How much sugar for priming Elderflower champagne?

[ringmany]

Hi everyone,

I'm making some Elderflower champagne using the 'Youngs elderflower wine' kit. The seller states you can simply add sugar at the bottling stage to prime it for making it champagne instead of wine.

However, the instructions don't have the steps to achieve this, as it isn't official.

I've just finished the fermentation and the gravity is currently 0.998. I just added my stabiliser, although I'm worried I shouldn't have done this. The next step is to add the fining agent and wait 2 weeks to clear before bottling. What gravity do you believe an Elderflower champagne should be, are they usually quite dry or sweet?

As I'm adding sugar to prime the champagne when I bottle, should I have not added the stabiliser so that it's able to carbonate whilst in the bottle? Also, how much sugar should I add to each bottle? Should I use brewing sugar or granulated sugar.

Thank you.

 

[salcoco]

if by stabilizer you mean potassium sorbate, you are out of luck for making it champagne this year. sorbate stops yeast from budding thus no fermentation in bottle, no fermentation no carbonation. you might what to investigate forced carbonation.

 

[BernardSmith]

I agree with Salcoco - if you added stabilizer you cannot prime your wine. You have effectively prevented the yeast from fermenting any more sugar. BUT if your wine has not been stabilized I would add about 20 grams of table sugar to each gallon and use that as the priming agent.

 

[Winestar]

I'm no expert on this part, but couldn't it work to add a higher amount of yeast? If you add enough, you don't need them to go budding right? Sorbate only stops them from budding, not fermenting.

 

[BernardSmith]

But "stabilizing typically refers to the addition of two chemicals added in tandem: K-Sorbate AND K-Meta and in tandem, under the right conditions no refermentation will occur. Can you add enough more yeast to neutralize this? I believe so, but you are then talking about adding an enormous amount of yeast - way more than a pack or two.

 

[ringmany]

Cheers for the advice everyone.

I've looked into the forced carbonation and this isn't practical for me to get this equipment. So I appear to be buggered. I may have to look at getting another kit and not adding the stabiliser. Unless there is a slight chance I can add some sugar once bottled and it may by chance still produce some Co2.

If I made a second kit, so I simply wait till the fermentation is completed, don't add the stabiliser, but add the clearing agent. Then add sugar once bottling?

 

[salcoco]

that is correct. if you want to take the chance and experiment just take one bottle and add sugar and see if it starts. normal dosage is 3/4 cup for 5 gallons should be able to do math I would follow it in metric. which wold be 150 ml=150grams in 23 liters.