natural cork breakage?

[jill]

Hi,

I was wondering whether any of you who use natural corks have had a problem with cork deterioration or breakage after your product is bottled. When there are bits of cork that are visible in the bottle, do you empty, filter and refill? Or do you sell them as-is, and if so, how is the acceptance with consumers, bars, and retailers? Any complaints?

Wondering whether natural cork was the wrong path to take...

thanks,

Jill

[Jelinek Cork Group]

Hi Jill,

As a natural cork supplier I am sorry to hear you have had issues with your natural corks. I am not sure what your fellow distillers will recommend you do to take out the pieces of broken cork but here is my recommendation for you moving forward should you choose to keep using natural corks.

Please make sure your supplier knows what spirit you intend to use the cork with. High levels of alcohol and sugar have an enormous impact on what quality of cork you use. Ensuring you use a natural cork and not an agglomerated cork is also important. When budget is of concern sometimes a lower quality of cork is used that is not suitable for the type of spirit used which is why you are getting breakage. This problem can be avoided by discussing in full with your supplier your needs.

A white spirit such as Gin or Vodka needs to have a fully washed and sealed cork where as a spirit like Whiskey does not need the cork to be sealed.

I hope I have helped?

Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions.

Fay Stallan

Jelinek Cork Group 1-800-995-0995 Ext. 34 or fhs@jelinek.com

[coop]

Hi Jill,

As a natural cork supplier I am sorry to hear you have had issues with your natural corks. I am not sure what your fellow distillers will recommend you do to take out the pieces of broken cork but here is my recommendation for you moving forward should you choose to keep using natural corks.

Please make sure your supplier knows what spirit you intend to use the cork with. High levels of alcohol and sugar have an enormous impact on what quality of cork you use. Ensuring you use a natural cork and not an agglomerated cork is also important. When budget is of concern sometimes a lower quality of cork is used that is not suitable for the type of spirit used which is why you are getting breakage. This problem can be avoided by discussing in full with your supplier your needs.

A white spirit such as Gin or Vodka needs to have a fully washed and sealed cork where as a spirit like Whiskey does not need the cork to be sealed.

I hope I have helped?

Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions.

Fay Stallan

Jelinek Cork Group 1-800-995-0995 Ext. 34 or fhs@jelinek.com

Jill, here at Colorado Gold Distillery we use a synthetic cork for all our products, Vodka, Gin, Whiskey. The reason we went with one kind of cork is simple, one size fits all our bottles. The other reason is if you are bottling at say 40% ABV that means that about 60% is water. Our selves and customers like to put the Vodka and Gin in the freezer. It can and will freeze if the freezer is cold enough. When the alcohol evaporates from real cork it will have water trapped in it and it will freeze to the bottle. When you try to remove the cork it may and will at times break off. You do not want cork particles floating around in your spirits. It does absolutely no harm to the product but the public will wonder just what is floating around in it and the unknolagable ones will bring it back and may never purchase it again. Coop

[Kevin Dunbar]

Hi Jill,

My name is kevin Dunbar, Sales manager for Tapi USA, manufacturer of synthetic bartops, plastic and aluminum closures too. If you would like to discuss syntethetic bartops I would be happy to speak with you.

cheers,

Kevin Dunbar

Tapi USA

kevin@tapiusa.com