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sparkling wine

I was thinking of making some home-brew sparkling wine, only in a keg. Here is my plan so far:

Purchase kegging equipment and several 3 gallon corney kegs get a decent rose wine kit ferment the kit as recommended, only adding sugar to get it to about

12-15% ABV if needed. Add some acid blend to get a little more bite. After 2 months in secondary, stabelize and fine. After 1-2 more months, rack and add sugar to taste. Transfer into several 3 gallon kegs and refrigerate. Purge keg with CO2 when filling

Now the questions: some say that corney kegs are rated at about 60 psi. The guy at my LHS said that champaign should be carbonated to about

  1. Beer is in the range of 12-15.

Would 45-50 psi work well for a good sparkeling wine instead of the aforementioned 90? Will the normal equipment for kegging work with the higher pressures? Will the higher acid in champaign harm the stainless keg? Anyone have and any other good tips?

Thanks in advance!

Alex Brewer.

Reply to
Alex
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you won't hurt the stainless keg with anything less than a hammer. Try hooking the CO2 up withabout 20# and rolling the keg back and forth to "force " the gas absorption. Works for home made beer.

Reply to
treetoad

I force carbonated my pyment (Grape Mead) at 20 psi and it was lightly carbonated. You can shake the keg to speed up the CO2 absorption, or just give it a few days. If you have it in a corny keg, just put a hose and picnic tap on it and you can check the carbonation a glass at a time. Hey, have your wine on tap. Oh, and I always purge the air from the keg with CO2 prior to kegging, unless I am adding a little sugar to cask condition beer.

Good luck, John Mc

Reply to
Johnny Mc
90 psi would be the top end for pressure for champagne, the low end would be 60.

5 galloon corny kegs should go well over 100 lbs of pressure max, I think mine have 125 stamped on the side. The popup valve on top bleeds pressure at 90 I think. I am bettign the 3 gallon kegs are similar.

What I would worry about is makign sure you have a regulator that goes high enough. Most only go to 60 lbs I think.

The acid will not hurt the keg.

Make sure the winei s cold when you carbonate it, as cold as possible, then you will have a nice sparkle at a lower pressure. What you are looking for is "volumes of CO2", not so much PSI. And gas is more soluble in cold liquids than it is in warm ones.

Reply to
Droopy

Actually there are lots of wines made at less than 60 PSI, they range from slightly fizzy on up, they are called petilant. I would start at lower pressure and work my way up 5 PSI at a time. Start at 10 and see if you like it.

Joe

Reply to
Joe Sallustio

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