Champagne...How to make it?

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I give mine 40 psi for the first few days (with the occasional shaking) then try to hold it at 25 psi for a couple of weeks.

As you will never get the ‘pint of froth’ problem like with a beer, I still keep it around 15-20 psi to dispense.
 
Moley said:
I give mine 40 psi for the first few days (with the occasional shaking) then try to hold it at 25 psi for a couple of weeks.

As you will never get the ‘pint of froth’ problem like with a beer, I still keep it around 15-20 psi to dispense.


cheers moley :thumb:
 
What are proper champagne bottles ? i mean.. can i reuse champagne bottles i've drunk from? e.g. presseco or cava? brut ? will they all be in the range? i've got a few left over from my 18th last week and i want to make champagne for my brothers 21st next year. any substitues for the elderflower heads ?

"30 heads Elderflowers
2kg Sugar
Zest & Juice of 5 lemons
1 litre White Grape Juice
Water to 3 gallons
GP Yeast & Nutrient"

how volume will this make?

Also (sorry for all the questions) how much is a "head" i know it sounds stupid but is it an individual little flower head. or a cutting of 100 little flowers count as a head?

Cheers

Andy
 
Proper champagne bottles are those which have held Champagne, Cava or Sekt. I just grabbed a few at random and they all weighed in the region of 850-900g empty.

Fizzed wine bottles such as Asti, Prosecco or Vins Mousseux may be acceptable, weigh them.

Ordinary wine bottles or lightly fizzed wine bottles will go bang.

There's a clue to the volume in that recipe you quoted where it says “water to 3 gallons”. ;)

A head of elderflowers is one complete clump, might be several hundred little florets, I've never counted them.

If you're making elderflower shampagne, the only substitute for fresh elderflowers would be dried elderflowers from your homebrew shop.

Why not try a fizzy WOW ?
 
Yeahh alright thankyou. i think i'm going to be trying both. not sure which one to do first. i have a 25litre bucket (currently in use) a 1 gallon demijohn (in use for ribena wine) and 2 small 5 litre food grade buckets. i think when i next go to town or morrisons i will pick up the ingredients needed. may also pick some elderflowers. when are they in bloom? otherwise i'll buy some dried elderflowers :)

Cheers

Andy
 
Yes, divide by 3, although I'd still use the litre of grape juice.

Elderflowers are in bloom around May, and the berries around now.
 
Just a thought about freezing the neck of the bottle. I've been on vineyard tours in Champagne and Saumur (where they also make fizz), they used a very cold liquid that the neck of the bottle was dunked into until it froze.

Would it be possible to replicate this with say a very strong salt or sugar solution that could be cooled in the freezer to well below 0 degrees? The bottle is then stood upside down in a container of this liquid...the depth of the liquid would give a very accurate control on how far up the bottle would freeze.
 
I have just started an elderflower, althought the recipe that I used did not have any grape juice - just elderflower, sugar, water and lemon. It is smelling great a bit like turkish delight. Now the recipe says 2 days in bucket then strain and bottle, however frm the smell I would say that is too sweet and it is still fementing rather fast, so should I leave it to ferment out to say a week? both for the sake of dryness and safety? Perhaps I should leave it to ferment out completely then add a little sugar? Will it be really thin without any added grape juice? Im not expecting this batch to last past christmas ;) So it will not have a lot of time to mature.
 
Ferment out and prime, 2 days is just plain ridiculous and almost guarantees bottle bombs.

And yes, it will be thin, but that sort of thing isn't intended for keeping long.
 
Instead of concentrate, what sort of replacements could I use to bring the quality up? If I were to make a champagne for birthdays etc, I'd want it to be as good as it can be, not made from cheap juice :)
 
hmmmmmmmmm just checked out this page and it definitely seems like my kind of thing!! It could save me a lot of money in the long run!
However, I´m not really sure on how my friends will take to Chateau de Birmingham when they next come round for a meal :D

Right, as I never keep bottles from my wine, does anyone know of a website where I can buy Champagne bottles - and unfortunately I do mean empty ones :((
 
I know this is an old thread but I always make elderflower cordial and the weak style champagne using just the natural yeasts of the flower.

I have just made up a batch of pink champagne a la 'county style' so no disgorging, not ready for that yet!

I'm intrigued about the elderflower recipe, is this reasonably alcoholic? Once you put all the ingredients together and leave covered for a week what do you do next? Do you prime and bottle (after racking off the lumps!) or do you rack it off in to another FV and leave to clear for a while?

Thanks

Leo
 
In response to what Dave1970 may have witnessed-

Has anyone tried dry ice in isopropanol, or acetone, or even ethylene glycol bath? Done in a tall thin container allowing for the entire bottle to be dipped briefly to chill (hold CO2 in solution) with a wire rack fashioned to hang on the sides while keeping the bottle necks in solution.
 
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