Sparkling wine

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

yekim_4321

New Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2017
Messages
12
Reaction score
3
Location
NULL
Just wondering how you would go about making say a sparkling Rose wine? can it be done at home? i know you can add sugar to your beer/lager/cider bottles before bottling and leave to second ferment which gives the fizz but can the same be done with wine.

Cheers
 
Not an easy thing to do. I remember visiting the Ackermann winery some years ago where they explained the traditional (Champagne) method. When the wine has fermented, brandy and sugar is added and it is bottled slightly cloudy, with large crown corks on the bottles. A secondary fermentation takes place then the bottles stored in racks, partially inverted and turned daily to encourage the yeast to settle in neck of the bottle. The neck of the bottle is then frozen, so that a solid plug containing the yeast pops out when the cap is removed and the bottles resealed with corks and wire cages.

I'm sure there's an easier way of emulating this at home though.
 
@richytrue has just done this, yes you just add some sugar and bottle I believe.

You'll just need to pour carefully I guess as you'll have sediment (or take the champagne route mentioned above.

I wonder how high volume production of say Prosecco do it? I cant imagine them freezing the necks of the gazillion bottles a year
 
I did a bit of reading and everything seemed to suggest the champagne route.... but like you i thought that can't be the only way cos that would be a pain for the likes of Prosecco makers will keep looking see if i can't dig something up (or in this case blow something up :whistle:)
Cheers
 
I experimented with sparkling wine using a basic wow recipe. Fermented it right out but didn't use a stabilizer and primed the bottles with half a teaspoon of sugar. I used screw top fizzy water bottles for safety. Prior to opening them I got the really cold in the fridge and decanted into a carafe for serving. The sediment was pretty solid after a couple of months and was not really a problem.

I don't really like white wine or fizzy wine so I cant really comment on its success, however the (now ex) wife would quite happily drink it by the litre. Having said that, she would drink just about anything if it induced a coma by teatime :lol:
 
I make loads of it. Use a kit wine and sparkling wine yeast, leave in the bottle for six months [at least, tastes pretty poor younger than that]. I use 500ml PET bottles carbed up with 10g sugar each. That long without moving and the yeast stays firmly fixed to the bottom when you pour. You can fill a glass and put the bottle back in the fridge door then come back to it for a refill more than once without any sediment, right down to the bottom of the bottle.

I think prosecco is just fermented in huge pressurised tanks then fed straight into bottles so no sediment. No two years of bottle conditioning either which is why it's about one fourth the price of champagne.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top