The cap on a Chinese thermos broke.
Only old Chinese thermoses (I have 2 of them) keep tea and coffee hot all day when traveling and they don’t taste like anything other than tea and coffee. But the cork should only be made from cork oak. There are no equals in terms of thermal conductivity. Soft enough not to break the flask when it cools when the stopper is pulled in. Unfortunately, they dry out and die, crumble. We don’t grow cork oak, otherwise I would cut it myself. And only plates made from glued cork crumbs are on sale. And it is not known what is in the plate for rubbing skis with mastic. Or in polystyrene foam, which 90% of advisers advise to cut out of instead. You can, of course, glue and coat the cork with sealant (go find some food grade) or wrap it in foil (on paper based!). But why are there no factory-made stoppers and flasks for Chinese thermoses on sale? This happened in the USSR.
I found a person on the Internet who makes ANY custom-made stoppers from cork oak. And there was even a telephone. But Ukrainian. I was afraid to call.
A good option was suggested to me by LiveJournal user Penkin .
Here's his recipe:
We take a plastic bottle (milk bottles with a wide neck are good), so that the neck approximately coincides in diameter with the diameter of the neck of the thermos. Next, we take bottle caps and stuff them inside this neck - so that the part sticks out in one direction (this sticking out part will be the stopper that will lock the thermos). In my case, it does not fit perfectly tightly, but it works.
Thanks to him. I think that by adjusting it can be achieved that the screw cap-cup, when fully screwed, will gently press the entire system to the neck. + Seal the cracks with food grade sealant and make something like a gasket between the neck and a piece of the bottle on the plastic collar from the sealant.
And I tried one more option: (see option Cork No. 5 below)
glued together 8 whole wine corks (it turned out that half of my stock - corks glued from cork oak chips - are poorly suited for such work, although I see such in Penkin’s photo), having previously turned them on round and flat rasps (all that remains is to cut and grind the perimeter according to sample size). I have a problem, I need to seal the gaps between the parts. It seems that food grade sealant is best for this. I found CEMLUX 9014, the best in terms of price and quality, but I don’t see it in retail.
Tried to find the bark balsa wood for sale, only pieces available
or plates and tubes
They are all thin and wow expensive. Aha, this seems to be what we are looking for! for terrariums! here is a 1 kg plate for 353 rubles, however, you have to go beyond the Moscow Ring Road, but it looks like misinformation, in other places the same one starts from 1,000 (!!!) rubles apiece, you can already cut circles out of this required diameter, albeit of small thickness, then glue it together.
Along the way I found something interesting:
"Bark is harvested after the tree reaches 25 years of age. Using a special ax, the bark is chopped along and around the tree trunk, and then torn off with the pointed end of the tool. The material from the first collection is used very rarely and only for technical purposes. Only cork bark has full properties oak of the third harvest.
Natural cork cork is harvested in the summer on days when there is no hot wind. A new full-fledged layer of bark is formed only 8-9 years after harvesting. After collection, the bark is dried directly on the plantation for six months and only then sent for further processing."
That's why it's so difficult to buy spare plugs. I think this is the most expensive part of a Chinese thermos.
Crap! Or maybe it’s easier to order in China? By mail via the Internet?
Let's get down to business.
“If I decide to do something, I’ll definitely drink it.”
Vladimir Vysotsky
PLUG No. 1 
I started by trying to revive an old, shriveled, but familiar cork.
I took an ancient medical plaster 2 cm wide. It caked so that it was soaked through with glue and became sticky on both sides of the tape, which makes it unsuitable for ordinary purposes, but it was just fine for me - double-sided eco-friendly Velcro. I wound about 5 layers of plaster on the cork and reached the desired diameter (the easily inserted cork hung in the neck approximately halfway up its height). I added one and a half turns of food foil on top, which stuck perfectly to the patch. At the same time, it 100% does not allow glue to leak out. I inserted it into the neck and twisted it a little - the plug went in deeper and the seal became perfect.
PS: You need to wind the patch so that the taper of the cork is maintained, then when plugging and twisting, a small annular tubercle of soft patch under the foil is formed between the edge of the neck and the metal top. Using this tubercle it is easy to remove the stopper from the thermos.
PS: There is room for further improvement following example No. 2 with a handle (see)
PLUG #2
In the second thermos, the cork was preserved much better, however, it also shrunk a little. In order for the neck to be plugged tightly enough, it must be pushed all the way to the aluminum cap. As a result, it is very difficult to open the thermos; when the contents cool, the stopper is pulled in completely and only the lid protrudes above the neck. It is not glued to the cork, but is simply slightly rolled and held in place due to the taper of the cork. You pull the cap - the thin metal unclenches - and the cap flies off the cork; you begin to pull it out further, with your fingers and nails - the cork begins to crumble and break.
This is how, in most cases, it becomes unusable, you have to cut off a layer of the cork in order to put the cap back on (it’s unreliable, you have to roll it up, wrinkle it), and the cork ends up dangling in the neck - and then a plaster and foil come into play.
I thought, why not, before the cork completely dries out, screw a handle to the top of the cork to remove the cork. The material is the same cork, only not a wine cork, but a champagne cork (its integrity is not damaged by the corkscrew). Even if it is not whole, but glued together from pieces. At first I made a short one, but, after reflection, I decided to increase its length so that when screwing on the top-cup, its bottom would press the entire system against the neck of the flask, but very gently, so as not to break the fragile glass. This ensures an almost complete seal when the thermos is inverted. In addition, for reliability, before assembly, I removed the metal lid, coated it inside with nail polish (I often use it as glue) and carefully rolled it again. To fasten the structure, I used a galvanized screw with a wide washer head, deepening it 5 mm into the handle. I filled the body of the screw and the recess in the handle with glue and covered it with the same glue with a decorative top made from a piece narrow end champagne corks. 
PS: The height of the cup is different for different thermoses, so the calculation is done locally. Examination. We insert the system tightly into the neck. We slightly bend the top of the cup inward with our fingers and screw it on. If at the very end of screwing we see how the deflection of the top of the cup straightens outward, the result has been achieved. If this happens earlier, grind or cut off the top of the handle. Well, or you will have to not screw the cup to the end of the thread, which is worse.
PLUG #3
In embodying Penkin's idea, I improved it somewhat. 
PS: We check the accuracy of the assembly according to example No. 2 (see)
CORK #4
I was not satisfied with the QUALITY of cork No. 3, and I made changes.
1. Reduced the number of cork parts from 5 to 3, using ONLY champagne corks. This made it possible to push the parts into the neck with greater effort, and the protruding cork parts began to fit more tightly into the neck, ensuring greater heat retention. Yes, and it looks prettier. Although there was a slight ovalness of the plastic when squeezing the pieces in, this did not interfere with the tight contact of the structure with the flask. If No. 3 was loose in the neck, then No. 4, starting from the cork part, tightly but effortlessly touches the flask. 
2. I poured the sealant inside the structure not only from above, but carefully between the pieces up to the very collar, so that the liquid from the thermos did not penetrate between the parts of the stopper, dangling in it with the threat of souring. At the same time, No. 4 became 2 times heavier than No. 3!
3. Covered the structure with the convex part of the sealant with cling film for a better presentation of the structure 
After a day, the film can be removed and the sealant can be dried without it. The complete impression was that the film was never removed. But she’s not there!!! Beauty!!?
PS: The sealant is very smelly (smells like vinegar essence), so it is better to dry it on staircase at least for the first three days.
CORK No. 5, etc. – dead-end options
1. I spent a lot of time to carve and glue this ikebana with nail polish. 
But due to the beauty of No. 3 and No. 4, further processing was considered inappropriate due to excessive labor intensity.
2. You could, of course, buy real cork and food grade sealant and build an almost copy of the original. But it’s expensive and takes a lot of time.
3. I’m also too lazy to search on the Chinese Internet. If you suddenly, in gratitude for my work, send the link you found to purchase on eBay the exact stopper you need for a thermos, I will be grateful and will place it in this epoch-making post, but I doubt whether I will bother ordering when I already have even 2 backup options : for one thermos No. 1 and for another No. 3.
4. Once upon a time I came across on the Internet an option for expanding the plug by drilling it in the center and hammering it into the hole of a cylinder of a slightly larger diameter. Before hammering, the cork must be steamed!!! If anyone tries and succeeds, the wind is in his sails.
If you still have wine corks, don’t rush to throw them away. You will be able to make interesting and unusual things that will please your eye and help you around the house. In addition, you can make a real work of art from wine corks with your own hands.
Wine corks are excellent material for making crafts and useful things. Due to its texture and lightness, the corks are simply glued together and joined into a single whole. If you choose high-quality glue, then a product made from wine corks will serve you for a very long time. You can also use champagne corks for crafts.
Wine corks are not only found among wine lovers. They are also sold in stores, which offer a wide selection of stoppers, differing in material and color. They are relatively inexpensive - about 250 rubles for 100 wine corks. You can also buy wine corks at the winery. Often manufacturers give them away for free or offer to buy them for a symbolic price.
Before making the crafts themselves, it is important to prepare them correctly, since not only the quality of the resulting product will depend on this, but also appearance. If there are traces of wine on the corks, they need to be soaked in bleach for 5-8 hours. After this, you need to let the corks dry, otherwise they will not stick together or join together later.
A bath mat made from wine corks can become an indispensable item, since bacteria cannot multiply on the cork bark. Moreover, wine corks do not absorb moisture. As a result, you can get a comfortable and healthy mat, which is not that difficult to make.
To make a bath mat from wine corks, we will need the following materials:
Divide each wine cork into two parts and process them sandpaper on both sides so that there are no uneven spots. After this, you can proceed directly to making the rug. This is where glue comes to the rescue, with which you need to glue the corks to the base of the rug. This must be done, moving from the edges to the center. You can lay out the corks parallel to each other or put them in different combinations, thereby creating an original pattern. Immediately after all the plugs are glued, you need to remove excess glue from the surface and let the rug lie aside for a while so that the plugs stick firmly.
A teapot stand is required in almost every home, so you can’t go wrong if you decide to make one yourself. To make a stand from wine corks we will need the following materials:
To begin, cut the corks into small circles. Each cork should be cut into 10-15 circles. Then collect them into a single pattern and connect them with a thread and a needle. If you want to get a more elegant and original rug, you can use threads of different colors.
From wine corks you can make both miniature and quite spacious vases that will fit into your interior. To make a vase from corks we will need the following materials:
First you need to identify the protruding parts of the plugs. If there are any, then you need to cut off all excess and sand the edge of the wine corks. After that, take the glue and use it to attach all the plugs to the vase along its perimeter. You can choose the pattern yourself, but in the end you should end up with a vase completely decorated with wine corks.
Figurines can become not only a suitable element of the interior of your home, but also a gift for your family and friends. For production, you can use the most corks different shades. This will make the figure more voluminous and interesting.
You can make a variety of figures from wine corks: animals, a human face, geometric figures and much more. In order to get the desired shape, you can use scissors or a knife, and also use sandpaper to polish the edges of the corks. You can glue the figures together using glue. To fasten the elements you can use a needle and thread.
Sometimes you want to bring a little originality and individuality to quite familiar things. If you are tired of looking at the same magnets on the refrigerator, you can make new ones from wine corks. For this we will need the following materials:
Cut the wine corks into small circles with a diameter of 5-7 mm. Then glue each circle to the magnet using glue. Remove excess glue and decorate the magnet as desired. For decoration, you can use auxiliary elements (buttons, beads, rhinestones, etc.) or write some text with a marker, felt-tip pen or pen.
Comment on the article "What can be done with wine corks"
Wine label + wine corks. First, I assembled a tray with corks, then hung it in the kitchen with embroidery. And the MTSA birds in the album. Wine labels. By various reasons The embroidery was put off and put off. You can take cork in sheets (you probably have...
What can you do with wine corks? Wine label + wine corks. Register. Wine label + wine corks. First, I assembled a tray with corks, then hung it in the kitchen with embroidery. And the MTSA birds in the album.
Cork is a poisonous material. If the cat licks, it can end badly... 05/22/2013 15:51:38, culture shock. They also use them to seal bottles of wine, and in the past there were bottles of medicine with such stoppers. And why are we still alive...
I drank a little, plugged it in, and left. day I wanted to have another drink - beeee, all the gas came out, I don’t like it. The husband returns from the city of Paris and brings from there a recipe for preserving champagne in an open bottle. Place a teaspoon in the neck of the bottle, handle down.
cream of tartar. I read that it is possible citric acid add cream of tartar instead. They also write that you can buy it at the pharmacy... Where can you buy pills without a prescription?
Wine label + wine corks. I'm bragging! :O). Marya the artist: embroidery and needlework. Cross stitch, needlework, embroidery patterns. Great idea! I always feel so sorry for throwing away wine corks, it seems to me that they are all so beautiful, but here’s where to put them...
What can you do with wine corks? Due to its texture and lightness, the corks are simply glued together and joined into a single whole. Where can I buy this cheaper? We want a glueless laminate, of decent quality, such as Pergo, Kwik Stepa and durable cork.
Girls, who has cork floors? We already have a whole debate at home about what the floors should be made of, I want cork, it’s warm, my husband assures me that if the scissors fall point down, they will stick and there will be a hole, that it’s not practical (we have a 2-year-old child), but Our children are terribly atopic...
What do you do with throat plugs? I called an ENT specialist from Semashko for the child, he said there was a huge plug on the tonsil, she asked me to rinse it out. But she didn’t clearly explain what to do with it. The child doesn’t know how to gargle. Maybe dilute the calendula tincture with water and try it yourself...
Airlock in the water supply. Does anyone know how to fix it? through the filter and goes to the taps and into the water heater tank, from there it is also routed through the Air lock in the water supply. A bath mat made from wine corks can become an indispensable thing, since the cork...
Can you do it step by step? And how to avoid possible setbacks along the way? I wonder why they don’t recommend a wall plug? Supplying air from the heated towel rail. If the shape is type M or L, then there can be no airlock at all, or the neighbors have no airlock...
Air lock in the water supply. A bath mat made from wine corks can become an indispensable item, since bacteria cannot multiply on the cork bark. Where and what kind of plug can I find, sitting so that it is not lifted by water from below? Cork floors in the BATHROOM.
What can you do with wine corks? Kettle stand. Vase. Decorative figures. Fridge magnets. If you still have wine corks, don’t rush to throw them away. You will be able to make interesting and unusual things that will delight your eye and...
Caseous plug - ? What is this and where does it come from? The child was found on the right tonsil. You can just gargle with it, but the pills take a long and tedious time to dissolve. What do you do with throat plugs? I called an ENT specialist from Semashko for the child, he said there was a huge traffic jam...
We want to put a cork in two rooms, we will buy about 30 m. Cork Service sent me a wholesale price list if we buy a good volume. Interested in price and wide range. What can you do with wine corks?
What can you do with wine corks? Due to its texture and lightness, the corks are simply glued together and joined into a single whole. What to make from leftover wool: decorating your home with pom-poms. Let's buy a floor plug together.
an attempt to pull out the cork using the remains of the corkscrew led to the almost complete destruction of the cork: ((But the most interesting thing happened when we decided to push it inside the bottle - again, after some effort, it fell with a loud gurgle!, and the stream of wine displaced by it reached...
We cook compote, bake charlotte... we also made something very tasty from them (recipe at the end). The main thing is to cut them frozen and start cooking in this state - otherwise they become an ugly color. What did I cook from them: My husband went and begged for a pie...
Plastic bottles are versatile containers that can be reused. To provide such functionality, it should be supplemented with a stopper that limits the flow of liquid.
You can make a stopper for a bottle different ways. Let's consider the algorithm for obtaining a silicone plug:
If you need a drain hole, then you can make one in the plug using a small drill. If desired, you can form a small spout that will be used for pouring water.
Wood is unique material, which perfectly retains moisture. Therefore, plugs were previously made only from it. This process is quite simple and consists of several steps:
If you don’t want to waste time, it’s better to purchase a special plastic design that can be matched to different neck diameters.
Plastic bottles are universal containers that can be reused. To provide such functionality, it should be supplemented with a stopper that limits the flow of liquid.
You can make a stopper for a bottle in various ways. Let's consider the algorithm for obtaining a silicone plug:
If you need a drain hole, then you can make one in the plug using a small drill. If desired, you can form a small spout that will be used for pouring water.
Wood is a unique material that perfectly retains moisture. Therefore, plugs were previously made only from it. This process is quite simple and consists of several steps:
If you don’t want to waste time, it’s better to purchase a special plastic design that can be matched to different neck diameters.
It is very difficult to organize a stable fermentation process without a water seal. Experienced home winemakers and moonshiners know this. Although nowadays you can buy a factory-made water seal, it is easier to make this device yourself from scrap materials, spending just a few minutes. The most successful designs we'll look further.
Why do you need a water seal? During fermentation, carbon dioxide is actively released (about 4 cubic meters per 1 liter of alcohol produced). The accumulation of carbon dioxide can lead to high pressure in the fermentation tank, which can lead to an explosion. The gas must be removed, but this must be done so that oxygen does not enter the container. The fact is that oxygen activates the vital activity of bacteria, which convert alcohol into acetic acid, and without air access these bacteria are inactive.
A fermentation air seal is a valve that removes carbon dioxide while preventing air from entering. Without this device, winemaking is impossible, otherwise young wine immediately turns into vinegar. Moonshiners are still arguing about its necessity, but it is better for beginners to install it.
There is an opinion that mash should “breathe”, so a water seal is not needed. In fact, mash oxidizes no worse than wine. It’s just that during the period of active fermentation, the carbon dioxide released prevents oxygen from reaching the surface. But as soon as the alcohol bacteria do their job, their vinegar “colleagues” immediately get to work, turning the alcohol into acid. If such mash is not distilled in time, it will simply turn sour or an unpleasant sourish taste will appear in the moonshine. The exit rate also drops.
The mash under a water seal can stand without distillation much longer and not oxidize. All the alcohol produced by our friendly bacteria is stored.
1. Classic water seal(lid, tube, jar). The simplest and most reliable kit. It is enough to make a hole in the lid of the fermentation tank, insert the tube and seal the joint with glue. Place the other end in a jar of water.
1 - mash (wort); 2 - plug; 3 - tube; 4 - water Disadvantage: with a small tube diameter, the water seal can become clogged with foam, so I recommend using tubes rather than thin capillaries large diameter.
assembled kit This water seal allows you to accurately determine the readiness of wine or mash. If there are no bubbles in a jar of water for 1-2 days, then the unsweetened mash is ready for distillation, and the wine is ready for draining from the sediment.
One of the variations of this design is a water seal made from a dropper. More details in the video.
Appears during fermentation bad smell. This is very important for apartment residents who do not have the opportunity to take the container with mash outside. non-residential premises. You can get rid of the smell by releasing carbon dioxide into the sewer. You just need to improve the jar into which the fermentation products fall.
gas drainage diagram Gas enters the jar through a tube from the fermentation tank, overcomes the pressure of the liquid column (h) and goes into the sewer. The water column serves as a kind of barrier that prevents gases from the sewer from entering the fermentation tank.
This design resembles a steam steamer for moonshine still. Two holes are made in a jar with a tight lid, then they are connected to the tubes and sealed. A modernized half-liter jar is filled to 1/3 of its volume with water, the inlet tube is lowered into the liquid by 1-2 cm, and the outlet tube is lowered into the washbasin.
operating device 2. Medical glove. Simple design, suitable for fermentation containers with a wide neck (jars and bottles). In essence, this is not a water seal, but it works no worse. The glove shutter is often used by women, since its construction does not require drilling, soldering or gluing anything.
1 - bottle; 2 - glove A small hole is made in any of the fingers of the rubber glove with a needle. Next, the glove is put on the neck of the container. To prevent gas pressure from tearing off the glove, the attachment point with the neck is covered with an elastic band or tied with thread.
fermentation glove Disadvantage: due to the neck diameter being too large and high pressure gas on containers with a volume of more than 20 liters, it is very difficult or even impossible to securely fasten the glove. The smell of fermentation will be present in the room.
During active fermentation, the glove inflates; when the process ends, it deflates again.
extravagant option 3. Cotton plug. The neck of the container is plugged with a stopper made of cotton wool or other porous material, through the structure of which carbon dioxide can escape. But the cork does not provide complete tightness, especially at the very end of fermentation. The pressure in the bottle drops, as a result of which air begins to enter the container. Another drawback is that it is very difficult to understand when fermentation has ended.
1 - bottle; 2 - plug A cotton plug is used if for some reason it is not possible to install a more reliable structure.
4. “Quiet” water seal. Selection carbon dioxide accompanied by characteristic gurgling sounds. There are people who are annoyed by this. The author of the following video solved the problem by creating a water seal from a syringe and plastic bottle. This water seal will take a little more time to make than in previous cases, but you will have a device that resembles store-bought options.
Apart from silent fermentation, this design has no other advantages.
Cork appeared in the form in which we know it relatively recently, only in the 17th century, along with the appearance in mass use glass bottle. Before this, cork was also used, but not in such quantities. They preferred to seal the vessels with rags and pieces of wood, which over time gave the contents an unusual taste, or even spoiled it. Cork does not swell as much as wood, and when correct processing does not spoil the taste of wine or cognac, which is important.
Cork is made from the bark of the cork oak tree, which grows only in a few countries in Europe and on the Mediterranean coast of Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. In other countries, cork oak practically does not grow. Most big harvest Cork bark can be obtained from Portuguese plantations.
The first time the bark is removed from an oak tree is after it is 20-25 years old. Over the next ten years it should be restored. In addition, the bark can be removed only in a certain season, when it practically peels off on its own. The rest of the time the tree can be damaged. The bark is not removed all at once, but in certain sections, so from the outside the trees appear half naked. From the bark taken from one oak tree you can get a thousand corks. The highest quality bark is considered to be taken from a 150-year-old tree. An oak tree that is more than 200 years old begins to get sick and no longer produces high-quality bark. It is uprooted and a new tree is planted in the vacant space.
This is the only tree in the world whose bark is capable of completely regenerating. Cork oaks are marked so that they know when the next harvest can be harvested from them. For example, the number 7 means that the last time the bark was removed from this tree was in 2007.
The cut bark is sorted. The first grade is sent to a factory where they make corks for fine wines and cognacs, and the worst grade goes to the production plant. construction insulation materials and sound absorbers.
Cork oak bark is dumped into huge piles right on the factory grounds. Before putting the cork into use, it is kept in the open air for several months.
First of all, the raw materials are subjected to heat treatment. The cork is boiled in a huge cauldron, and at the same time all sorts of spider bugs that managed to live in it are destroyed.
Then the bark is cut into strips, after which it is again sorted, washed, disinfected and again soaked in water.
Corks are cut from these blanks, and the cork chips to which are added binder, goes under the press.
Rejected corks are covered with cork dust and used for medium-sized wines. price category. And the simplest and most popular corks, including those for champagnes, are made from cork chips, the pieces of which are glued together special glue. Such glued corks are also found in wine bottles of the middle and low price categories, designed for quick sale and short-term storage.
The rest of the waste is used to make various Decoration Materials. You cannot enter the workshop from which the cork comes out already packaged without headphones and a respirator - it is very noisy and dusty here. The cork sheets come out from under the press very hot. After they have cooled, they are sent for further processing - cut into standard plates.
If you cover a room with this material, you can even walk on your head - the neighbors still won’t hear anything. Builders also love cork because, unlike plastic panels in case of fire does not emit toxic gases.
As for bottle caps, their quality used to be checked manually. Since the cork oak bark plates have different sizes and thickness, not all operations were trusted by automatic machines. A worker directly involved in cutting out corks pressed his foot on the machine pedal about ten thousand times a day. Now, on modern factories electronics completely controls the entire process.
The finished corks are carefully sorted. This is done by a special machine. It “scans” the surface of the cork, and depending on how many cracks and defects it detects, it directs it to one or another basket. After which it is again checked for quality. The corks are then washed and bleached to remove harmful substances, and placed in a 12% alcohol solution for 24 hours.
Solid stoppers are ideal for long-term storage only if you comply necessary conditions(humidity, contact of wine with cork). Coated corks (coated) are also suitable for storage, but not for too long. Glued and pressed corks allow wine to be stored for only a few years, after which there is a risk of spoiling the contents of the bottle.
The cork dries out, which can cause the wine to spoil due to air access. It is incorrect to store wine bottles vertically on supermarket shelves. Just a few months of vertical standing under powerful lamps in a store - and such a wine can deteriorate or greatly lose its taste.
Only natural cork allows the wine to “breathe” and, in contact with the wine, complements the bouquet in a certain way. Bottles sealed with natural cork can be stored for decades and even centuries (under special conditions). For such a long “collaboration” with cork oak, winemakers have studied all the properties of cork, and most eminent wine critics believe that natural corks not only preserve, but also improve the aroma of wine. However, there is a small percentage of defects - a natural price for “naturalness”.
Not only construction materials are made from production waste, but also bags, aprons, shoes and even umbrellas! Cork production is virtually waste-free. Among other things, cork is an indispensable material in the manufacture of life-saving equipment. On water, it can withstand much more weight than its own, and practically does not absorb moisture.
I advise you to watch the video, where you can learn even more about the traffic jam than from the post)
Glass containers, unlike plastic bottles, are suitable for reuse. For example, a beautiful wine bottle in which you can store wine home production, will not only preserve the taste of your drink, but also festive table would be more appropriate. Very often, factory bottles are closed with a cork stopper, which cannot be used to close the neck again - it, as a rule, becomes several times larger than the neck of the bottle. Even if you cut the cork with a knife, the initial tight closure of the bottle will not be achieved, and besides, the cork cork is not very durable. And if we're talking about about a 10-liter bottle, then no old stopper will do at all. In the not-too-distant past, our grandmothers used to cap bottles with corn on the cob. Agree, during technological progress, closing the bottle in this way is out-of-date and inconvenient. In our article we will tell you how to make a stopper for a 20 liter bottle with your own hands so that it is beautiful, convenient and reliable.
This unique and useful craft can be made in several ways. Next we will look at the most interesting of them.
How is a cork made? To make a stopper for a ten-liter bottle, you need to prepare the following components in advance:
Important! One package of silicone sealant comes out with 3 plugs.
Important! To prevent the silicone from sticking to the table, you can place glass on the surface.
Important! The amount of silicone matches the size of our workpiece, namely a plastic cup.
Important! When kneading silicone, it is important to achieve such a consistency that the dough is not too hard and does not have loose formations. Otherwise, the finished cork will let air through. The ideal mixture for cork production should resemble plasticine and not stick to your hands.
Important! The more starch the mixture contains, the tougher the cork will be.
Important! To get rid of excess air, make small punctures on the bottom of the glass with a needle or awl.
Important! It is not at all necessary to use a blank in the form of a cup. If it is difficult to choose a blank for your bottle, roll the cork tightly by hand, measure its diameter with a caliper, and leave it to dry on a flat surface.
Important! To speed up the drying process, after 30 minutes, place the container next to a hot surface or place it near a radiator.
Important! Silicone sealant has a specific smell. To get rid of it, you must first place the finished cork in hot water, then - in cold water with the addition of soda for a while, or simply take the product out into the fresh air.
The cork is elastic and tightly closes the neck of the bottle. It is perfect for a 10 liter threaded bottle and bottles with tapered thread, they are also called “Cossack” bottles.
Important! For wine enthusiasts, you should drill a hole in the cork to allow air to escape from the bottle. To do this, the diameter of the hole should be slightly smaller than the drainage that you will use.
The next method is quite labor-intensive and requires much more time to manufacture than the previous one. But for those craftsmen who like to tinker with the tool, you can use this option.
To make a bottle stopper using the method that we will discuss below, you will need to prepare some auxiliary tools, namely:
Sequencing:
Important! A construction hair dryer will serve to heat the mold so that the silicone does not harden during filling and even distribution inside the mold.
Important! The tin mold should be constantly held over a stream of hot air.
You can quickly and without tools make an alternative to bottle caps.
To implement this stopper option, you will need a plastic bottle with a cap that matches the diameter of the bottle neck.
Manufacturing sequence:
Important! For winemakers, it is necessary to drill a through hole in the lid and bottom of the plastic “stopper”, pass the hose through and close the neck of the wine bottle.
You can make new creative stoppers from old cork wine stoppers that don't fit the diameter of the neck. For this you will need:
Preparation method.
The cap on a Chinese thermos broke.
Only old Chinese thermoses (I have 2 of them) keep tea and coffee hot all day when traveling and they don’t taste like anything other than tea and coffee. But the cork should only be made from cork oak. There are no equals in terms of thermal conductivity. Soft enough not to break the flask when it cools when the stopper is pulled in. Unfortunately, they dry out and die, crumble. We don’t grow cork oak, otherwise I would cut it myself. And only plates made from glued cork crumbs are on sale. And it is not known what is in the plate for rubbing skis with mastic. Or in polystyrene foam, which 90% of advisers advise to cut out of instead. You can, of course, glue and coat the cork with sealant (go find some food grade) or wrap it in foil (paper-based!). But why are there no factory-made stoppers and flasks for Chinese thermoses on sale? This happened in the USSR.
I found a person on the Internet who makes ANY custom-made stoppers from cork oak. And there was even a telephone. But Ukrainian. I was afraid to call.
A good option was suggested to me by LiveJournal user Penkin .
Here's his recipe:
We take a plastic bottle (milk bottles with a wide neck are good), so that the neck approximately coincides in diameter with the diameter of the neck of the thermos. Next, we take bottle caps and stuff them inside this neck - so that the part sticks out in one direction (this sticking out part will be the stopper that will lock the thermos). In my case, it does not fit perfectly tightly, but it works.
Thanks to him. I think that by adjusting it can be achieved that the screw cap-cup, when fully screwed, will gently press the entire system to the neck. + Seal the cracks with food grade sealant and make something like a gasket between the neck and a piece of the bottle on the plastic collar from the sealant.
And I tried one more option: (see option Cork No. 5 below)
glued together 8 whole wine corks (it turned out that half of my stock - corks glued from cork oak chips - are poorly suited for such work, although I see such in Penkin’s photo), having previously turned them on round and flat rasps (all that remains is to cut and grind the perimeter according to sample size). I have a problem, I need to seal the gaps between the parts. It seems that food grade sealant is best for this. I found CEMLUX 9014, the best in terms of price and quality, but I don’t see it in retail.
I tried to find cork bark for sale, there are only pieces
or plates and tubes
They are all thin and wow expensive. Aha, this seems to be what we are looking for! for terrariums! here is a 1 kg plate for 353 rubles, however, you have to go beyond the Moscow Ring Road, but it seems like misinformation, in other places the same one costs from 1,000 (!!!) rubles apiece, from this you can already cut out circles of the required diameter, albeit of small thickness, then glue it together.
Along the way I found something interesting:
"Bark is harvested after the tree reaches 25 years of age. Using a special ax, the bark is chopped along and around the tree trunk, and then torn off with the pointed end of the tool. The material from the first collection is used very rarely and only for technical purposes. Only cork bark has full properties oak of the third harvest.
Natural cork cork is harvested in the summer on days when there is no hot wind. A new full-fledged layer of bark is formed only 8-9 years after harvesting. After collection, the bark is dried directly on the plantation for six months and only then sent for further processing."
That's why it's so difficult to buy spare plugs. I think this is the most expensive part of a Chinese thermos.
Crap! Or maybe it’s easier to order in China? By mail via the Internet?
Let's get down to business.
“If I decide to do something, I’ll definitely drink it.”
Vladimir Vysotsky
PLUG No. 1
I started by trying to revive an old, shriveled, but familiar cork.
I took an ancient medical plaster 2 cm wide. It caked so that it was soaked through with glue and became sticky on both sides of the tape, which makes it unsuitable for ordinary purposes, but it was just fine for me - double-sided eco-friendly Velcro. I wound about 5 layers of plaster on the cork and reached the desired diameter (the easily inserted cork hung in the neck approximately halfway up its height). I added one and a half turns of food foil on top, which stuck perfectly to the patch. At the same time, it 100% does not allow glue to leak out. I inserted it into the neck and twisted it a little - the plug went in deeper and the seal became perfect.
PS: You need to wind the patch so that the taper of the cork is maintained, then when plugging and twisting, a small annular tubercle of soft patch under the foil is formed between the edge of the neck and the metal top. Using this tubercle it is easy to remove the stopper from the thermos.
PS: There is room for further improvement following example No. 2 with a handle (see)
PLUG #2
In the second thermos, the cork was preserved much better, however, it also shrunk a little. In order for the neck to be plugged tightly enough, it must be pushed all the way to the aluminum cap. As a result, it is very difficult to open the thermos; when the contents cool, the stopper is pulled in completely and only the lid protrudes above the neck. It is not glued to the cork, but is simply slightly rolled and held in place due to the taper of the cork. You pull the cap - the thin metal unclenches - and the cap flies off the cork; you begin to pull it out further, with your fingers and nails - the cork begins to crumble and break.
This is how, in most cases, it becomes unusable, you have to cut off a layer of the cork in order to put the cap back on (it’s unreliable, you have to roll it up, wrinkle it), and the cork ends up dangling in the neck - and then a plaster and foil come into play.
I thought, why not, before the cork completely dries out, screw a handle to the top of the cork to remove the cork. The material is the same cork, only not a wine cork, but a champagne cork (its integrity is not damaged by the corkscrew). Even if it is not whole, but glued together from pieces. At first I made a short one, but, after reflection, I decided to increase its length so that when screwing on the top-cup, its bottom would press the entire system against the neck of the flask, but very gently, so as not to break the fragile glass. This ensures an almost complete seal when the thermos is inverted. In addition, for reliability, before assembly, I removed the metal lid, coated it inside with nail polish (I often use it as glue) and carefully rolled it again. To fasten the structure, I used a galvanized screw with a wide washer head, deepening it 5 mm into the handle. I filled the body of the screw and the recess in the handle with glue and closed it with the same glue with a decorative top made from a piece of the narrow end of a champagne cork. 
PS: The height of the cup is different for different thermoses, so the calculation is done locally. Examination. We insert the system tightly into the neck. We slightly bend the top of the cup inward with our fingers and screw it on. If at the very end of screwing we see how the deflection of the top of the cup straightens outward, the result has been achieved. If this happens earlier, grind or cut off the top of the handle. Well, or you will have to not screw the cup to the end of the thread, which is worse.
PLUG #3
In embodying Penkin's idea, I improved it somewhat.
PS: We check the accuracy of the assembly according to example No. 2 (see)
CORK #4
I was not satisfied with the QUALITY of cork No. 3, and I made changes.
1. Reduced the number of cork parts from 5 to 3, using ONLY champagne corks. This made it possible to push the parts into the neck with greater effort, and the protruding cork parts began to fit more tightly into the neck, ensuring greater heat retention. Yes, and it looks prettier. Although there was a slight ovalness of the plastic when squeezing the pieces in, this did not interfere with the tight contact of the structure with the flask. If No. 3 was loose in the neck, then No. 4, starting from the cork part, tightly but effortlessly touches the flask.
2. I poured the sealant inside the structure not only from above, but carefully between the pieces up to the very collar, so that the liquid from the thermos did not penetrate between the parts of the stopper, dangling in it with the threat of souring. At the same time, No. 4 became 2 times heavier than No. 3!
3. Covered the structure with the convex part of the sealant with cling film for a better presentation of the structure
After a day, the film can be removed and the sealant can be dried without it. The complete impression was that the film was never removed. But she’s not there!!! Beauty!!?
PS: The sealant is very smelly (smells like vinegar essence), so it is better to dry it on the staircase for at least the first three days.
CORK No. 5, etc. – dead-end options
1. I spent a lot of time to carve and glue this ikebana with nail polish.
But due to the beauty of No. 3 and No. 4, further processing was considered inappropriate due to excessive labor intensity.
2. You could, of course, buy real cork and food grade sealant and build an almost copy of the original. But it’s expensive and takes a lot of time.
3. I’m also too lazy to search on the Chinese Internet. If you suddenly, in gratitude for my work, send the link you found to purchase on eBay the exact stopper you need for a thermos, I will be grateful and will place it in this epoch-making post, but I doubt whether I will bother ordering when I already have even 2 backup options : for one thermos No. 1 and for another No. 3.
4. Once upon a time I came across on the Internet an option for expanding the plug by drilling it in the center and hammering it into the hole of a cylinder of a slightly larger diameter. Before hammering, the cork must be steamed!!! If anyone tries and succeeds, the wind is in his sails.
The cap on a Chinese thermos broke.
Only old Chinese thermoses (I have 2 of them) keep tea and coffee hot all day when traveling and they don’t taste like anything other than tea and coffee. But the cork should only be made from cork oak. There are no equals in terms of thermal conductivity. Soft enough not to break the flask when it cools when the stopper is pulled in. Unfortunately, they dry out and die, crumble. We don’t grow cork oak, otherwise I would cut it myself. And only plates made from glued cork crumbs are on sale. And it is not known what is in the plate for rubbing skis with mastic. Or in polystyrene foam, which 90% of advisers advise to cut out of instead. You can, of course, glue and coat the cork with sealant (go find some food grade) or wrap it in foil (paper-based!). But why are there no factory-made stoppers and flasks for Chinese thermoses on sale? This happened in the USSR.
I found a person on the Internet who makes ANY custom-made stoppers from cork oak. And there was even a telephone. But Ukrainian. I was afraid to call.
A good option was suggested to me by LiveJournal user Penkin .
Here's his recipe:
We take a plastic bottle (milk bottles with a wide neck are good), so that the neck approximately coincides in diameter with the diameter of the neck of the thermos. Next, we take bottle caps and stuff them inside this neck - so that the part sticks out in one direction (this sticking out part will be the stopper that will lock the thermos). In my case, it does not fit perfectly tightly, but it works.
Thanks to him. I think that by adjusting it can be achieved that the screw cap-cup, when fully screwed, will gently press the entire system to the neck. + Seal the cracks with food grade sealant and make something like a gasket between the neck and a piece of the bottle on the plastic collar from the sealant.
And I tried one more option: (see option Cork No. 5 below)
glued together 8 whole wine corks (it turned out that half of my stock - corks glued from cork oak chips - are poorly suited for such work, although I see such in Penkin’s photo), having previously turned them on round and flat rasps (all that remains is to cut and grind the perimeter according to sample size). I have a problem, I need to seal the gaps between the parts. It seems that food grade sealant is best for this. I found CEMLUX 9014, the best in terms of price and quality, but I don’t see it in retail.
I tried to find cork bark for sale, there are only pieces
or plates and tubes
They are all thin and wow expensive. Aha, this seems to be what we are looking for! for terrariums! here is a 1 kg plate for 353 rubles, however, you have to go beyond the Moscow Ring Road, but it seems like misinformation, in other places the same one costs from 1,000 (!!!) rubles apiece, from this you can already cut out circles of the required diameter, albeit of small thickness, then glue it together.
Along the way I found something interesting:
"Bark is harvested after the tree reaches 25 years of age. Using a special ax, the bark is chopped along and around the tree trunk, and then torn off with the pointed end of the tool. The material from the first collection is used very rarely and only for technical purposes. Only cork bark has full properties oak of the third harvest.
Natural cork cork is harvested in the summer on days when there is no hot wind. A new full-fledged layer of bark is formed only 8-9 years after harvesting. After collection, the bark is dried directly on the plantation for six months and only then sent for further processing."
That's why it's so difficult to buy spare plugs. I think this is the most expensive part of a Chinese thermos.
Crap! Or maybe it’s easier to order in China? By mail via the Internet?
Let's get down to business.
“If I decide to do something, I’ll definitely drink it.”
Vladimir Vysotsky
PLUG No. 1
I started by trying to revive an old, shriveled, but familiar cork.
I took an ancient medical plaster 2 cm wide. It caked so that it was soaked through with glue and became sticky on both sides of the tape, which makes it unsuitable for ordinary purposes, but it was just fine for me - double-sided eco-friendly Velcro. I wound about 5 layers of plaster on the cork and reached the desired diameter (the easily inserted cork hung in the neck approximately halfway up its height). I added one and a half turns of food foil on top, which stuck perfectly to the patch. At the same time, it 100% does not allow glue to leak out. I inserted it into the neck and twisted it a little - the plug went in deeper and the seal became perfect.
PS: You need to wind the patch so that the taper of the cork is maintained, then when plugging and twisting, a small annular tubercle of soft patch under the foil is formed between the edge of the neck and the metal top. Using this tubercle it is easy to remove the stopper from the thermos.
PS: There is room for further improvement following example No. 2 with a handle (see)
PLUG #2
In the second thermos, the cork was preserved much better, however, it also shrunk a little. In order for the neck to be plugged tightly enough, it must be pushed all the way to the aluminum cap. As a result, it is very difficult to open the thermos; when the contents cool, the stopper is pulled in completely and only the lid protrudes above the neck. It is not glued to the cork, but is simply slightly rolled and held in place due to the taper of the cork. You pull the cap - the thin metal unclenches - and the cap flies off the cork; you begin to pull it out further, with your fingers and nails - the cork begins to crumble and break.
This is how, in most cases, it becomes unusable, you have to cut off a layer of the cork in order to put the cap back on (it’s unreliable, you have to roll it up, wrinkle it), and the cork ends up dangling in the neck - and then a plaster and foil come into play.
I thought, why not, before the cork completely dries out, screw a handle to the top of the cork to remove the cork. The material is the same cork, only not a wine cork, but a champagne cork (its integrity is not damaged by the corkscrew). Even if it is not whole, but glued together from pieces. At first I made a short one, but, after reflection, I decided to increase its length so that when screwing on the top-cup, its bottom would press the entire system against the neck of the flask, but very gently, so as not to break the fragile glass. This ensures an almost complete seal when the thermos is inverted. In addition, for reliability, before assembly, I removed the metal lid, coated it inside with nail polish (I often use it as glue) and carefully rolled it again. To fasten the structure, I used a galvanized screw with a wide washer head, deepening it 5 mm into the handle. I filled the body of the screw and the recess in the handle with glue and closed it with the same glue with a decorative top made from a piece of the narrow end of a champagne cork.
PS: The height of the cup is different for different thermoses, so the calculation is done locally. Examination. We insert the system tightly into the neck. We slightly bend the top of the cup inward with our fingers and screw it on. If at the very end of screwing we see how the deflection of the top of the cup straightens outward, the result has been achieved. If this happens earlier, grind or cut off the top of the handle. Well, or you will have to not screw the cup to the end of the thread, which is worse.
PLUG #3
In embodying Penkin's idea, I improved it somewhat.
PS: We check the accuracy of the assembly according to example No. 2 (see)
CORK #4
I was not satisfied with the QUALITY of cork No. 3, and I made changes.
1. Reduced the number of cork parts from 5 to 3, using ONLY champagne corks. This made it possible to push the parts into the neck with greater effort, and the protruding cork parts began to fit more tightly into the neck, ensuring greater heat retention. Yes, and it looks prettier. Although there was a slight ovalness of the plastic when squeezing the pieces in, this did not interfere with the tight contact of the structure with the flask. If No. 3 was loose in the neck, then No. 4, starting from the cork part, tightly but effortlessly touches the flask.
2. I poured the sealant inside the structure not only from above, but carefully between the pieces up to the very collar, so that the liquid from the thermos did not penetrate between the parts of the stopper, dangling in it with the threat of souring. At the same time, No. 4 became 2 times heavier than No. 3!
3. Covered the structure with the convex part of the sealant with cling film for a better presentation of the structure
After a day, the film can be removed and the sealant can be dried without it. The complete impression was that the film was never removed. But she’s not there!!! Beauty!!?
PS: The sealant is very smelly (smells like vinegar essence), so it is better to dry it on the staircase for at least the first three days.
CORK No. 5, etc. – dead-end options
1. I spent a lot of time to carve and glue this ikebana with nail polish.
But due to the beauty of No. 3 and No. 4, further processing was considered inappropriate due to excessive labor intensity.
2. You could, of course, buy real cork and food grade sealant and build an almost copy of the original. But it’s expensive and takes a lot of time.
3. I’m also too lazy to search on the Chinese Internet. If you suddenly, in gratitude for my work, send the link you found to purchase on eBay the exact stopper you need for a thermos, I will be grateful and will place it in this epoch-making post, but I doubt whether I will bother ordering when I already have even 2 backup options : for one thermos No. 1 and for another No. 3.
4. Once upon a time I came across on the Internet an option for expanding the plug by drilling it in the center and hammering it into the hole of a cylinder of a slightly larger diameter. Before hammering, the cork must be steamed!!! If anyone tries and succeeds, the wind is in his sails.
Have you ever wondered how and from what such a common item as a wine stopper is made?
I invite you to look at an interesting photo report from a wine cork factory.
This is the only tree in the world whose bark can completely regenerate. Cork oaks are marked so that they know when the next harvest can be harvested from them. For example, the number 7 means that the last time the bark was removed from this tree was in 2007.
Of course, in such a serious production, labor safety training programs are required for workers, which ensures their safety.
Not only construction materials are made from production waste, but also bags, aprons, shoes and even umbrellas! Cork production is virtually waste-free. Among other things, it is an indispensable material in the manufacture of life-saving equipment. On water, it can withstand much more weight than its own, and practically does not absorb moisture.
The cork appeared in the form in which we know it relatively recently, only in the 17th century, along with the appearance of the glass bottle in mass use. Before this, cork was also used, but not in such quantities. They preferred to seal the vessels with rags and pieces of wood, which over time gave the contents an unusual taste, or even spoiled it. Cork does not swell as much as wood, and when properly processed it does not spoil the taste of wine or cognac, which is important.
Cork is made from the bark of the cork oak tree, which grows only in a few countries in Europe and on the Mediterranean coast of Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. In other countries, cork oak practically does not grow. The largest harvest of cork bark can be obtained on Portuguese plantations.
The first time the bark is removed from an oak tree is after it is 20-25 years old. Over the next ten years it should be restored. In addition, the bark can be removed only in a certain season, when it practically peels off on its own. The rest of the time the tree can be damaged. The bark is not removed all at once, but in certain sections, so from the outside the trees appear half naked. From the bark taken from one oak tree you can get a thousand corks. The highest quality bark is considered to be taken from a 150-year-old tree. An oak tree that is more than 200 years old begins to get sick and no longer produces high-quality bark. It is uprooted and a new tree is planted in the vacant space.
The cut bark is sorted. The first grade is sent to a factory where they make corks for fine wines and cognacs, and the worse ones end up at a plant for the production of building insulation and noise absorbers.
Cork oak bark is dumped into huge piles right on the factory grounds. Before putting the cork into use, it is kept in the open air for several months.
First of all, the raw materials are subjected to heat treatment. The cork is boiled in a huge cauldron, and at the same time all sorts of spider bugs that managed to live in it are destroyed.
Then the bark is cut into strips, after which it is again sorted, washed, disinfected and again soaked in water.
Corks are cut out of these blanks, and the cork chips, to which a binder is added, go under the press.
Rejected corks are covered with cork dust and used for mid-priced wines. And the simplest and most widespread corks, including those for champagnes, are made from cork chips, the pieces of which are glued together with special glue. Such glued corks are also found in wine bottles of the middle and low price categories, designed for quick sale and short-term storage.
Various finishing materials are made from the remaining waste. You cannot enter the workshop from which the cork comes out already packaged without headphones and a respirator - it is very noisy and dusty here. The cork sheets come out from under the press very hot. After they have cooled, they are sent for further processing - cut into standard plates.
If you cover a room with this material, you can even walk on your head - the neighbors still won’t hear anything. Builders also love cork because, unlike plastic panels, it does not emit toxic gases in the event of a fire.
As for bottle caps, their quality used to be checked manually. Since the cork oak bark plates have different sizes and thicknesses, not all operations were trusted to automatic machines. A worker directly involved in cutting out corks pressed his foot on the machine pedal about ten thousand times a day. Now, in modern factories, electronics completely control the entire process.
The finished corks are carefully sorted. This is done by a special machine. It “scans” the surface of the cork, and depending on how many cracks and defects it detects, it directs it to one or another basket. After which it is again checked for quality. The corks are then washed, bleached to remove harmful substances, and placed in a 12% alcohol solution for 24 hours.
Solid corks are ideal for long-term storage only if the necessary conditions are met (humidity, contact of the wine with the cork). Coated corks (coated) are also suitable for storage, but not for too long. Glued and pressed corks allow wine to be stored for only a few years, after which there is a risk of spoiling the contents of the bottle.
The cork dries out, which can cause the wine to spoil due to air access. It is incorrect to store wine bottles vertically on supermarket shelves. Just a few months of vertical standing under powerful lamps in a store - and such a wine can deteriorate or greatly lose its taste.
Only natural cork allows the wine to “breathe” and, in contact with the wine, complements the bouquet in a certain way. Bottles sealed with natural cork can be stored for decades and even centuries (under special conditions). For such a long “collaboration” with cork oak, winemakers have studied all the properties of cork, and most eminent wine critics believe that natural corks not only preserve, but also improve the aroma of wine. However, there is a small percentage of defects - a natural price for “naturalness”.
I advise you to watch the video, where you can learn even more about the traffic jam than from the post)
It is very difficult to organize a stable fermentation process without a water seal. Experienced home winemakers and moonshiners know this. Although nowadays you can buy a factory-made water seal, it is easier to make this device yourself from scrap materials, spending just a few minutes. We will consider the most successful designs further.
Why do you need a water seal? During fermentation, carbon dioxide is actively released (about 4 cubic meters per 1 liter of alcohol produced). The accumulation of carbon dioxide can lead to high pressure in the fermentation tank, which can lead to an explosion. The gas must be removed, but this must be done so that oxygen does not enter the container. The fact is that oxygen activates the activity of bacteria that convert alcohol into acetic acid, and without access to air these bacteria are inactive.
A fermentation air seal is a valve that removes carbon dioxide while preventing air from entering. Without this device, winemaking is impossible, otherwise young wine immediately turns into vinegar. Moonshiners are still arguing about its necessity, but it is better for beginners to install it.
There is an opinion that mash should “breathe”, so a water seal is not needed. In fact, mash oxidizes no worse than wine. It’s just that during the period of active fermentation, the carbon dioxide released prevents oxygen from reaching the surface. But as soon as the alcohol bacteria do their job, their vinegar “colleagues” immediately get to work, turning the alcohol into acid. If such mash is not distilled in time, it will simply turn sour or an unpleasant sourish taste will appear in the moonshine. The exit rate also drops.
The mash under a water seal can stand without distillation much longer and not oxidize. All the alcohol produced by our friendly bacteria is stored.
1. Classic water seal(lid, tube, jar). The simplest and most reliable kit. It is enough to make a hole in the lid of the fermentation tank, insert the tube and seal the joint with glue. Place the other end in a jar of water.
1 - mash (wort); 2 - plug; 3 - tube; 4 - water Disadvantage: with a small tube diameter, the water seal can become clogged with foam, so I recommend using large-diameter tubes rather than thin capillaries.
assembled kit This water seal allows you to accurately determine the readiness of wine or mash. If there are no bubbles in a jar of water for 1-2 days, then the unsweetened mash is ready for distillation, and the wine is ready for draining from the sediment.
One of the variations of this design is a water seal made from a dropper. More details in the video.
During fermentation, an unpleasant odor appears. This is very important for apartment residents who do not have the opportunity to take the container with mash into a non-residential premises. You can get rid of the smell by releasing carbon dioxide into the sewer. You just need to improve the jar into which the fermentation products fall.
gas drainage diagram Gas enters the jar through a tube from the fermentation tank, overcomes the pressure of the liquid column (h) and goes into the sewer. The water column serves as a kind of barrier that prevents gases from the sewer from entering the fermentation tank.
This design resembles a steam chamber for a moonshine still. Two holes are made in a jar with a tight lid, then they are connected to the tubes and sealed. A modernized half-liter jar is filled to 1/3 of its volume with water, the inlet tube is lowered into the liquid by 1-2 cm, and the outlet tube is lowered into the washbasin.
operating device 2. Medical glove. Simple design suitable for wide-mouth fermentation containers (jars and bottles). In essence, this is not a water seal, but it works no worse. The glove shutter is often used by women, since its construction does not require drilling, soldering or gluing anything.
1 - bottle; 2 - glove A small hole is made in any of the fingers of the rubber glove with a needle. Next, the glove is put on the neck of the container. To prevent gas pressure from tearing off the glove, the attachment point with the neck is covered with an elastic band or tied with thread.
fermentation glove Disadvantage: due to the too large diameter of the neck and high gas pressure on containers with a volume of more than 20 liters, it is very difficult or even impossible to securely fasten the glove. The smell of fermentation will be present in the room.
During active fermentation, the glove inflates; when the process ends, it deflates again.
extravagant option 3. Cotton plug. The neck of the container is plugged with a stopper made of cotton wool or other porous material, through the structure of which carbon dioxide can escape. But the cork does not provide complete tightness, especially at the very end of fermentation. The pressure in the bottle drops, as a result of which air begins to enter the container. Another drawback is that it is very difficult to understand when fermentation has ended.
1 - bottle; 2 - plug A cotton plug is used if for some reason it is not possible to install a more reliable structure.
4. “Quiet” water seal. The release of carbon dioxide is accompanied by characteristic gurgling sounds. There are people who are annoyed by this. The author of the following video solved the problem by creating a water seal from a syringe and a plastic bottle. This water seal will take a little more time to make than in previous cases, but you will have a device that resembles store-bought options.
Apart from silent fermentation, this design has no other advantages.
How to make a cork aslan wrote in April 10th, 2013
The cork appeared in the form in which we know it relatively recently, only in the 17th century, along with the appearance of the glass bottle in mass use. Before this, cork was also used, but not in such quantities. They preferred to seal the vessels with rags and pieces of wood, which over time gave the contents an unusual taste, or even spoiled it. Cork does not swell as much as wood, and when properly processed it does not spoil the taste of wine or cognac, which is important.
Cork is made from the bark of the cork oak tree, which grows only in a few countries in Europe and on the Mediterranean coast of Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. In other countries, cork oak practically does not grow. The largest harvest of cork bark can be obtained on Portuguese plantations.
The first time the bark is removed from an oak tree is after it is 20-25 years old. Over the next ten years it should be restored. In addition, the bark can be removed only in a certain season, when it practically peels off on its own. The rest of the time the tree can be damaged. The bark is not removed all at once, but in certain sections, so from the outside the trees appear half naked. From the bark taken from one oak tree you can get a thousand corks. The highest quality bark is considered to be taken from a 150-year-old tree. An oak tree that is more than 200 years old begins to get sick and no longer produces high-quality bark. It is uprooted and a new tree is planted in the vacant space.
This is the only tree in the world whose bark is capable of completely regenerating. Cork oaks are marked so that they know when the next harvest can be harvested from them. For example, the number 7 means that the last time the bark was removed from this tree was in 2007.
The cut bark is sorted. The first grade is sent to a factory where they make corks for fine wines and cognacs, and the worse ones end up at a plant for the production of building insulation and noise absorbers.
Cork oak bark is dumped into huge piles right on the factory grounds. Before putting the cork into use, it is kept in the open air for several months.
First of all, the raw materials are subjected to heat treatment. The cork is boiled in a huge cauldron, and at the same time all sorts of spider bugs that managed to live in it are destroyed.
Then the bark is cut into strips, after which it is again sorted, washed, disinfected and again soaked in water.
Corks are cut out of these blanks, and the cork chips, to which a binder is added, go under the press.
Rejected corks are covered with cork dust and used for mid-priced wines. And the simplest and most widespread corks, including those for champagnes, are made from cork chips, the pieces of which are glued together with special glue. Such glued corks are also found in wine bottles of the middle and low price categories, designed for quick sale and short-term storage.
Various finishing materials are made from the remaining waste. You cannot enter the workshop from which the cork comes out already packaged without headphones and a respirator - it is very noisy and dusty here. The cork sheets come out from under the press very hot. After they have cooled, they are sent for further processing - cut into standard plates.
If you cover a room with this material, you can even walk on your head - the neighbors still won’t hear anything. Builders also love cork because, unlike plastic panels, it does not emit toxic gases in the event of a fire.
As for bottle caps, their quality used to be checked manually. Since the cork oak bark plates have different sizes and thicknesses, not all operations were trusted to automatic machines. A worker directly involved in cutting out corks pressed his foot on the machine pedal about ten thousand times a day. Now, in modern factories, electronics completely control the entire process.
The finished corks are carefully sorted. This is done by a special machine. It “scans” the surface of the cork, and depending on how many cracks and defects it detects, it directs it to one or another basket. After which it is again checked for quality. The corks are then washed, bleached to remove harmful substances, and placed in a 12% alcohol solution for 24 hours.
Solid corks are ideal for long-term storage only if the necessary conditions are met (humidity, contact of the wine with the cork). Coated corks (coated) are also suitable for storage, but not for too long. Glued and pressed corks allow wine to be stored for only a few years, after which there is a risk of spoiling the contents of the bottle.
The cork dries out, which can cause the wine to spoil due to air access. It is incorrect to store wine bottles vertically on supermarket shelves. Just a few months of vertical standing under powerful lamps in a store - and such a wine can deteriorate or greatly lose its taste.
Only natural cork allows the wine to “breathe” and, in contact with the wine, complements the bouquet in a certain way. Bottles sealed with natural cork can be stored for decades and even centuries (under special conditions). For such a long “collaboration” with cork oak, winemakers have studied all the properties of cork, and most eminent wine critics believe that natural corks not only preserve, but also improve the aroma of wine. However, there is a small percentage of defects - a natural price for “naturalness”.
Not only construction materials are made from production waste, but also bags, aprons, shoes and even umbrellas! Cork production is virtually waste-free. Among other things, cork is an indispensable material in the manufacture of life-saving equipment. On water, it can withstand much more weight than its own, and practically does not absorb moisture.
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