How do I make some sparkling wine? I know I charge the wine with some sugar and put it into a bottle but how much sugar goes into it? Do I add yeast with it?
To make a basic sparkling wine do the following.
- make sure wine is finished fermenting.
- use crown seal bottles (beer bottles or champagne bottles)
- add sugar to bottles to be 8 grams per litre (6 grams per 750ml bottle)
- fill them up and seal them.
- store upright so sediment collects at the bottom.
- have patience and leave for a good few months (sediment can take a long time to drop)
- pour carefully off the sediment to enjoy clear wine, last pour will be cloudy as sediment will get disturbed.
I won't go into the hard way. The champagne process is a lot more complex and time consuming.
Be careful what bottles you use as not all are equal. That's why I say 8 grams sugar per litre as that will keep pressure safe in standard beer bottles and give decent carbonation.
If you want more bubbles use champagne bottles and try higher sugar maybe 12 - 16 grams. Champagne bottles are very strong and can likely handle up to 20g litre. Measure your sugar accurately to avoid bottle bombs.
After the second fermentation, to remove the sediment, it goes something like this:
1) Age the bottles neck down so the sediment collects at the cork.
2) Superchill just the neck of the bottle to form an ice plug with the sediment. Salt water when it is 0 degrees outside?
3) open the bottle, and remove the ice plug (hopefully it pops out on its own)
4) Recork the bottle.
It's a great experience to make sparkling wine. I've done it a few times.
I haven't tried it with dry ice, but next time I'll do that instead of saltwater. Dry ice is cheap and readily available for me. Get the bottles cold, crush up the dry ice and stick the neck into it...see what happens. I think it'll be more effective and definitely less messy given my situational issues of doing it on my balcony 6 floors up and the people below me asking about the white (salt) residue on their balconies...
