How about Sparkling Watermelon Merlot?

[Wade E]

The stoppers will move up after some time. Make sure you have something like old newspaper under the bottles as I had 2 leakers during fermentation, 2 during riddling and 1 spraying a very very thin spray that was like invisible until it hits you in the face while I had it laying on its side after degorging. i would get a wire toll like NW bought at I think Home depot for possible doing re bar ties, I used electrical pliers though and they worked fine. I dont know if i got some bad stoppers or bad bottles.

 

[jobe05]

I couldn't stand it Wade, the green bottles were killing me because I
couldn't see very well inside them. So I took one and transfered it to
the clear bottle and noticed a couple of things just after 24 hours:

When uncorking the bottle, I just twisted the cap and it rose out of the bottle by itself, giving a nice (small) pop.

The wine smells of yeast ............... or yeast hard at work.......

The wine is now cloudy again. Not bad cloudy, just enough so you can't see through it, which to me is a good indication that the yeast are trying to work, producing co2 and keeping things suspended. Perhaps......... I don't know heck, it's only been 24 hours.

I thought I would do this now (transfer bottles) that I'm early on in this endeavor rather than wait or have this drive me nuts during the whole process. Once Im assured that a good fermentation is taking place, I'm gonna go ahead and finish the remaining 5 gallons the same way. I think this is going to be very good.

Edited by: jobe05

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

I used green bottles also, was amazed at how well I COULD see through them after the first month or so.
I can easily see now with all the lees in the caps that degorging should remove all of the debris, leaving a very clear sparkling wine. Will know more tomorrow when I degorge them.Edited by: JWMINNESOTA

 

[jobe05]

FIRST MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!! A MONTH???????????

I OPENED ONE AFTER 24 HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!! I GOTTA WAIT A MONTH?????????

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

No, Two!

 

[Wade E]

What happened to all your patience? You yelled at me for opening a bottle of your wine after many months and you couldnt wait more then 1 day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shame!

 

[NorthernWinos]

We let ours sit on the 'lees' [yeast] for TWO months....Shake the bottles once a week....[this gives me the creeps...I always look away]


Then turn the bottles up side down or put them in a Riddling Rack...twist and drop them gently everyday or so...Then...after two weeks of riddling you will be ready to dégorge.


The wine will clear nicely during the fermentation stage.....After they have been riddled for a couple weeks........test a bottle..


Our last batch wasn't very bubbly...so we let it sit awhile longer...testing a bottle every week or two...Then last week it was really bubbly.


Our wine room is running about 61*....Next batch we are going to set the bottles out in a warmer area forthe first month or so to let the yeast work faster.....


I think a riddling rack would be nice....I had been gently dropping the bottles on the plastic stoppers during the riddling stage....we have a thick layer of newspapers under them...But two batches ago I cracked the stopper and some wine leaked out...I think on two bottles....I could smell the wine in the wine room but couldn't track it down till we dégorged and there was some 'light' bottles...


Cheers!!!!Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[jobe05]

What happened to all your patience? You yelled at me for opening a bottle of your wine after many months and you couldnt wait more then 1 day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shame!

You mean 1 more day and I would have been in the clear????????

Edit: OOOops.... I thought you said I had to wait one more day..............

Yes....... I yelled at you but that was primarily because your just too much fun to yell at.............. don't believe me, ask your wife..........

I just wonder, once I am completely done, the labels go on and the wine rack has new pretty green bottles on them, how long will I have to wait to try this??

Thanks NW, your post brought a couple new questions:

You say you shake the bottle every week: Is that after the first month, or starting today, every week shake them up?

The temp in my wine room is maintained around 74 via electric heater. Would it be safe to leave at that during fermentation, but once I turn them upside down, should I store them in a cooler place??


Edited by: jobe05

 

[jobe05]

I can easily see now with all the lees in the caps that degorging should remove all of the debris, leaving a very clear sparkling wine. Will know more tomorrow when I degorge them.

JW, Your gonna have to take some pictures. I know NW and I think it was Ramona and Martina that has posted pics of their fun time doing it, We'dlike to see how you do it.

I would also like to know how many people that have degorged a bottle, or just opened a bottle of champain close your eye and make that face like you think it's going to blow up?

I Do............ Sigh................

 

[NorthernWinos]

I shake them every week from the beginning of refermentation.


I would store them cooler once they are finished...maybe during riddling too...never thought about that part.

 

[jobe05]

OK, per NW's advise, I went down and gave these a good shaking up. There is quite a layer of lees developing on the bottom of each bottle, so I assume it's working. After shaking a bit upside down, I would turn right side up and quite a few bubbles float to the top, again, I assume it's working.

And this past weekend, I was racking my French Chardonnay and my Piesporter after 30 days of stirring up (whic makes them clear really quick). I couldn't resist. I took a gallon of each and sweetened back .005 SG each and added some Champaign yeast to the bucket and made up 5 bottles of each. I'm sure after all is said and done, I'll have 4 bottles to age a bit and a glass or 2 to sip on during degorging.

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

Funny how it works, every batch I now make I think about setting some aside to sparkle.

Have Muscat to degorge in about two weeks!

 

[NorthernWinos]

Sounds good to me....Cheers!!!!

 

[jobe05]

Have you tried any of the ones that you have done yet JW, or is this something that you just started? I got the idea from NW when she posted that some champaign's are made from Chardonnay wine, or sparkling wines were made from it............... That made me think because I had a batch in secondary, along with the Piesporter............ If it doesn't turn out, I'll only lose a gallon of each, if it does work out, I will make more.

 

[jobe05]

Shook them up again today per NW's suggestion. The first three bottles I did a few days before the others is very bubbly, the others are coming along and getting more bubbly every week............... Well....... it's only been a week for them, but they are bubbly!

So I guess if there were chemicals in the watermelon F pack, it's not enough to prevent fermentation, at least it's not for the small amount I used.

 

[Wade E]

Thats good to know Jobe and thanks for being the guinea pig in this experiment.

Oh, by the way, for anyone who ups the abv on these kits it takes awhile for these kits to come around. I was not fond of this kit when I made it but finally opened another bottle last night and now I love it, and my daughter had a sip and loves it too!

Edited by: wade

 

[jobe05]

You really didn't like it?

I think this was one of the first wines that we had here that the entire group liked. It was one of my friends that was here who bought me the kit so that when they come over, they can have their favorite wine, as a side note, they are white wine drinkers.

Another thought..................... I have to freeze these don't I.............

AWHhhhhh CRAAAPPppp........... THE FREEZER!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Wade E]

I didnt when I tried it at 1st, may have needed a little while to come around since I upped the abv on it but it is really good now. Yes, your gonna have to make room for these in the freezer to degorge so as that you can get rd of the sediment in 1 nice plug and not lose to much CO2 as the colder temp helps to keep the CO2 other wise it would probably go flat.
Edited by: wade

 

[jobe05]

Time to resurrect this thread and give everyone an update.

I came home after a long day and have been dying to try this sparkling wine, but it wasn't ready yet. I had been riddling it for the past few weeks and it was nice and clear. So tonight, I wanted something special for the hot tub, so I through a bottle in the freezer................

It froze in short time and I took it outside and popped the cork.................. actually...... I didn't need to pop the cork..... it just popped when I loosened the wire a little bit......... needless to say... the top went flying....... somewhere........??????......... Gone like a rocket!

I took the ice cold bottle upstairs where I had the F Pack in the fridge to help back sweeten and flavor. I added a tablespoon of F Pack to about 4 ounces of water, mixed well and added it slowly to the bottle to top off, and re-corked and wired. I shook it up and let it settle while I changed for the hot tub.

Once in the hot tub, we but the bottle on the table to uncork............... Once again.... we loosened the wire, and off like a rocket went the cork............... Straight up in the air..... and we never heard it land............ I'm sure it did, we just never found it.

This was young tasting....... but had great flavor potential, just the right amount of alcohol, lots of bubbles and great body! Probably better than the original wine had.

This is a great sparkling wine and would highly suggest that anyone try this.

We are going to finish the rest of the bottles this weekend and we still have a couple of weeks and the Chardonnay and Piesporter that we sparkled will be ready to de-gorge and shelf for a while as it ages.

Now I'm looking at all the Orchard Breezin kits and saying HMMMMmmmmmmmmm.....................................................

 

[Wade E]

Great to hear that buddy, I havent seen you on here in awhile.