How do i make sparkling wine

[samnorfolk]

How do i go about making sparkling wines?

 

[billybacardi]

sparkling wine is made to sparkle by adding sugar when bottling. not to much though as it could explode. have a look at a kit and see what the instuctions say..

 

[Brewtrog]

Making sparkling wine is easy enough. Make sure the wine is fully fermented out (i.e. it's dry) then bottle into beer bottles with 0.5-1tsp sugar per bottle, cap and leave for a few weeks. Don't use stabiliser if you want sparkling wine, it kills the yeast. Also you have to use pressure bottles (like beer bottles), normal wine bottles won't hold the pressure, corks would pop out and screw tops would fail somehow or other.
The best type of bottle in my opinion are the little 250ml beer bottles (half a tsp sugar max) you get cheap continental lager in from supermarkets, as they are a large pub measure for wine.
If you want the wine sweet, use an artificial sweetener to your desired taste.

 

[Unclejona]

Getting the sparkle is easy, as described with sugar, getting the sediment out is hard (but not impossible)

 

[Brewtrog]

Getting the sparkle is easy, as described with sugar, getting the sediment out is hard (but not impossible)

Or you do as the Italians do with Frizzante and just leave it in (they argue that the sediment is good for the complexion and the last glass should be given to a lady) I've never found it a major problem, just be a bit careful when pouring to keep the worst of it in the bottle

 

[Moley]

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=11805

 

[zero]

I'm interested in trying this too. As I'm a total newbie could you clear something up?
After the wine is fully fermented out, do you go straight to bottling or do you rack it to get rid of some of the sediment from the bottom and de-gas it? or just prime each bottle and go straight from the original FV?

 

[Brewtrog]

I'm interested in trying this too. As I'm a total newbie could you clear something up?
After the wine is fully fermented out, do you go straight to bottling or do you rack it to get rid of some of the sediment from the bottom and de-gas it? or just prime each bottle and go straight from the original FV?

To be honest you'll need one or two racks in the clearing time. Other than that, it's up to you if you think you can bottle without disturbing the sediment. For a sparkling wine you don't need to degass, you're only going to put more in anyway, for a normal wine it's up to you whether you degass or not, I never do.

 

[zero]

Thanks for the reply brewtrog... one last question please, am I ok to rack a few times and should I add the finings too after racking or before or leave out the finings alltogether? (sorry for the newbie questions)

 

[Brewtrog]

You should be fine to rack a few times when it's needed. Personally I rarely use finings anyway - brews tend to clear in their own time with a bit of patience, but if you're planning on using them (e.g. if they come as part of a kit) then I don't think they'd harm the brew.