Portuguese Double Lever Corker

A very useful and effective product.

Over 4,000 reviews and only one video has been posted here, for a product that was delivered without any instructions. So I’m adding this to give better context regarding a lot of misinformation regarding this Portuguese hand corker, which can help add better clarity regarding preparation for use. First, use no. 8, #8 sized corks. They’re the proper size for effective bottling. Also, do a search on soaking corks for wine bottling, there are some wise entries posted in winemaking forums - PLEASE read them and you’ll see a pattern regarding corking prep. As you consider that, this newbie tried removing the white plastic cork guide from my corker, because I thought, “no way can a cork fit through the bottom part of the plastic!” How wrong I was. Finding an online tube you video, I saw a guy corking with the plastic in place and was happy that I hadn’t broken my corker. That white plastic compresses corks! The real clarity and ease happened when I read how it seemed easier to soak corks before bottling. One person suggested 5-10 minutes. I used a sudsy solution of purified water mixed with a product called StarSan (which sanitizes without any adverse effect on brews or ferments), and used several corks that were soaking at least 15 minutes in a ziplock snack sized baggie, because it takes me time to fill each bottle while maintaining conditions. Test your corker on a couple bottles to get the hang of corking, before doing it with your ferment. Gauge how you’ll fill to leave a gap of air between 1/2-3/4 inch from your fill line and where you expect the bottom of the cork to settle. Shake off a wet cork and place it in the opening to the white plastic guide (which again, compresses the cork). Start the handles down and this is where you can center the driving pin atop your cork before driving it through, which some have found issue with. I’ve had no problem taking just a few seconds to center the shaft. Then apply even downward pressure, and you’ll hear that pop in the video I posted, as the cork squeezes through the plastic compression shaft and into your bottle. The cork seating that I experience is maybe 1/8” below the bottle top. But what’s important is that the extra soaking relaxes the cork fibers, allowing it to squeeze through the shaft and into the bottle. This tool has been around for generations. The tool design works as long as you give as much love to the bottling process as you have toward your fermentation. Think about it. The length of time from yeasted juice to bottling can be months - so please take a few more moments to ensure proper corking as well, which literally puts that cap on your labor of love.

This manual corker works. But it takes lots of muscle power to seat the #8 cork. We had over 20 liters of homemade wine to cork. First try at cork made me think -- this is hard! My solution was to extend the handles (and thus give more leverage) of the corker by placing a six inch 1" inch internal diameter iron pipe over the handle (this is usually 1 1/4 pipe with 1" ID). It fits perfectly, tightly, and gives a few more inches of leverage. If I had it handy, I would have used an eight inch pipe, for ever more leverage. See photo. The extra leverage and grip diameter made corking a couple cases of homemade (and excellent homemade) wine much easier. I highly suggest this modification -- easy and cheap. I would suggest going with 8" pipes as handle extensions, but I just had 6" pieces at hand. It works, and it certainly will not stress the corker. And if you are doing more than a couple cases, get a corker stand with more leverage..... We did not need that. There you have the result, in photo. Our very fine wine from summer, now in cellar for another six months or so.

Works great. Fast shipping

Great product at a good price, especially compared to floor models which cost a lot more and would take up a lot of space. This handy portable model requires some muscle to use, but if you steam your corks for 2 minutes, they are not only clean but also easily squeezed into bottles. If you are just corking a few bottles, microwave some water to boiling, then toss in your corks, stir, cover, and time 2 minutes. Have your bottles ready, fish out your corks after the 2 minutes are up, and cork away. With number 9 straight corks you get a good, tight seal that will withstand airplane cargo hold pressures without leaking. My only complaint is that on the one I have, the corks are often a bit lower in the bottle neck than level, and sometimes seat a bit crooked despite my best efforts. I think this may be more than operator error. Overall, though, I'd rate this 5 stars. I've used it as a hobbyist for months and it's really outperformed my expectations.

It does the job. Easy to use.

It works well enough. It is laborious if you're like my wife and have no upper body strength whatsoever. Lol I ended up upgrading to a counter top bottle corner for her sake. But as I said, it worked well enough for the time I was using it.

At first, I was a little worried when I bought this. "Will it mess up the corks?", "Will it push the corks in far enough or too far?", "Will somehow break the daggone thing?", stuff like that. But, after getting it & using it, it's great. Corks go in just fine. You gotta put a little effort into it, but not too much. It's a lot easier to use than I expected & its strangely satisfying to hear the corks go in. I think I'll eventually buy a floor corker, when I have more bottles to cork at one time, but this one is perfect for me right now. I definitely recommend this to anyone who is just getting started making there own wine/mead or anything else that requires corking bottles.

These worked lovely for bottling my wine. Super easy to use.

Super quality, fast shipment... It feel like durable...

Me gustó su funcionamiento, aunque desearía el vástago fuese de un poco más diámetro, pudo perfectamente con corchos largos del número 9 (o 15/16" x 1 3/4"), aunque queda la marca al centro de los corchos pero funciona adecuadamente. Para facilitar la entrada del corcho, le rocío vapor a presión internamente a la boca de la botella, recomiendo si haces la operación solo, que apoyes a los lados de la botella tus pies (cubriendo tu calzado con zapatos o fundas desechables sanitarias) o que alguien te sostenga la botella en el suelo sobre un tapete bien desinfectado, y hagas un solo movimiento fluido y firme, haciendo uso parcialmente de tu propio peso para que sean cómodas las repeticiones al sellar varias botellas, claro el movimiento debe ser sin dudar nunca, para obtener buenos resultados. No olvidar desinfectar perfectamente este corchador antes de usarlo, la limpieza con los vinos es primordial y más aún en estos tiempos que hay que extremar precauciones para prevenir transmisiones por el Covid-19, recomiendo usar como yo lo hago siempre, mascarillas sin válvula P100 o N100 mientras manipulas tu vino casero o cualquier utensilio que usarás para la tarea de su elaboración y envasado. Tengan cuidado al comprar, este aparato no rebasa un valor de $400 pesos mexicanos, sólo los que tienen tornillo de ajuste de profundidad son un poco más caros, pero esos tampoco rebasan los 800 a 1000 pesos.

Great first time I used it hopefully plenty of life in it

excelente producto llego bien, a tiempo incluso antes de la facha mencionada no avía calificado al vendedor por temas de mis horarios pero que mejor tarde que nunca