetic or natural.  Natural is cheaper and some people swear by them but others will tell you that there is nothing better than using the man made ones.  These should be approved by the FDA and are know to seal instantly. They are also known to be trouble free during the aging process and easy to extract with a good corkscrew. When buying wine corks remember that the size you buy depends on how long you want to let your wine age. If it is more than six months you should buy the longer ones. A good winemaking supply store should have everything you need.