Cork & Cage Equipment

[SomervillesBrew]

We are looking for cork & cage equipment with a small budget. A quick search came up with a couple of different set-ups that were both about $11,000. semi automatic.

Any ideas on how to go about this (putting cork and cage on bottles) with a small budget of about $3,000?? I am open to MacGyver-type of ideas. I do not want to go completely manual with a hand cranked lever and twisting cages on by hand.

One idea someone shared was to use a drill with a hook to twist the cages on.

Cheers,

[ArmstrongBrew]

I would say go with the manual corker from a homebrew shop. They are surprisingly fast once you get the hang of it. For the caging, the hook idea would work. if you could space it out better, the "loop" you make in the end might look better.

You might also try a servo type motor and go for low speed, high torch so it could be push button. I haven't tried that, but I've been kicking around a few ideas.

[Tubbybrew]

corking and caging by hand is very doable and dare I say it, faster than some of the semi-automatic equipment.

The most important piece of equipment is going to be your corker... get the Italian CHAMPAGNE corker;
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/champ...or-corker.html

Anything else and you'll be hating life as you do the "corking two-step" as I like to call it.

There are two methods you can use to tie the cages
1. the cordless drill w/ a hook -- requires a bit of finesse to master and you will break cages from time to time -- we used this method for several months
2. the new wire tying hand tool that Williams offers -- accurate, inexpensive, fast and easy to use -- just tried this tool for the first time and I'm a believer!
http://www.williamsbrewing.com/BELGI...OOL-P3065.aspx

You may also need to compress the top of the corks (depending upon how far you set them in) as you are tying the hoods and we've found that a bench capper works best for this.