Plastic stoppers for champagne bottles

[DavieC]

Hi folks, I made some Elderflower Champagne last summer and bottled with 10g of sugar in 750ml Prosecco bottles and used plastic stoppers and cages.The ones we drank in the late summer were great with a lively pop of the 'cork' and great fizz in the drink.
The two bottles I opened on NewYears Eve hadn't got any 'pop' and not a lot of fizz. Could the stoppers have allowed the co2 to have leaked out losing carbonation?
Has anyone experienced this when using plastic stoppers or did I happen to miss a spoon full of sugar out of those 2 duff bottles?

 

[Nidger]

In my humble opinion it could be any you mentioned.
I've only used plastic push stoppers on normal wine kits in the past but could imagine leakage through pressure of carbonation over time through wear of used stoppers, slight deviations of neck internal circumference etc.
Since starting again I've had mixed results from carbonation on pet and capped glass bottles of cider/lager and bitter.

I'm lazy and may use slightly less sugar in one bottle to the next whilst spooning in via a funnel lol.

If your careful with your measurements then theres more than likely a leak over time.

 

[DavieC]

Thanks @Nidger , I'm thinking they are losing carbonation as you say, slightly ill fitting etc ,its a shame because it's great when they pop with plenty of fizz.

 

[johncrobinson]

When i lived in London i used to patrionise several small restaurants so i was able to get all the champagne bottles i needed.
I used a product called sparkle tops.These were plastic tops with a valve built in you could use for disgorgement wonderful things i dont know if they are still around.

 

[An Ankoù]

I'd recommend you use composite corks for long-term storage of decent stuff. You can get them from Malt Miller, but the cages he sends with them are wrong (cheap and nasty in fact) they should have a metal cap. His cages are, in fact, meant for the very plastic corks you are using at the moment. Nevertheless, the corks work great and the cages will work if you put a penny piece on top of the cork.
https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/belgian-style-beer-cork-and-cage-x-30/

 

[DavieC]

Thanks @johncrobinson ,I've just googled 'Sparkle tops' and it returned a vast choice of ladies clothing so no luck regards the stoppers,although on a plus note I now know where to look for this springs 'must have' ladies fashions.
I'm pretty sure I can use 29mm crown caps which should hold the carbonation,but it's part of the fun popping the cork when you come to open it!

 

[DavieC]

Thanks @An Ankoù , they look good, I've got the handheld corker like in the picture, daft question but do you pull them out with your hand like a normal champagne cork?

 

[An Ankoù]

Thanks @An Ankoù , they look good, I've got the handheld corker like in the picture, daft question but do you pull them out with your hand like a normal champagne cork?

Yes. You have to work out where on the corker will give about 75% insertion and then mark that on the corker. There's also a knack to getting the rest of the cork out of the corker without pulling it out of the bottle, but it gets easier and easier with practice.

 

[An Ankoù]

I'm pretty sure I can use 29mm crown caps which should hold the carbonation,but it's part of the fun popping the cork when you come to open it!

Yes you can and they hold the carbonation perfectly. In fact I understand that champagne6 is carbonated under a crown cork before the lees are disgorged, the bottle topped up with a bit of syrup and then a champagne cork put in. Here is the arctic wastes of Southern Brittany, beer, or for that matter, cider might come in a 75cl bottle with a 29mm top, or a 75 with a standard 26 mm top, or a 75 with a swing top or, very commonly, a Belgian beer bottle which won't take any kind of crown cap at all. These are my favourites and they have to be either corked or a swing top attached to the neck. But I love to cork them when I can be arsed.
By the way, composite corks are single-use, aren't they! Rubbish, I chuck the corks from a bottle or La Goudale or Trois Monts into a box and resuse them over and over again. Never had a failure yet.

 

[boohbeer]

750ml Prosecco bottles

Are they Sainsbury’s Prosecco bottles?
I had the same problem with some bottles of cider, no carbonation only with the Sainsbury’s bottles.
I read somewhere that plastic stoppers doesn’t work well with them, apparently something to do with the shape of the neck on that kind of bottles.

 

[johncrobinson]

Hi DaveiC
Looks like the sparkle tops have gone off the market,Which is a shame cos not only were they good for the disgorgement they also had a safety valve for the pressure built in.

 

[An Ankoù]

This is the easiest solution if you can get hold of them:

They fit equally well on champagne and prosecco and cava etc bottles.

 

[DavieC]

Thanks folk for sharing great feedback and experience, @boohbeer I think the ones with no pop were from Sainsbury's, I've still got 3 bottles left from last summer's batch so will note the shape of the bottles and carbonation levels.In future I'll try the corks or swing tops like An Ankou mentioned.

 

[DavieC]

Just took delivery of the swingtops(Amazon) as mentioned by @An Ankoù. Thanks for the info,I think they'll be great.

 

[DavieC]

Hi all, I've just bottled the last DJ of last years Elderflower Champagne using my Prosecco bottles and the swing top caps as mentioned above. Super tight seal so feeling confident of good carbonation and a nice 'pop' for when we can finally reunite with the family.