Excellent info! It was actually only a few months ago I ran into the claim of having to wet your corks every few months or even weeks. I was like uh- oh, I have never done that. I immediately did it once for every bottle in my collection, but now I'm quite convinced that will be it.
Seems like the synthetic corks fit nice and tight. Sometimes I think the screw tops might be beneficial to be able to lay the bottles down if needed? However I like the real cork:)
My TX bourbon has a black plastic or rubber "cork" that works as well as any cork I've seen. And a screw cap certainly doesn't hurt Evan Williams BiB or Old Forester 100.
The cork for my infinity bottle is usually loose when I first start filling. Once the first couple of ounces are in they tighten up. Have never done more than wet the cork with the first entry. Always seems to work.
It may not look as fancy, but give me a plastic screw top for the best seal any day. Plastic Screw Top > Synthetic Cork > Stamped Metal Screw Top > Natural Cork
I’ve had 2 corks break recently 1 natural cork and 1 synthetic. The synthetic one pull away from the plastic cap. ( bookers cap) it’s a relatively new bottle too. Actually both are maybe a year old.
*My personal experience* is that if a cork gets too loose - and that's obvious when pulling it out - I turn the bottle upside down for 10 seconds. I've only had one bottle where I needed to do that more than once, and most I never need to do it. But then I buy whisky to *drink* , so my bottles are gone in a month or two. As for breaking corks, only one has ever threatened to break on me (the cork was breaking away from the plastic top), and I just replaced it with one of the half a dozen spare corks I keep on hand.
I think the problem of the cork breaking away from the cap is more of an adhesive issue and less of a hydration issue, but to your point I wouldn't expect any cork issues from storage variance in 1-2 months.
I got in the habit of flipping my bottles before I open them. I figure wetting the cork probably helps it seal better. Doesn't help I've had some looser corks that make me worry about their seal haha.
Niti jedan pluteni čep od viskija mi nije pukao...a popio sam ga do sada na galone. NE OČEKUJEM da vidim navojni čep na skupom viskiju...djeluje JEFTINO. Samo pluteni čepovi su cool stvar. Pozdrav iz Hrvatske
Zahvalan sam što imam gledatelja iz Hrvatske. Kad dobijem komentare na drugim jezicima, prevedem ih, a zatim prevedem svoj odgovor. Oprostite ako nije dobro prevedeno. Postoji neka nova tehnologija koja se koristi za smanjenje rizika od oštećenja tekućine u boci od čepa. Slažem se da čepovi dodaju osjećaj kvalitete, ali počeo sam cijeniti dobro izrađen čep na navoj. Hvala na gledanju!
In the video I recommend against dipping your corks. The humidity in the bottle because of the evaporated ethanol is enough to keep your cork expanded.
So, next topic is which is better, cork or screw tops? I’m noticing that many wineries are going to screw tops which I don’t mind. I hate messing with the corkscrew openers. You talked about subjecting bourbon bottles to extreme heat, what about extreme cold. With the alcohol content will bourbons ever freeze?
Spirits kept in a freezer don't freeze. I keep a bottle of Jägermeister in the freezer (it is a good sore throat medicine, and it tastes better when it is ice cold). It is 35% ABV, and it doesn't freeze. Wine can freeze in a typical freezer, so don't try to store it there. The melting point of pure ethanol is -114 C, so it would be liquid in even the coldest places on earth. The melting point of a 50% ABV spirit isn't exactly half way between ethanol and water because the melting point of a solution does not change in linear fashion with the percentage. (I found a graph - the melting point of a 50% ethanol/50% water solution, such as a bottled-in-bond bourbon, is roughly -30 C. A 40% ABV spirit is about -25, and a 65% spirit is about -45. There are places where it can get cold enough during the winter to freeze a spirit, i.e. interior Alaska and Canada, the northern plains, Siberia, and Antarctica.)
I would answer the cold question, but Heather Harrison covered it so well. I think it would be hard to argue against screw tops. Some of the best preserved dusty whiskey I have opened were screw tops.
A lot of wineries are moving to screw tops to reduce cork rot or cork taint issues, which are much more common in wine than spirits. There are also a lot of sustainability concerns as well about harvesting cork
@@rrkaminski9 Have you seen the new tech that eliminates the TCA. Pretty cool, but cork is already too expeinsive conpared to other better alternatives.
I don’t know, but it seems to me that if the humidity in the bottle is from ETOH evaporation, that would be all alcohol. Wetting it would be the whole solution, not just the alcohol.
I recognize that logic, and that is why I said more research needed to be done. Ethanol isn't the only volatile compound in vapor form in the head space, but I don't know enough about the percentages vs "wetting the cork" to know which is better for the long term health of the cork.
Scientifically speaking, if you drink the whiskey fast enough, the cork won't deteriorate. But for the bottles you want to keep, this is good to know! Lol
I have the proper tool to remove broken corks and plenty of plastic corks to replace them. Corks don't last more than 5 or 10 years in my dry climate. I never flip my bottles. I just replace bad corks.
The problem with any test like this is you would not expect a difference until your control and test cork had exposure to the different treatments for 5-20 years. Plus, cork is a natural product and some of the problems may have just been specific to that piece of wood.
Natural corks have a lot of problems, both for wine and spirits. The wine industry has been gradually moving to well designed screw caps, some of which are even designed to have a slightly imperfect seal to allow some slight contact with the air for long term aging to mimic the process that occurs with corks. I regularly drink wine that is over 20 years old, and I can confirm that crumbly corks are a problem, but the two-prong cork puller takes care of that. At 50 years or older, extracting the cork is a major hassle, even with the two-prong device. The big problem with corks is that they can get tainted, typically with a chemical called TCA. Its causes are complex; those who are interested can look it up. The end result for the consumer is wine that tastes like moldy cardboard. So far, I haven't encountered a cork tainted bottle of spirit, but I've heard about it, and even on a few whisky reviews, people have reported tasting notes that included the telltale signs. I would certainly be upset if I got a whisky bottle that was corked, just as I hate it when I encounter corked wine. For this reason alone, I would love to see natural corks eliminated from both wine and spirits. A screw cap that is properly designed for the type and expected longevity of the booze in the bottle would be my preference. No seal is perfect, but a well designed screw cap is about as good as it gets. It's a shame that people are hung up on the tradition of the cork and that a screw cap has become a signifier for cheap booze. As for wetting the corks, I don't usually do this, but I have had the occasional problem with a crumbling cork, and then I have to find another stopper. It's a nuisance that could be avoided by using screw caps or synthetic stoppers. Occasionally soaking the cork in water might be a good way to keep the top of the cork from crumbling, but I haven't tried any experiments. Most of my bottles get opened at least once or twice a year, which seems to be often enough for the top of the cork to get some moisture simply by absorbing whatever liquid gets into the neck. Bottles that sit for longer periods without being touched are at risk for crumbling corks. Going forward, I think I'll start saving synthetic stoppers from empty bottles so that I have replacements for natural corks, provided that they are the correct size.
I have had a corked whiskey. Very interesting. I keep a variety of sizes of corks from empty bottles. I am unsure if the "crumbling cork" issue could be resolved with any cork maintenance routine, as evidenced by how crumbly the corks of old bottles of wine are even with a perfect maintenance routine.
@@BourbonRealTalkI've had a couple also. I had to confirm by getting pours at local bars that were clearly un-tainted. The problem with synthetic is that I think natural is actually *more* environmentally friendly. Curious what we do to dispose of the synthetic ones...? Westland had a pretty nice Japanese-style (albeit plastic) screwcap for a while that I actually liked, but have since switched to synthetic corks.
LOL !!! All you people out there worrying about the cork drying out. The number one thing I do after buying a bottle is to OPEN it. The whole purpose to buying whiskey is to drink it. I never think of the cork. I do check my collection for less than half left, then I will find a smaller container to transfer to so the air is less in a small container. Unless you're a collector an not a drinker ya got nothing to worry about
I wasn't trolling. I like the channel. Whiskey enthusiast. Overall impatience with TH-camrs sucking away my life 20 minutes at a time when they could say it in 5. Peace.
@@freeman436 I wasn't offended. You are right. When I saw how long the edited video was I was disappointed in myself. The truth is we had a studio audience that day, and it was one of the first videos we filmed that day. There is a thing that happens that we loosen up as the day goes on, both because we get into a flow and because we drink as we go so we start to loosen up. We were not loose and with the audience I remember feeling nervous that it wouldn't flow well, and I ended up trying to go off memory and not the script, that resulted in unnecessary banter and a video that was longer than it needed to be.
I was mentally manifesting this as a possible topic and boom here you guys are with this great and very important video for us whisky connoisseurs.
Thank you!
Excellent info! It was actually only a few months ago I ran into the claim of having to wet your corks every few months or even weeks. I was like uh- oh, I have never done that. I immediately did it once for every bottle in my collection, but now I'm quite convinced that will be it.
I did the exact same thing!
Glad it was helpful!
Seems like the synthetic corks fit nice and tight. Sometimes I think the screw tops might be beneficial to be able to lay the bottles down if needed? However I like the real cork:)
Same
My TX bourbon has a black plastic or rubber "cork" that works as well as any cork I've seen. And a screw cap certainly doesn't hurt Evan Williams BiB or Old Forester 100.
Iirc Daniel at the Whiskey Vault says screw tops are actually best as they prevent gases from getting in or out
I think you guys are right.
If we are not someone who is smarter than I am need to explain it to me scientifically. I don't know any major collectors who we corks.
The cork for my infinity bottle is usually loose when I first start filling. Once the first couple of ounces are in they tighten up. Have never done more than wet the cork with the first entry. Always seems to work.
It may not look as fancy, but give me a plastic screw top for the best seal any day. Plastic Screw Top > Synthetic Cork > Stamped Metal Screw Top > Natural Cork
Agreed
I agree boy the hate Makers Mark got moving to more screw tops is silly I prefer the 46 line got screw tops I've had three Makers Mark corks break.
Fascinating topic thank you for the information!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I’ve had 2 corks break recently 1 natural cork and 1 synthetic. The synthetic one pull away from the plastic cap. ( bookers cap) it’s a relatively new bottle too. Actually both are maybe a year old.
I have this happen often, and almost always with Willett purple tops.
It’s the dance during the intro music for me.
We do it almost every time now 😂
How about a glass cork seal with wax?
You would not need to wet that either.
*My personal experience* is that if a cork gets too loose - and that's obvious when pulling it out - I turn the bottle upside down for 10 seconds. I've only had one bottle where I needed to do that more than once, and most I never need to do it. But then I buy whisky to *drink* , so my bottles are gone in a month or two.
As for breaking corks, only one has ever threatened to break on me (the cork was breaking away from the plastic top), and I just replaced it with one of the half a dozen spare corks I keep on hand.
I think the problem of the cork breaking away from the cap is more of an adhesive issue and less of a hydration issue, but to your point I wouldn't expect any cork issues from storage variance in 1-2 months.
I got in the habit of flipping my bottles before I open them. I figure wetting the cork probably helps it seal better. Doesn't help I've had some looser corks that make me worry about their seal haha.
That is the problem with natural cork. They are too inconsistent.
Niti jedan pluteni čep od viskija mi nije pukao...a popio sam ga do sada na galone. NE OČEKUJEM da vidim navojni čep na skupom viskiju...djeluje JEFTINO. Samo pluteni čepovi su cool stvar. Pozdrav iz Hrvatske
Zahvalan sam što imam gledatelja iz Hrvatske. Kad dobijem komentare na drugim jezicima, prevedem ih, a zatim prevedem svoj odgovor. Oprostite ako nije dobro prevedeno. Postoji neka nova tehnologija koja se koristi za smanjenje rizika od oštećenja tekućine u boci od čepa. Slažem se da čepovi dodaju osjećaj kvalitete, ali počeo sam cijeniti dobro izrađen čep na navoj. Hvala na gledanju!
@@BourbonRealTalk 👍
@@BourbonRealTalk your channel is instructive and awesome. Keep up the quality videos. Hello, and thank you for your reply 🙂
Dip your cork every 6 months........solid advice, Sir. Solid advice!
In the video I recommend against dipping your corks. The humidity in the bottle because of the evaporated ethanol is enough to keep your cork expanded.
@BourbonRealTalk Oh......I was being a 1st Class Smart Ass on this one. Firefighter humor never leaves you, even when a Firefighter retires.
I'm a big fan of soaking the cork. Some might even call me a cork soaker!
😂
Say that fast 3 times🙈
Excellent video, very educational. I have a special technique I use to prevent the cork going bad...... Drink it off.
Solid plan!
This is why its a good idea to never throw away good corks. I save them and use them in case on of corks break
I keep a variety as well.
The high quality screw caps that Japanese whiskey is really great. Good seal and never fails
I think eventually we will see more of that in the US market.
All this cork controversy; maybe the bottlers should just use screw tops?
One more important thing-- twist while pulling. I learned the hard way 😢
I think screw tops are a good idea!
So, next topic is which is better, cork or screw tops? I’m noticing that many wineries are going to screw tops which I don’t mind. I hate messing with the corkscrew openers.
You talked about subjecting bourbon bottles to extreme heat, what about extreme cold. With the alcohol content will bourbons ever freeze?
Spirits kept in a freezer don't freeze. I keep a bottle of Jägermeister in the freezer (it is a good sore throat medicine, and it tastes better when it is ice cold). It is 35% ABV, and it doesn't freeze. Wine can freeze in a typical freezer, so don't try to store it there. The melting point of pure ethanol is -114 C, so it would be liquid in even the coldest places on earth. The melting point of a 50% ABV spirit isn't exactly half way between ethanol and water because the melting point of a solution does not change in linear fashion with the percentage. (I found a graph - the melting point of a 50% ethanol/50% water solution, such as a bottled-in-bond bourbon, is roughly -30 C. A 40% ABV spirit is about -25, and a 65% spirit is about -45. There are places where it can get cold enough during the winter to freeze a spirit, i.e. interior Alaska and Canada, the northern plains, Siberia, and Antarctica.)
I would answer the cold question, but Heather Harrison covered it so well. I think it would be hard to argue against screw tops. Some of the best preserved dusty whiskey I have opened were screw tops.
A lot of wineries are moving to screw tops to reduce cork rot or cork taint issues, which are much more common in wine than spirits. There are also a lot of sustainability concerns as well about harvesting cork
@@heatherharrison264 thank you very much, totally answered my question 👍
@@rrkaminski9 Have you seen the new tech that eliminates the TCA. Pretty cool, but cork is already too expeinsive conpared to other better alternatives.
I don’t know, but it seems to me that if the humidity in the bottle is from ETOH evaporation, that would be all alcohol. Wetting it would be the whole solution, not just the alcohol.
I recognize that logic, and that is why I said more research needed to be done. Ethanol isn't the only volatile compound in vapor form in the head space, but I don't know enough about the percentages vs "wetting the cork" to know which is better for the long term health of the cork.
Excellent video, gentlemen....On my channel, I say: If it's gotta cap, it gets a cork....can't stand screw caps.
I think I prefer a screw top, but I get it...they feel cheap.
Howdy and ya know folks that there is one and only one answer…don’t let you whiskey be shelf queens! Drank em and thank em!
Solid advice.
It’s always important to wet it before you open it. At least I do. Enjoy!
Cheers!
Scientifically speaking, if you drink the whiskey fast enough, the cork won't deteriorate.
But for the bottles you want to keep, this is good to know! Lol
Amen!
I have the proper tool to remove broken corks and plenty of plastic corks to replace them. Corks don't last more than 5 or 10 years in my dry climate. I never flip my bottles. I just replace bad corks.
Nice!
Maybe save a cork from a bottle you finished from the same distillery and swap them every couple of years.
The problem with any test like this is you would not expect a difference until your control and test cork had exposure to the different treatments for 5-20 years. Plus, cork is a natural product and some of the problems may have just been specific to that piece of wood.
Natural corks have a lot of problems, both for wine and spirits. The wine industry has been gradually moving to well designed screw caps, some of which are even designed to have a slightly imperfect seal to allow some slight contact with the air for long term aging to mimic the process that occurs with corks. I regularly drink wine that is over 20 years old, and I can confirm that crumbly corks are a problem, but the two-prong cork puller takes care of that. At 50 years or older, extracting the cork is a major hassle, even with the two-prong device. The big problem with corks is that they can get tainted, typically with a chemical called TCA. Its causes are complex; those who are interested can look it up. The end result for the consumer is wine that tastes like moldy cardboard. So far, I haven't encountered a cork tainted bottle of spirit, but I've heard about it, and even on a few whisky reviews, people have reported tasting notes that included the telltale signs. I would certainly be upset if I got a whisky bottle that was corked, just as I hate it when I encounter corked wine. For this reason alone, I would love to see natural corks eliminated from both wine and spirits. A screw cap that is properly designed for the type and expected longevity of the booze in the bottle would be my preference. No seal is perfect, but a well designed screw cap is about as good as it gets. It's a shame that people are hung up on the tradition of the cork and that a screw cap has become a signifier for cheap booze.
As for wetting the corks, I don't usually do this, but I have had the occasional problem with a crumbling cork, and then I have to find another stopper. It's a nuisance that could be avoided by using screw caps or synthetic stoppers. Occasionally soaking the cork in water might be a good way to keep the top of the cork from crumbling, but I haven't tried any experiments. Most of my bottles get opened at least once or twice a year, which seems to be often enough for the top of the cork to get some moisture simply by absorbing whatever liquid gets into the neck. Bottles that sit for longer periods without being touched are at risk for crumbling corks. Going forward, I think I'll start saving synthetic stoppers from empty bottles so that I have replacements for natural corks, provided that they are the correct size.
I have had a corked whiskey. Very interesting.
I keep a variety of sizes of corks from empty bottles. I am unsure if the "crumbling cork" issue could be resolved with any cork maintenance routine, as evidenced by how crumbly the corks of old bottles of wine are even with a perfect maintenance routine.
Thank you again Heather. You are a wealth of great information
@@BourbonRealTalkI've had a couple also. I had to confirm by getting pours at local bars that were clearly un-tainted.
The problem with synthetic is that I think natural is actually *more* environmentally friendly. Curious what we do to dispose of the synthetic ones...?
Westland had a pretty nice Japanese-style (albeit plastic) screwcap for a while that I actually liked, but have since switched to synthetic corks.
@@eafarrar I would be OK with everyone going to screw tops.
Stagg. Must be nice😂
I had an open and a bunker, and someone who won a bottle in a raffle for my 501C3 had the bottle break in transit, so I had to give up my bunker.
Every now and then I’ll flip my bottles with natural corks upside down for about 30 minutes or so.
This video suggests that is not necessary and could be detrimental in the long run.
LOL !!! All you people out there worrying about the cork drying out. The number one thing I do after buying a bottle is to OPEN it. The whole purpose to buying whiskey is to drink it. I never think of the cork. I do check my collection for less than half left, then I will find a smaller container to transfer to so the air is less in a small container. Unless you're a collector an not a drinker ya got nothing to worry about
I have so many open bottles that it takes me 5+ years to drink most of my rare bottles, so it can also be a concern for drinkers.
Why is this a 20min vid???
Because I am long winded. I once earned the nickname "Long Shanks".
Seriourly? 21.34 minutes to explain this? Get Real.
Sorry, we just bs too much some times.
I wasn't trolling. I like the channel. Whiskey enthusiast. Overall impatience with TH-camrs sucking away my life 20 minutes at a time when they could say it in 5. Peace.
@@freeman436 I wasn't offended. You are right. When I saw how long the edited video was I was disappointed in myself. The truth is we had a studio audience that day, and it was one of the first videos we filmed that day. There is a thing that happens that we loosen up as the day goes on, both because we get into a flow and because we drink as we go so we start to loosen up. We were not loose and with the audience I remember feeling nervous that it wouldn't flow well, and I ended up trying to go off memory and not the script, that resulted in unnecessary banter and a video that was longer than it needed to be.
You rock. BRT is one of two bourbon channels I frequent. Great content. Nice energy between you guys and...Texas! Me too. Cheers.@@BourbonRealTalk