Elderflower champagne priming sugar

[Mevdog]

Hey guys,

I've started making an elderflower champagne for the first time and now it's bottling time. The gravity has dropped to 990 and it's pretty dry. I was hoping to prime 2l plastic bottles with sugar and possibly back sweeten some bottles to experiment with. First question, is it ok to bottle in 2l plastic bottles? If so how much sugar would you recommend for priming? It seems to vary from 5-10g per 500ml, so in my case 20-40g per 2l bottle. Pretty big variation and don't want a flat drink nor an explosive... Final question, what and how much would you add to 2l to sweeten it up? I've got xylitol and can get some canderel etc if that's good.
Thanks in advance!

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Mevdog - and welcome. Sorry, I cannot give you a specific answer to your question about how much xylitol to use but the answer I would suggest is to bench test your wine - take say four samples of a known volume and add a known but different quantity of the sweetener to each sample. If every one is too sweet or not sufficiently sweet then repeat this but begin with a significantly different amount of sweetener. If one sample of the four is too sweet and one is too dry then you know that the amount of sweetener to add is between the two samples - and you repeat this process using appropriate amounts of xylitol.

When you find the best amount you simply multiply that weight of sugar by the number of times the volume of your sample goes into the total volume. Simple arithmetic.
The reason for bench testing is that the right amount of sweetness depends on many factors - including the ABV, the relative dryness, the TA, the pH, the richness (or lack) of flavor, your preference to name 6 factors.

How much sugar to use to prime? I tend to use the same as I use to prime any beer I make - about 20 grams of sugar per gallon. But don't forget, unless you are degassing your wine is also likely to contain a fair amount of CO2 before you prime it. Ten grams per 500 cc seems to me to be wayyyy more than you want...

 

[Maylar]

Xylitol is about the same sweetness as sugar, maybe a bit more. For semi sweet cider I use 3 TBSP per gallon.

 

[Mevdog]

Thanks bernardsmith, so the back sweetening flavour can take place instantly? I kind of thought you had to leave the sweeteners to mellow over time while the drink conditions. Can it also be added later during conditioning too?
I haven't degassed yet, I was planning on a quick degas as soon as they are individually bottled. I think I might bottle them up with no added sugar for now as I'm away for a few weeks, then add priming sugar when I return, that way I can release pressure if they look likely to blow. Any problem with adding priming sugar after bottling a few weeks?
Cheers

 

[bernardsmith]

I have to plead ignorance as I only use fermentable sugars to bagksweeten and so I need to be sure that a) there are very few yeast cells still viable and b) the wine is stabilized with K-meta and K-sorbate. These two chemicals in tandem will inhibit the yeast from fermenting any residual or added sugar. BUT that means that you cannot both backsweeten AND carbonate in any simple way - you will need to either force carbonate or pasteurize the wine at the point where the yeast has fermented enough of the sugar to carbonate, leaving enough sugar to add sweetness - BUT pasteurization is 1) risky - heating glass filled with gas under pressure is DANGEROUS and 2) pasteurizing wine cooks the fruit /flavors/ sugars and cooking degrades flavors and aromatics...

 

[lukebuz]

You can also degorge your champagne (eject the yeast), and then backsweeten without risk of the 3rd fermentation - but that's a whole new ballgame. How deep into the hobby are you??