cmgxsolutions

Recipes 

Will this work to make champagne?

Mixing store bought:

Pinot Noir
Pinor Meunier
Chardonay

Sweetening to taste then add a champagne yeast starter... bottle in beer bottles and pasteurise when desired co2 is reached.

It seems too easy... is their a chemical in store bought wine that would prevent fermentation from starting again? Or is their something I am missing?

Thanks
Dan

WilliamSlayer

Recipes 

Will it work? Absolutly. Will it taste like champagne? Not as positive, but it will be a "sparkling wine" without a doubt.

Most large wineries that make sparkling wines simply :

1-create the wine
2-filter it until all yeast and sediment are cleared
3-use CO2 to 'force carb' the wine to make it bubbly

Try mixing the three wines in different ratios, and testing them. Remember that the carbination will give it a bit of a 'bite'.

Good luck!

Yooper

Recipes 

Some store bought wines do indeed have sorbate in them, to prevent re-fermentation.

That, and it is very hard to get yeast started in a +12% ABV, as alcohol is toxic to yeast.

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cmgxsolutions

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What if I take a sample and figure how much sugar i need to add to get the desired sweetness and then make a juice/sugar starter put in champagne yeast... throw it on a stirplate for 2 days then dump it in the mix and bottle. Would that work?

Arpolis

Recipes 

When I need to restart a fermentation I would follow a large starter that acclimates the yeast to the toxic environment. Here is the starter ingredients/process:

2 cups water
1/2 cup honey
1/4 tsp yeast nutrients
10 raisins chopped up fine
5g of lalvin yeast ec-1118

Mix the starter must really well and just sprinkle yeast on top and do not stir. Cover with paper towel and rubberband and wait two hours.

Now take 1/2 cup of wine must after you have sweetened it and add to the starter. Slightly stir the starter and wait another 2 hours.

Repeat the last step 3 more times.

10 hours should have past and you should have 4 1/2 cups of starter. That pitched into the wine must should knock it out.

Good luck & have fun.

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WilliamSlayer

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Yes... except that the sweetness will go away as the yeast chew up all the sugars. Champagne is usually 'dry' for this reason. To both have sweetness and carbination you need to force carb, or use a non-fermentable sweetener.

cmgxsolutions

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I was going to pasteurized once the level of carbonation is reached to kill the yeast and maintain sweetness. The reason i am trying to avoid juice is because need to get a few different varieties which would be expensive and take a long time to do from juice.

WilliamSlayer

Recipes 

Ok, good thought. Especially if you are only doing a few bottles. Hope the experiment works.

WoodlandBrew

Recipes 

I've done "champagne" a couple of times by fermenting grape juice and then prime and bottle as you would to make beer. It's come out pretty good. 1 oz of sugar per gallon makes it pleasantly sparkly.

Do you pasteurize after you bottle?

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cmgxsolutions

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I am a noob and have never done it before. I am interested in making a sweet champagne so I think it would need to be pasteurized to prevent bottle bombs, right?