Sterilising Corks: Aseptox?

From all the posts in this newsgroup, and several websites, i'd suggest just rinse them with water, or a light santitizer. Don't boil or soak.

DAve

Alan Smithee wrote:

Thx DAve.

For goodness sakes do not boil them. I followed instructions in a well respected wine book to boil corkes for 2 or 3 min's and every one of them failed. Boiling will turn the inside of the cork to mush, breaking down the very structure of the cork. Wine will leak from the bottle. If they were properly sealed up when you got them, they should not need sanitizing. Comercial wineeries do nothing to their corks. If you buy in bulk and use them over a period of time, just store them properly and they will never need sanizing. To store unused corks, put them in an extra sealed bucket with an open wine bottle 1/2 filled with sanitizing solution standing in the bucket. Do not put the solution directly on the corks. The solution will evaporate and prevent any nasties from living in there and keep the corks at the correct mosture content to be ready for use next time.

Ray

Hi

I once read that one could microwave the corks before bottling in order to sterilize them. Is this a good idea ? Would it kill any nasties ?

Marc

"Ray Calvert" a écrit dans le message de news:x_MUh.15345$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr13.news.prodigy.net...

I'd say no from experiementation with dry materials (mostly foods) in microwave ovens.

Most domestic microwaves don't have a diffuse enough emission to ensure that all areas receive the same amount of heat. Hotspots can occur in other materials the same as they do in food - but you can't stir the inside of a cork so they burn / degrade easily.

I'd say that trying to use radiation to maintain a high enough temperature to kill germs uniformly through a material like cork without burning or otherwise degrading the material is close to impossible. It's an even scarier prospect with synthetic corks!

Jim

Never boil, spritzing with anything that can come in contact with the wine is not a bad idea; a little moisture can act as a lubricant. I use a sulfite/acid solution. I usually have a quart spray bottle of this around. I'ts a 1/% sulfite >1/2% TA solution. The acid is usually citric because it's cheap.

The microwave sounds a little iffy to me too.

Joe