DIY prosecco

Time to sample. Connecting the 'picnic' tap was a bit messy and, as expected, the first discharge was gas and foam but once the tube was filled with liquid, dispensing was straightforward. At 18 c. the beer is 'draught' rather than fizzy but not flat, which is fine by me for 'real ale', but obviously not for sparkling wine! It is also clear, with no sediment. However, the priming pressure didn't last long, so I attached the gas, set at 12 psi. This caused the dispensing tap to leak at the joint with the tube, as it came without a hose clip at that end. So I fitted one and all now appears ok, with no gas bubbles in the tap tube as previously, and no drip.
The beer (Caxton's real ale) tastes fine. Perhaps I'll forget about the sparkling wine!

With the gas bottle off, the pressure dropped overnight from 12 to 8. I can't detect any leak. Is it possible that as the co2 is absorbed, the pressure falls?

Yes, that can happen and is likely to be the case . Glad you got beer that you like the taste of but who is going to push the boundaries mimicking commercial prosecco practices on a homebrew scale if not yourself ?

Well, so far all I have got is an expensive way of topping up a pressure barrel with cheap co2! A standard plastic pressure barrel after priming discharges about 2.5 gallons before needing a gas top up. This is because it is a gravity feed system. Beer comes out the bottom. It is only stops when the airspace becomes a partial vacuum. The corny is essentially a pumped system working against gravity and will only work under pressure.
I may have to go down the forced carbonation route next. After all, that's what the system was designed to do! As I understand it the process is to fill the keg and connect the gas line to the liquid out valve using a 'black disconnect', so that the gas is fed right down to the bottom via the long tube. The system is then stored at 5 c. at psi 15 for 3 days while the beer absorbs the percolating co2. OK so far?

Pressure has dropped overnight again, but only half as much, suggesting that the beer is still absorbing co2 but perhaps reaching saturation point. The beer tastes smoother and almost creamy, but no bubbles - just foam when poured.
I have ordered a counter pressure bottle filler with a view to bottling carbonated wine. It seems it works on the principle of mixing equal amounts of co2 and wine under pressure directly into the bottle at low temperature.

Moved the whole thing outside and strapped the gas bottle to the keg with an old bum bag. The temperature dropped to 5 c., which is ideal for carbonation, but the drop caused the tap to leak again. Tightened up the clips but fed up with it, so ordered a metal one which bolts directly onto the liquid disconnect.
The beer now tastes slightly carbonated, but you have to pull a pint to get 1/2 a pint of it.

Tap joint started leaking again. This time I used pfte tape and vaseline and so far so good.
I want to know how much gas I have used and read that the best way is to compare the net weight of the cylinder to the gross weight. The cylinder is holds 1.5 kg gas and is stamped 3.10 kg. The gross weight is 5.23, which suggests 2.13 kg of gas left!
The beer continues to absorb co2 and a sample showed bubbles clinging to the glass and rising from the bottom. However a cleaned and polished glass showed none at all.
It seems that the amount of priming sugar (85g) recommended by the kit was aimed at a safe level for a pressure barrel. Mine is rated at 15 psi with a safety valve at 10 psi. To get a co2 volume of 2.0, I need to use 200 g of priming sugar, and for sparkling wine at least 300g. Then I discovered the corny carbonating lid, which has a gas input valve on top and a tube fitted with an airstone underneath. This is very similar to the way that carbonated wine is produced, so I have ordered one.

While waiting for equipment to arrive, I decided to carbonate a single bottle of rhubarb wine using the Sodastream. To offset the acidity of the co2, I added 1 Sweetex tablet to the Sodastream bottle along with the wine plus a small top up to fill the bottle to the mark (850 ml) and put it in the freezer. At 3 c, I gave it 13 bursts of co2, let it settle then slowly poured it into a chilled Prosecco bottle via a funnel and tube. Once filled, I capped it with a 29 mm crown cap and applied a champagne foil, smoothed down with a strip of plastic inside my fist. This worked quite well. I poured the excess wine into a champagne flute and left it for a few minutes then sampled. There was adequate sparkle and good flavour.
I have ordered 25 mm round labels for the bottle tops.

Bar style tap has arrived. Easier to use than picnic tap and easier to clean. Produces slightly less foam.
Seems the 'counter pressure bottler' has been incorrectly described. It is in fact a beer gun which is probably ok for bottling beer at low pressure but not wine at high pressure. Both require a t-piece (not supplied) on the gas line.
Did another bottle of rhubarb with the Sodastream but this time at -2c instead of +3. Big difference. Gave it 20 bursts of gas with much reduced loss. Looks like I am going to need a modified freezer I can maintain at -2 c.

Carbonating lid with valve, tube and airstone has arrived. I could try it on the beer but I had a bottle of commercial ruby ale yesterday and noticed virtually no bubbles rising in the glass, so perhaps not.
Going through my sparkling wine, I found 5 marked 'no fizz'. This was detected when removing the yeast. I decided to revive one with the Sodastream. After an hour in the freezer, the temperature had only dropped to 4 c from 9. The freezer is set near to minimum and is at -10c. I guess turning it up to 'super' would speed things up.

Counter pressure bottler has arrived. No instructions but found a helpful video on the web. I had some tubing but had to get extra clips and a t piece from Halfords. I used the liquid disconnect from the picnic tap. Before splitting the gas hose to insert the t piece, I realised that the bottler has to be permanently connected to the gas line. I am also resigned to the fact that I will have to get a small chest freezer to get the wine down to -2c., and install it outside as there is nowhere else. At other times it can act as an insulated storage box for beer and, connected to a timer, keep it cool in summer without freezing.

Beer gun has arrived. No instructions. Bottom seal is imperfect. Drips when closed. Tried to fill a bottle, but produces just as much foam as tap with beer at 9 c. Might work better at 0 c, but I'll need a freezer and temperature controller for that.
Set freezer at 'super' to chill wine for recarb, saving 40 minutes wait.
Project fatigue setting in!

Looking at small chest freezers, the inner height dimensions are too small due to the space taken up by the compressor. The next size up (70 cm width) provides more than adequate space (for £150) as the compressor is at one end. I have ordered the Inkbird temperature controller at £23 with 20% discount and free delivery.
Recarbonating the 'no fizz' fragolino wine requires less gas than the still rhubarb wine because, despite no fizz, the wine is already saturated with co2, so even 10 bursts on the Sodastream was more than it could take. Another factor is that both the rhubarb and gooseberry wines were made with only 70% fruit juice compared with the fragolino with 100% grape juice. The more 'watery', the more co2 can be absorbed.

tonyhibbett said:

Looking at small chest freezers, the inner height dimensions are too small due to the space taken up by the compressor. The next size up (70 cm width) provides more than adequate space (for £150) as the compressor is at one end. I have ordered the Inkbird temperature controller at £23 with 20% discount and free delivery.
Recarbonating the 'no fizz' fragolino wine requires less gas than the still rhubarb wine because, despite no fizz, the wine is already saturated with co2, so even 10 bursts on the Sodastream was more than it could take. Another factor is that both the rhubarb and gooseberry wines were made with only 70% fruit juice compared with the fragolino with 100% grape juice. The more 'watery', the more co2 can be absorbed.

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You can add a collar to a small chest freezer to increase the height. Plus, this gives you something you can drill through to double up as a keezer.
https://www.google.com/search?q=kee...7fTfAhUKqxoKHVZvChoQ_AUIDygC&biw=1855&bih=953

Thanks for that. However, the collar would have to be about 25 cms high and I won't be needing to drill holes. The Inkbird has arrived and the temperature probe wire is thin enough to fit under the lid seal and will only be needed occasionally for the current project. As an Englishman of a certain age, I am quite happy with 'warm' beer! Most of the time, the freezer would simply act as an insulated outdoor storage box.
By default, the Inkbird is set as a heat controller, so I had to set it to -4 c. I connected it to my current freezer with the probe in the top drawer, which gave me a reading somewhat higher than my thermometer, which was of concern.
I have fixed the problem with excessively foamy beer. Simply turn off the gas!
The next bottle of 'no fizz' wine did actually have a slight fizz and also some yeast sediment, despite purging in 2015, 3 years ago. Vintage Champagne is left on the yeast in the bottle for 3 years and indeed this stuff really did taste like good Champagne. I recarbed it at -3 c with just 5 bursts on the Sodastream. After venting, I gave it another burst and it almost froze, because when liquid co2 is released it causes a drop in temperature. This made it much easier to transfer back to the champagne bottle with minimal foaming. I also learned that co2 reacts with water to produce carbonic acid, but only 1% of it. The rest remains as dissolved co2. Another very important point is that it takes a lot more co2 to make plain water fizzy than it does wine, because water can absorb much more. It is only when liquid has reached saturation point of co2 that it escapes as gas.

The inkbird is a great bit of kit, I have 2 for my FVs

If you’re bottkes are taking a long time to cook in the freezer, try wrapping a wet paper towel / jay cloth around them. That should reduce chilling time to a few minutes.

Thanks for the tip but it didn't work. It took an hour to get the temperature down from 6 c to 0. It's quite effective chilling at bottle down from room temperature, but in fact by chilling the glass it only gives the impression of chilling the wine. It may even slow down the rate of chilling in the freezer in the same way that a blanket of snow insulates the ground below.
Due to frequently opening the freezer recently, it has frosted up a lot, making it difficult to open and close the drawers. I switched it off and left the door open for 6 hours but there was still lots of ice left on the shelves. I have ordered a heat gun.

tonyhibbett said:

I have ordered a heat gun.

Click to expand...

I like your style.

While waiting for the heat gun I tried bowls of boiling hot water. The main effect was rapid cooling of the water with minimal defrosting. So I unearthed an old 2 kw space heater and placed it on a box 4 inches above the floor and directed at the open freezer with all trays removed and this worked really well. An empty tray at the bottom to collect ice and water would be even better.
In all, about half a gallon of ice was removed and the freezer is now much more efficient, significantly reducing cooling time.
I carbonated another bottle of rhubarb wine, but this time I added 3 ml of glycerine with the Sweetex (saccharin). The pH of the wine was 4.3 (5 ppt tartaric) before adding the co2 and 3.5 after, which is a significant increase in acidity, offset by the addition of glycerine. The wine is now medium dry, rather than brut, which was a tad harsh in the previous bottle.

Using the tank method to carbonate requires pressurised filtration to a second tank. I have discovered the Eagle Brewing FIL40 which works between 2 corny kegs. Only available from the US and you only get 1 disposable filter.
I have identified 2 freezers, but one is 'not suitable for outbuildings', which means it may malfunction under 10 c.
However, I am very happy with the results I am getting from the Sodastream, now I understand what is required, so I'll stick with that for the time being.