Removing old rubber bungs

[Marant]

Hi there, hoping someone can help. I'm new to the home-brewing game, have got an elderflower beer and dandelion and burdock beer on the go - will find out soon how they are.

Anyhow, my question is, does anyone know how I can most easily get a rubber bung out of a demi-john of approx 40 year old parsnip wine? Getting the demi-johns out of my mum's garage, I found this one full one, which at best estimate was filled 36 to 40 years ago with parsnip wine, by my now late father. Another of the demi-johns (empty) had a bung in it, which had stuck to the sides of the bottle neck and took a heck of a lot of cutting to get it out. I was wondering if there might be an easier way? The wine is sort of sentimental, in that I'd at least like to try it in memory of my old man (reckoning that there's a very slim chance it's nectar and more than likely it's vinegar!), so ways of extracting it without ruining it would be appreciated. I have filters and things for getting rubber bits out of the drink, if necessary.

Yours in hope..

Marant

[Parva]

A corkscrew?

[loffler]

Heat the glass with blowtorch?
Might melt the rubber a little allowing the corkscrew to pull it out

[mshergold]

I used a corkscrew to remove one I'd only just pushed into a brand new demi john. I wouln't like to try it on yours though. How about a heated skewer - do it outside - making lots of deep holes, but not going all the way through until you get far enough down to use a corkscrew without having to pull too much. Might sound like a ridiculous idea, but how about emailing a rubber bung manufacturer. Or maybe the relevent department of a college or university that has a department that runs science courses that include rubber and/or glass (it would probably be called materials engineering or some such)?

[kevthebootboy]

is the top of the bung sticking out of the demijohn? if theres enough sticking out you could get some mole grips on it, hold the demijohn between you legs and carfully twist the bung , really carefull though, id imagen its quite fradgile...
let us know how you get on anyways, kev

[shandypants5]

Did you get it out yet??

What was the wine like?

If its still stuck I would use a power drill on slow speed to bore a hole thru the bung, and then syphon the wine into a clean container.

Then you can butcher the bung as much as you like without risking the wine.

[Marant]

Thanks for the ideas folks.. I haven't yet attempted to get it out - should be trying in a week or so. Several of the first batches of homebrew will be coming good, and I'll be having a few folks around for a sampling session. So far the elderflower beer has worked well (about 2.5%, nice and refreshing), am hoping the dandelion and burdock will mature well (about 6%, tastes strangely sweet and slightly odd). The raw elderflower wine tasted good - should be nicely matured by Christmas (about 15% - definitely needs maturing!). Waiting on the ginger beer and honey botchard. Think I've fallen for this home brewing in a big way! Will definitely let you know the outcome of the 40 year old parsnip wine..