Reusing large Leffe bottles?

[dean_wales]

Hello,

I am doing a Leffe clone at the moment. I have quite a few of the bigger Leffe bottles that come with a small champagne style cork and cage on them.

Can you cap these with a crown capper? The top looks like a normal bottle just a bit thicker? If I cant cap is there any other easy/cheap way to reuse them?

Thanks,

Dean.

[GSMunn]

Champagne Corks and Cages would work wouldn't they?

[TheMumbler]

They look like champagne bottles so I would think that corks and cages would work as GSMunn suggests.

I believe that you can also cap that kind of bottle using a bench capper if you buy an adapter and larger (29mm) caps.

[dhardy]

The red emily capper has reversible plates that are usually set for normal caps - pop them out and flip them over, refit and good to go for 29mm caps. The 29mm caps fit standard 750cl champagne type bottles - including Leffe.

[lancsSteve]

Use 29mm caps and get a 29mm capper adaptor for a bench capper:

http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/bottling/ ... -caps.html

http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/29mm-cap-adapter.html

HIGHLY recommended for Belgian beers - nowt beats bottling in champagne bottles IMHO

[dean_wales]

I need my plastic champagne corks and cages for elderflower presse so I bottled this batch last night using the bench capper (with adapter) and little bottler.

These are the notes from my experience:

The little bottler only just reaches the bottom of such tall bottles, also the fact that the base is so drastically concaved means that it can be a little tricky to engage the little bottler but it works OK, just.

The capper (using 29mm caps) works on Hoegaarden as well as Leffe bottles. Admittedly they look a little danty on the top of such big bottles but they seem tight and flush.

When using the capper you pull it down as usual but if you keep the pressure on or pull too hard the capper clunks down a bit further over the cap and the bottle gets wedged in the capper. This doesnt seem to improve the cap fitting and is a pain so dont go crazy with the arm.

On the plus side bottling into 750ml bottles saves quite a lot of cleaning and capping as there are much fewer bottles!

Thanks,

Dean.

[mshergold]

I bought a large bottle of Leffe the other day and the corks seem to be smaller than those used in champagne bottles. Didn't compare them though.

[Gambrinus]

The corks you need for corking Belgian beer bottles are called 'ALTEC Corks'. A special cage for these corks is available too.

Cork - Dim. (L x Ø) : 44 x 25,5 mm. Packed per 100
Cage - height 38 mm - lid diameter 26.5 mm

Not currently available in the UK. (correct me if I'm wrong!) But from Brouwland in Belgium. http://www.brouwland.com/en/

Cost you an arm and a leg for postage!