Homebrew Champagne

Bottle shock is a catchall term for many things -- basically a loss of bouquet, and some flavor, caused by air exposure during the wine's transfer during the last rack into the bottles.

Your forced carbonation will affectively mask this, but do try to get it into the keg as early as you can, and leave it alone after that.

But in the end it is going to be fizzy cr*p!. My sparkling wines by "Method Champagnoise takes about 2 years to be ready to drink. I suggest your use a fizzy "pop" to produce a similar effect. It certainly will not taste any worse!

Just my first visit in about 3 months. Back again in about another 3 months if this is the standard of "wine making"

Bye again.

Wow, the snobbery. Is the method champagnoise entirely diffrent than the fizzy pop method? Or are they merely the difftrent name for the same process? Does anybody know a good winemaking supplier that can sell large quantities of fizzy pop?

Now, snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com, thanks for the reply. Do you recomend racking it in the keg and leaving it with Air in the headspace to help bottle shock along, or carbonating it and then letting it be for a while. Thanks, Jeff

It's not a matter of snobbery; more a matter of _taste_.

Why do you suppose Champagne is so expen$ive? If it were easy to reproduce by quick and dirty methods why would anyone bother doing it the laborious, old fashioned way?

Do your guests a favor and go buy some of the real thing* this year (and possibly the next as well) and do a little reading up on how methode champenois is made.

• meant to include sparkling wine from any country, made by the MC process.

Tom S

Actually, it is snobbery. It was a matter of taste when it was kept to yourself.

Definetion of a snod (taken from dictionary.com) One who affects an offensive air of self-satisfied superiority in matters of taste or intellect

Hmm.

As for the advise to buy my friends the real stuff. No. Many of my parties are somewhat of a legend amunst my friends and other circles in town. They aren't that way because I followed the advice of snobs.

Sorry for threatening peoples way of life; as I so clearly have have.

They are just different, that's all. Most prefer the taste you get when you ferment in the bottle. The longer you keep the yeast that fermented it in the bottle with the wine the more it imparts a sort of creamy taste. I have a few bottles of Seyval left from 1997 made this way and quite a few made in 1999 and 2000. All sit on the yeast for a few years. it's a style, just like beer and ale making have different styles of treating the same raw materials.

You can certainly make carbonated wine by your method but it will be very young and won't taste much like true champagne. That does not mean it will be awful either, just not the same. If you want to do this you may want to start with a fruity wine and maybe leave it a bit sweet so it masks the youth; then carbonate and drink within a few weeks or keep it very cold. You do not want the added sugar to create more pressure.

Another cheap and easy way to do this is to just add any carbonated soda to an average bottle of white wine right at the beginning of your get together. Ginger ale, Seven Up, any sweet light drink can be used to make 'coolers'.

It's actually a common technique used to cover up wine flaws; if you make something sweet enough it usually taste good. Coca Cola would not get anywhere telling you it's a flavored blend of water, sugar and phosphoric acid but that is what it is. (It's food grade phosphoric and I like Coke by the way, the level of acid in it is similar to wine levels...)

H> Wow, the snobbery.

Hey, watch the name calling. You started this you know, asking what bottle shock "crap" was, when a simple google search could have filled it all in. Just cause we care doesn't make us all snobs. You keggers have terms that the uninitiated don't understand.

Plenty of manufacturer's of sparkling wines use force carbonation. The traditional "methode Champagnoise" is not the only way wine is made sparkling in the bottle. Although, many people believe it produces superior bubbles -- tiny, that rise one after another in streams when served in a flute. But I doubt the supermarket discount champale manufacture involves a riddling board.

You want to avoid air exposure of finished wine. It ruins the taste. Unfortunately, I don't understand how kegs work. I'd guess you should complete the wine, fill the keg completely full, so there's no air space, is that allowed with a keg? Or force carbonate and leave under pressure for a month and a half or two, is that ok with a keg? You need time for the wine to react with what little air you've mixed in, and the pressure will keep more air out.

If you're going to age for six months, you can rest assured moderate air exposure will have caused bottle shock, and then the wine will have repaired itself. You have to avoid the cause of bottle shock for the 2 months between now and Dec. 31.

FWIW, I intend to have my 4 gallons of hard cider be slighty sparkling in the bottle. I will rack, prime with sugar and seal. The cider will throw more lees, but I'm not going to spend months riddling the sediment to the neck, freezing it with dry ice, ejecting the frozen plug, and topping up before I age more. I'll just have everyone be careful when they pour.

Why not purchase a couple of sparkling wine kits?

Later, A.J.

Well, here I go agian. Sorry for using the word cr*p. I will concede that. As for the easy question about bottle shock, well you'all can deal with it.

So the air I mix in just by racking it will be enough for the champagne to get over bottle shock? I'll fill the keg, fill the head space with inert C02, then pressurize it. Then I'l let it sit for a few months. Seeings I am using an el cheapo white wine, 2 months should actually put it at it's prime. I do expect, "tiny, that rise one after another in streams when served in a flute." Or a champagnr bong for that matter.

I agree on needing a sweet one. Although I prefer a dry champagne, I do agee that some sweetness will mask some of the ghettoness.

As for the kool-aid. My friend did this. It works. Interested pinky? It taste too much along the line of Mikes Hard Lemonade and the likes for my.

First off, I agree that Pinky's reply was snobby and ridiculous.

This is supposed to be a group for all levels of winemaking, from decades of experience trying to trouble-shoot a unique problem right on down (or up?) to first-timers trying to make pop wine for new year's.

If you don't like the post, or think it's beneath you, then just don't reply--it's that easy.

A reply like Pinky's serves no purpose than to say that he feels he's above this poster based solely on his level of wine experience.

Now, on to the heart of the matter.

What you'll produce the way you are suggesting will certainly not rival any commercial bottling.

That's not to say that there aren't artificially carbonated commercial wines--in fact, I believe that Moscato D'Asti is artificially carbonated and it is considered a fine wine. If I'm wrong about this, there are still plenty of commercial bottlings like spumante's or "sparkling wines" that are carbonated the same way that pop is.

If Baby Duck can sell well and be drank by many on New Year's, yours should go over just fine...and if it sucks, no one will notice by the end of the keg !!!

I'm going to tell you one more time time: Air causes bottles shock. Expose your wine to less air, not more, if you intend to drink a wine young.

The story I heard is that fine bubbles is exactly what you won't get from force carbonation. Your mileage may vary. Have you ever made soda pop? If so, how were the bubbles in that case? You don't want the champage to foam like freshly opened soda, and it shouldn't have a head like a beer.

For a party full of non-homebrewers and winemakers, I think sweet and fruity are what you want. Sparkling wines are a little more acid than still. I suggest adding the juice of a small lemon and orange to any kit you buy. Unless it comes with acid mix, and more than enough for one batch, then you can tip in 50 % more for the yeast to use some, and leave some excess. Carbonation will change the the sensation of balance.

I mentioned in another thread, my slapped together Welches Frozen White is as good as any 5 dollar white. My friend's all enjoy it. If I had

5 gallons of it, and a force carbonator, and a fridge to hold a keg, I'd thorw a kickin' party as well.

Well P.S. our wine club has a Champagne party every July. Members bring homemade sparkling wine, store bought and in one instance a keg of carbonated white wine. The fellow that made the keg sparkler is a professional winemaker and he made this up at the last minute. It was all foam.

I'm also a beer maker and have lots of experience with 5-gallon soda kegs. If you go ahead with your plan be sure to avoid any air in contact with your wine. Air and wine mixed together, even for a day, will lead to oxidation and you will hate the result. To do this fill the keg to the brim with water. Seal and pressurize. Then empty the keg through the tap which leaves you with a CO2 filled keg. Bleed off the pressure and carefully open the top. Add your wine. Seal and pressurize. Chill and check pressure again. If you use a short hose to the tap you will end up releasing all the carbonation as soon as the wine is dispensed...a glass of foam with no residual CO2 to form those nice little bubbles. Use a long hose...about 8 feet between the keg and tap. This will let you pour a glass of sparkling wine that will resemble Champagne. Good luck.

Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas USA

your spelling is atrocious, but you don't ferment wine, you allow yeast to ferment sugar. That's the essence of the whole thing.

you haven't threatened shit there pal, you just relax. And frankly the kind of wine I make and drink involves even less work that what you propose.

and if you want to invite me over to try your stuff, that'd be nice, and you are invited to try mine anytime you are in Vegas.