Selfsufficientish.com

How many times "does the team think" that these can be re-used?

Corks don't fit properly and I have my doubts that the inserts inside the tatty metal caps can be properly sterilised.

My bid is once or twice....

...unless a semi-permanent plastic replacement cap is available that fits the thread (homebew shops have been selling the leavy black jobbies with rubber seals that fit pop/beer bottles for decades). Never seen any. Do they exist?

I use screw tops for those bottles of odd sizes and have had no probs yet, use them a few times over so far.

It never occurred to me they might have a shelf life - I'd say indefinitely. Mind you, I did find one of my jam jar lids (I reuse those as well) was looking a bit rusty, so I guess you might not want to use them when they get to that stage.

I would say that the "damage" is done to the long term efficacy of both types of lid. The linners do wear which give the seal, but they are designed on first use to last say 5 years. So I would say if you are bottling Elderberry which you know you want to keep for years, then stick with new ones, if it's for quaffing by the middle of summer I would say you should not have a problem.

I think it was mike who said "why bottle" untill you are ready to drink it? Wine matures better in bulk. I think I would agree. Just do your 5 bottles from the demi John, stick it in the firdge and then when it's finished, bottle the next lot.

What this does is mean that if you only want to have say 20 gallons of wine in your house, then you get 20 demi Johns and thats it. Oh probably need a couple of 5 gallons fermenting bins as well, and 10 or so recycled 5 gallon drums, plus a 1000 ltr palecon for cider and a couple of 220ltr tapped drums for Beer........ did I mention I haven't had a drink for a few days.....

I have always traditionally used either corks or plastic stoppers for storing my wine in bottles. But my experience goes back many years before screw top bottles came into widespread use. I have a number of used commercial wine bottles with original screw caps and am wondering whether to use them on my next batch of wine.

I normally keep my wine for between 1 and 3 years before drinking. My two concerns are :- will any air get into the bottles with a second hand screw top and will there be any contamination from the metal into the wine? Any advice based on actual experience would be helpful.

I agree about keeping wine for a long period in the demi johns, but that ties up the demi john when I could be using it for brewing more of the alcoholic nectar