First Sparkling Wine Experiment

[Duffbeer]

Doesn't matter, I just stand mine upright as they're a tad fat for the winerack. Had a quick count yesterday and I have 25 bottle of sparkly for the coming year, so should be ok for all occasions...
2 bottles NAWB
2 bottles birthday
4 bottles Yorks Fed
4 bottles Ponte show
4 bottles Grapefest
The rest for Christmas 09

[lockwood1956]

I have about 30...not sure how sparkly they are yet tho

[goldseal]

I opened a bottle a day or two ago - very positive reaction from our guests. I'm pleased with it.

I'll be starting my second batch in a couple of days.

The plan is to make 2 gallons Wine No.1, but a little more acidic, and with a tin of strawberries added, and using EC-1118 yeast.

I'm trying to simulate a Rosé Cava. The only concern I have is that all three batches of strawberry I have made have required a little bit of finings to get rid of the last little bit of haze. I'm thinking about adding bentonite from the start, but I don't know whether this will cause a problem with the fermentation in the bottle.

[Mamgiowl]

I wouldn't have thought so, some people reccommend to always add Bentonite at the start, and once it's in the bottle there'll be no trace of the stuff in there.

[Rich]

I opened a bottle a day or two ago - very positive reaction from our guests. I'm pleased with it.

I'll be starting my second batch in a couple of days.

The plan is to make 2 gallons Wine No.1, but a little more acidic, and with a tin of strawberries added, and using EC-1118 yeast.

I'm trying to simulate a Rosé Cava. The only concern I have is that all three batches of strawberry I have made have required a little bit of finings to get rid of the last little bit of haze. I'm thinking about adding bentonite from the start, but I don't know whether this will cause a problem with the fermentation in the bottle.

Want to pick up some 29mm crown caps at the weekend Pete? And some under bungs? I'll bring my crown capper back down with me next time.

[goldseal]

Got my plastic corks and cages all ready to go, thanks

[goldseal]

10 litre modified batch started today. Basically:

2 litres Tesco value apple juice
3 litres Tesco pressed white grape juice
1 tin Tesco strawberries in juice (406g)
46oz sugar
4 tsp citric acid
2 tsp Tronozymol
2 tsp bentonite
Gervin GV3 yeast

I had planned to use EC-1118 but the cupboard was bare. It looks like GV3 should work well.

The bentonite was added to a few hundred ml of boiling water, left for half an hour and then attacked with one of those hand-held electric whisk things (which Mrs. Goldseal THOUGHT was hers ).

The strawberries were gently squished to avoid splitting the seeds.

SG was 1.080. The previous attempt used 3tsp of acid, but I felt the finished product could do with a bit more bite.

I plan to rack off the strawberries in a couple of days - I don't want an overpowering taste. The rest of the process will be as per Karl's excellent tutorial.

[Rich]

Sounds good Pete

Now you've finally opened some of the sparkly, it's abot time I visited again

Bit busy on the weekends this month though

[Mamgiowl]

Sounds good Pete

Now you've finally opened some of the sparkly, it's abot time I visited again

Bit busy on the weekends this month though

Just as well or he'd have nothing left!

[Rich]

Just as well or he'd have nothing left!

That's blatant something or other.. I take lots with me to share out

[Mamgiowl]

That's blatant something or other.. I take lots with me to share out

Ok, I'm sorry - in that case neither of you would have anything left.

again.

[goldseal]

That's blatant something or other.. I take lots with me to share out

Too right! A car boot- full last time

I think another tasting evening, complete with live Forum updates, is in order. Prepare to synchronise diaries ....

[goldseal]

The second batch is rolling off the production line.

This time I froze the bottles in brine which had been sitting in a bucket in the freezer for a day.

I managed to freeze 95% of the contents of the bottle, which made disgorging and topping-up a much less fraught experience - almost zero foaming.

Having said that, I wonder if they didn't foam because they are flat?

I'll have to open one to find out.

I struggled to get all of the sediment out. There is a small pinch left in each one. I was even using a spray bottle of (very cold) vodka to flush them out.

I did miss a trick though - ice occupies more volume of water, so when the wine thawed, my perfectly topped-up bottles were about an inch short.

Oh well, another excuse to drink them early.

[goldseal]

Well, I don't think freezing is The Answer.

The air gets stuck at the base of the bottle (i.e. at the top when the bottle is inverted). The ice plug prevents you from topping up sufficiently.

Back to the drawing board.

Good fun though

[goldseal]

I started disgorging Batch #3 today.

This was basically a Wine No.1 with more acid and made with EC-1118 yeast.

This time I'd actually read a book (thanks Rich). Whilst still using Karl's fermentation method, I used a method from the book to freeze the bottle necks.

This involved using a jig to suspend the bottles in cups of ice/salt. When the ice is crushed and mixed around 75/25 with salt, the mixture liquefies but drops rapidly to around -15c. This rapidly freezes the bottle necks.

The book recommends chilling the bottles for an hour beforehand, to try to keep as much CO2 as possible in suspension. I also chilled the topup wine (WineArt Riesling) to try to prevent foaming when added to the bottle.

Finally, I used a spray bottle of vodka, chilled in the freezer for a few days, to clean the brine from the bottle top before removing the cork.

The first two bottles were disgorged successfully, with minimal foaming and maybe 70ml of topup wine in each.

Unfortunately the second two had warmed up while I was processing the first two, so the necks froze but the bottles foamed violently when the corks were removed. Time will tell whether these have degassed themselves too much.

I still have 7 bottles to disgorge, so I think I'll leave these in the freezer for around 2 1/2 hours rather than the recommended hour. I don't want the bottle to freeze but I need them close.

I'll post photos when I have time - the frost-covered plastic cups and the thermometer at -15 looked quite impressive