Help save my sparkler / champagne

Sep 23, 2007 2 Replies
P

Good Morning-



I'm in a bit of a bind. I sterile filtered my chardonnay champagne (it would NOT clear- bentonite didn't even touch it) and brought the sulifite to 30 ppm (was at 25ppm).



I then added ~1kg of sterile sugar solution (1kg sugar + 1 cup water, boiled)- the sugar crystallized immediately but then dissolved before hitting the bottom.



I added 30g of Redstar Champagne Yeast to water for 15 minutes, then slowly added wine over the next hour until 2 cups were achieve. I added this mixture to the wine and waited for 1.5 days.



No activity.



I then added 3x 5g EC-1118 to the surface of the wine- again, a small release of dissolved CO2, but there's STILL no airlock activity after



24 hours.

I'm contemplating mixing up another starter, slowly adding up to 1 gallon of the wine this time, in hopes to bring it up.



Any suggestions are very welcome. I was hoping to get this into bottles today but that doesn't look like it's going to happen...



Jason



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B

I've had my best luck propagating 1118 in welch's grape or an apple juice & adding in must incrementally til a good sized population cultured. I'm not sure if this is appropriate for sparkling wines... regards, bob

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J

All of this sounds odd, Bentonite is usually pretty effective if you hydrate it properly.

That said, if I had to guess I think the sterile filter pulled out nutrients too and you just need to get some in there. If I am doing 5 gallons of sparkling wine usually just hydrate one pack of EC1118 and that is all I need. Try warming it a bit if it's under 75F and stirring it to add a little oxygen too.

Joe

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