Condensation in unopened bottles

by **heatmiser** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 12:59 pm

I was looking at my collection of whisky this evening and noticed that a few of my unopened bottles had condensation inside the neck of the bottle. Could this be caused from the bottle not being properly sealed?

by **Deactivated Member** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 1:08 pm

Hi Jeff and welcome to the forum.

I have seen this once or twice with some bottles which have been stored for a long time.

May I ask a couple of questions?
What are the fill levels like in these particular bottles?
Where are they stored and under what conditions? (light, temperature .. etc)

No matter how well sealed the bottles are, some evaporation will occur and it will vary between individual bottles.
I have found no exact pattern to which suffer the most evaporation, but the 'condensation' effect has usually been on those which have suffered a little more than others.

MT

by **Di Blasi** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 2:31 pm

I have found that condensation in the neck of opened Bruichladdich bottles, most of them, and wondered too. Perhaps it's going into it's own secondary distillation???!

by **heatmiser** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:21 pm

Hey Malt-Teaser. Thanks for responding. Here are the answers to your questions:

What are the fill levels like in these particular bottles? They are all at normal height fill levels for brand new bottles.

Where are they stored and under what conditions? They are all stored in my pantry which is pretty cool and there is absolutely no sunlight accessible in the room

I think I will take them back to the store I purchased them from and exchange them. I bought most of them within the last 6 months so I would not expect to see this happening so soon. I have many bottles and am not sure if I will get to them within the next year or two.

by **Deactivated Member** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:31 pm

Hi Jeff,
I have just had a quick cursory glance through my own collection and from what I can see, none of my own bottles are currently suffering from this, even though I have looked at ones with varying fill levels.

If these are bottles which are currently available, then yes, why not see if they can be exchanged.

To be honest, I have seen this in bottles in the past and I don't know exactly what causes it. Whether temperature, humidity, temp. & humidity fluctuations, loose fitting corks / tops causing air contamination ........ maybe others on the forum can help here.

MT

by **vitara7** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 5:43 pm

ive only had two or three bottle like that, and funnyly enough they were all bruichladdichs, the new dumpy types. legacy 1 legacy 2 and the 1970.

by **vitara7** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 5:44 pm

ment to add, its not the case now as ive put them in a diffrent location, but the ting is none of the other bottles that were in that area before or since have been affected.

by **r900p** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:58 pm

Several of my bruichladdich's have condensation in them as i'm typing. I also find whenever a bottle arrives in the post whatever they are they have condesation, but as C_I has said this is most likely due to fluctuatinos in temp.

Rob

by **lbacha** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 11:19 pm

I'm assuming we are talking about condensation on the inside of the bottle, if this is the case don't worry, it will happen under the right conditions (temp & pressure). As long as nothing is escaping the bottle then it will all go back to liquid when the conditions go back to normal. Really it is the same principle as distillation except since there is nowhere for the gas to go it condensates on the glass then falls back into the bottle. I would only be concerned if I knew it was escaping the bottle then you have to hope the cork is doing it's job.

Len