Concern: Silicone cork question

[faeyd]

Folks,

I did a little bottling of wine at the weekend (6) and used silicone treated corks, It said do not soak, but I figured I could splash some boiling water over them quickly and then pop them in the bottles to steralize.

I noticed that when I put the corks in there was a little black liquid that was forced out from within the cork and thought nothing of it a the time. I've since read that you should not use boiloing water on the silicone treated corks.

Are they now a health hazard or do other folks follow this method of steralizing these corks and had no problems?

[Doingatun]

Hi faeyd, sorry don’t know about the health aspect, I was told by the Home Brew Shop the best way to sterilise silicon corks is to make up a Sodium Metabisulphite solution and rinse corks for a while in the solution before use.

[Duffbeer]

Yep as above, a quick dip in a 10% sulphite solution is the way to go, not soak though as silicone corks do not require soaking. As for the health aspect I'm unsure too, but For the cost of a few corks I would replace them.

[maxashton]

I soaked corks once that were not supposed to be soaked. It did not ruin the wine, but it DID make them a complete pig to get back out of the bottles!

[Duffbeer]

but it DID make them a complete pig to get back out of the bottles!

Correct the silicone acts like glue and often the corks break on removal.

[faeyd]

What concerned me the most was a black ooze coming through the cork as I put it in the bottle (probably the melted silicone).

I would imagine that it would return to solid quite fast though and anyuthing that did get into the wine would be distinguishable. Don't know. Can't find any health data on the silicone used in corks... as it's too late I think to swap the corks out as the silicone would already be present in the wine I will keep looking for evidence that may be of concern.