Thinking of trying a sparkling wine - not Apfelwein

[DNisich]

Any champagne/sparkling wine makers in here? I've been kicking around the idea of a homebrew champagne for a while now. Initially, I had been looking at the traditional method of carb'ing in the bottles and then riddling. However, I just purchased a small chest freezer and already have a CO2 bottle. My question is do any of you make sparkling wine by kegging, force carb'ing and then bottling? If so, could you describe your methods and how well they have worked?

One other thing, what base wines have you used?

Thanks a million.

Don

 

[max4677]

Darn. I was hoping someone replied. I have a winexpert Island Mist kit I want to make and keg it as a sparkler.

 

[Wade E]

This is 1 of the reasons that I joined here was to learn more about this exact question so i really hope it gets answered. I have a Crab Apple 6 gallon batch and a Plum 6 gallon batch that I really want to force carbonate. My friend just did a Mist kit which he riddled and De gorged and said it came out really good I have done this riddling and degorging thing a few times and it works great but want to do it this way so I can sweeten up front and stabilize before carbonating so I know it will end up where I want instead of adding a and stabilizing after bottle fermentation.

 

[DNisich]

Yeah, this one didn't draw much response. I have sorta resolved to just rack the batch until it doesn't cast anymore lees and then keg it. Then, I'm gonna force carb in the keg inside of my chest freezer and try to push it somewhat past the spec level of carbonation. From there, I'll bottle into frozen champagne bottles. I'll probably just try the hard-tube-through-the-stopper coming off of a cobra tap method that I have read about around here somewhere. Overall, I think this will be much simpler to execute but just as effective as trying to riddle and disgorge.

Anyway, good luck.

Don

 

[Yuri_Rage]

I guess no one around here makes sparkling wine this way, but I don't see how it would be much different from the way I typically bottle beer. I use a Blichmann Beer Gun, designed for bottling carbonated beer from a keg. The BMBF is a cheap alternative that has worked well for many folks on the forum. Just be sure you use bottles designed to hold carbonation (such as the champagne bottles you already mentioned or even crown capped beer bottles).

 

[BigKahuna]

I have a winexpert Island Mist kit I want to make and keg it as a sparkler.

We have one...It's about 7 days into the last 14 days of clearing...I will post back. I should have my new Keg system (Purchased Just for this) by the weekend.

I am sure looking forward to making something sweet AND Sparkling

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

I made one from Riesling, carbed it in a keg. Tasted great, very dry.

EDIT: I shoudl say I roginally made this as a wine but found it very dry and a bit yeasty. I then thought, why sweeten. Make a sparkling! Turned out great. used ec1118.

 

[Wade E]

Okay, i finished just sparkling a plum wine. I wanted to use the keg system because I riddled and degorged my first sparkling wine only to find out it was much dryer then I wanted it. This way I was able to stabilize the wine, back sweeten it and then carb it. I dont have room in my fridge or freezer to do the kegging in there so I cranked the pressure up to 50 lbs at 50* which is the temp in my wine cellar and kept it there from Sat night until right now and its awesome. I will say that there is a slight difference from riddling and degorging method as the in my case which is most likely due to not having proper temps to absorb as much carbs as in colder conditions and this will be resolved soon enough with another fridge for my wine/beer making area. The Pros well out way the cons in my view any day,

Pro 1) time and effort saved. Pro 2) space for riddling 25 Champagne bottle
Pro 3) I can sweeten it to whee I want

Con 1) you will have to geta counter pressure filler or even better, a beergun to fill bottles.