Forget bottle toppers, just recork

Years ago, when I was making quite a bit of homemade beer I decided to try my hand at wine and sparkling cider as well.  The only extra equipment I needed was a bottle corker and some corks so I picked them up at my local brewing supply store.  Didn't have much success with the wine (other than a few really good batches of mead), and since the sparkling cider was easier to keg like I did with my beer so never really used the corker that much.

Recently, however, I started making mead again, so I pulled my stuff out of its bin and dusted it off.  Promptly put the first batch of mead in pint beer bottles (the first batches I'm trying are only gallon batches til I get my hand back in) so used the bottle capper.   I had the corker out on the counter, though, and after pouring myself a glass of wine, decided to practice corking on the empty bottle.  Cork slid in perfectly.  That sparked a thought.  I opened a new bottle, poured a glass, and put the cork back in.  A beautifully corked bottle that is missing a glass.  Almost as easy as a bottle topper and fits better in the fridge (for whites).

One caveat, you do have to pull the cork with a cork puller, rather than a corkscrew, otherwise you will be buying a lot of corks.

Here's the setup and the bottle that I have recorked twice, once after each glass. 

 

The beer bottle was an experiment.  I hope to get more of these bottles from my brother for putting mead in.