Brewing Champagne

[KMKsuburbannoise]

Without searching this forum, i made this thread.

How hard is this to do? I am not a big wine fan but i like sparkling wine aka champagne.

 

[Gibbs]

You ferment sparkling wine. You brew beer. Make the Brix of the juice to about 19 to 20 brix and ferment with something like Premier Cuvee (PDM) yeast to dry. Then add nutrients and new PDM yeast along with sugar to 2.3 to 2.5% to the clean dry wine with the EtOH of around 10% alcohol. Make SURE you add in some yeast nutrient, or else the yeast won't have enough nitrogen to finish working the new sugar and you won't get enough pressure nor will you get it to where it ends up at around 11.5% alcohol. Bottle in regular Champagne bottles ONLY with a crown cap. Ferment at temps around 60 deg for about 2 months and start riddling the bottle, neck down to get the sediment into the neck where you can disgorge it.

 

[Hatchbrew]

For Champagne it is quite a process, wines are fermented from three types of grapes (pinot noir, pinot meunier, and chardonnay/ 2 reds and a white grape varietal) these wines then are blended from different vintages, and in different proportions. This is then put into champagne bottles with yeast and sugar, where it will rest at a 45 degree angle where they will be riddled (quick jerk shaking action) every one to three days. After the aging time on it lees (the sugar and yeast mix) the bottle will be disgorged (the lees will be removed) through a process where the neck is slightly frozen. Upon opening the yeast will shoot out, and then the bottles will be topped off with a blend of still wines. After this point they are corked and set to age in the caves.

Really quick overview, but gives you the jist of it. You can do the same with beer too, with equally enjoyable results.

 

[david_42]

Or make a still white wine and get a carbonator, like soda stream.

 

[Justibone]

Be prepared for a possible mess if you make a mistake. Just sayin'... it may not be great to carbonate a red. Like I did. Oops.