Justibone
Well-Known Member
So, last spring I accidentally carbonated some Edwort's Apfelwein (modified) by using sorbate but not adding meta. (I didn't know you needed both to stabilize a wine.) It ended up being pretty good, and it didn't have a yeast cake, so I said to myself, "I gotta try this again sometime!"
The time to try again was last month. I made some plum wine with canned plums and some welch's juice as a base. I also added cane sugar to boost the ABV. The wine was okay after primary fermentation, so I bottled it in resealable champagne-style bottles. I added sugar and sorbate at bottling time.
It turned out to sparkle really well, but there was still a bit of yeast in the bottle. The carbonation was great. After three weeks, though, it tasted like rotten grape juice. Oops. Hmmmmmmm... So into the fridge the other 2/3 of a bottle went. It sat there for about 10 days. I had some more last night, and the cold conditioning had done it *tremendous* favor. It was much better, even though the nose was still only "meh", and the plum flavor was totally wiped out by the welch's. Okay, not a disaster, I drank it. I finished the bottle (the ABV was low, only in the 9% range).
Later last night, even though I never felt drunk (or even buzzed) I started to get a headache. I went to bed thinking the headache would be gone by morning. Whoops. About 3:20 AM I woke from fitful sleep. I went to the restroom, and my headache was worse than ever. So as not to keep SWMBO up with my tossing and turning, I went to the couch to finish the night. It felt like someone was turning one of those old hand-powered drills into my head slowly, and my stomach had decided to leave my body to go ride roller coasters all on it's own, sending the nausea back as a souvenir. Thanks, stomach.
I kept myself from vomiting, took a couple of excedrin, and tossed and turned on the couch. Slowly, after another hour or so (it felt longer) the giant drill stopped drilling in and instead started drilling out, which, believe it or not, was much better. My stomach had had enough of Six Flags and had returned to my thorax, and I was able to sit up finally. After another hour or so of reading blogs I actually felt good, and the weird hangover was gone as soon as it came.
It occurs to me that the source of my odd hangover was very likely fusel alcohols. It also occurs to me that the reason for them is most likely the stress from the yeast not being dead but being inhibited by the sorbate, and it also occurs to me that I have four more bottles of this crap.
So, what would you do with four bottles of merely "meh" sparkling wine of no particular vintage that's guaranteed hangover juice? I thought briefly that it would be fun to give to minors, as an object lesson, but it would also be pretty cruel and definitely illegal. The way to get rid of fusels is to heat the wine, which would eliminate the sparkling aspect and also sounds like a lot of drama for only so-so wine.
So, any fun ideas for fusel-filled sparkling red wine? (I know I'll never drink it again.)
The time to try again was last month. I made some plum wine with canned plums and some welch's juice as a base. I also added cane sugar to boost the ABV. The wine was okay after primary fermentation, so I bottled it in resealable champagne-style bottles. I added sugar and sorbate at bottling time.
It turned out to sparkle really well, but there was still a bit of yeast in the bottle. The carbonation was great. After three weeks, though, it tasted like rotten grape juice. Oops. Hmmmmmmm... So into the fridge the other 2/3 of a bottle went. It sat there for about 10 days. I had some more last night, and the cold conditioning had done it *tremendous* favor. It was much better, even though the nose was still only "meh", and the plum flavor was totally wiped out by the welch's. Okay, not a disaster, I drank it. I finished the bottle (the ABV was low, only in the 9% range).
Later last night, even though I never felt drunk (or even buzzed) I started to get a headache. I went to bed thinking the headache would be gone by morning. Whoops. About 3:20 AM I woke from fitful sleep. I went to the restroom, and my headache was worse than ever. So as not to keep SWMBO up with my tossing and turning, I went to the couch to finish the night. It felt like someone was turning one of those old hand-powered drills into my head slowly, and my stomach had decided to leave my body to go ride roller coasters all on it's own, sending the nausea back as a souvenir. Thanks, stomach.
I kept myself from vomiting, took a couple of excedrin, and tossed and turned on the couch. Slowly, after another hour or so (it felt longer) the giant drill stopped drilling in and instead started drilling out, which, believe it or not, was much better. My stomach had had enough of Six Flags and had returned to my thorax, and I was able to sit up finally. After another hour or so of reading blogs I actually felt good, and the weird hangover was gone as soon as it came.
It occurs to me that the source of my odd hangover was very likely fusel alcohols. It also occurs to me that the reason for them is most likely the stress from the yeast not being dead but being inhibited by the sorbate, and it also occurs to me that I have four more bottles of this crap.
So, what would you do with four bottles of merely "meh" sparkling wine of no particular vintage that's guaranteed hangover juice? I thought briefly that it would be fun to give to minors, as an object lesson, but it would also be pretty cruel and definitely illegal. The way to get rid of fusels is to heat the wine, which would eliminate the sparkling aspect and also sounds like a lot of drama for only so-so wine.
So, any fun ideas for fusel-filled sparkling red wine? (I know I'll never drink it again.)
