Pineapple Champagne

[Tovis]

Anybody ever tried making pineapple champagne or pineapple wine?

 

[Arne]

Havn't tried it, but it sounds like a good wine. Think I would go with pure juice, check the acid/ph, add a little tannin check the specific gravity and let it go. If the juice is really strong, mite cut it with a little water. Arne.

 

[Tovis]

I used a recipe and actually upped the juice and amount of fruit.

I am going off research to make it into a champagne. Slightly nervous that I did not add enough sugar for the secondary fermentation. I added 1 cup which is about 225g to 3.5 gallons that was a bit gassy from the primary fermentation.

I guess it being the first time it is better to error on less than have glass bombs exploding around me.

 

[BernardSmith]

I think you may want to add not more than about 20 g of sugar per gallon (or less than 1 ounce per gallon). And technically, I think you are making a sparkling wine and not Champagne.

 

[barbiek]

Tovis you have to make sure it's totally cleared and still wine before proceeding to the 2nd fermentation and add the sugar gradually or you will never end with some wine left in the bottle. I take it you plan on de gorging? You are brave to make your first sparkling wine a pineapple! Goodluck!

 

[Tovis]

I am following the methode champenoise mostly, I may not age it as long though. Isn't sparkling generally by forced carbonation or done in a tank?

Perhaps it would be better to say Pineapple Method Champenoise Moëlleux.

 

[Tovis]

The wine seemed very clear, and was as dry as it gets on the hydrometer. I just did not want to spend time degassing if I was just going to gas it back up. Hopefully this was not a mistake.

Everything looks good so far. I am shaking the bottles to get everything good and mixed twice a day for a bit before I begin riddling.

I am very excited. Yea, I hope my wife will record me popping off the crown caps, I know the local wine supply store wants to see how messy I get. I just hope these babies have some pressure so it stays fizzy once I add the dosage (cleared pineapple juice, sugar, perhaps some brandy and sorbate).

 

[Tovis]

20g per gallon or per liter? That seems a bit low from articles I have found on the internet.

http://www.wineperspective.com/making_champagne.htm

Says 24g per liter, I believe champagne is done at 6 bar or 6 atmosperes.

 

[barbiek]

Don't add sorbate! If your hydrometer reads dry then your good to go don't shake bottles. After you fill champagne bottles you lay them on their side in a medium temp range 68 to 70 degrees f for 2nd fermentation to start after a week place them upside down I use the box that the bottles came in to do this in a lil cooler temp then give the bottles a turn once a day to persuade the lees to drop to the bottom of the closures I usually do this for a full month then de gorge and place a clean closure on each bottles not sure on the amount of sugar I used per gallon but that sounds about right remember your going for less of fermentation your just going for the fizz so to speak. Oh and fyi make sure to use champagne bottles Oh and by the way if there was still gas it was not all clear yet but you can just spend more time riddling I think that should get rid of most of the sediment

 

[Tovis]

Okay next time perhaps I will degas, but I will try the characteristics of the wine first.

Wont I need sorbate if I plan on sweetening these up a bunch during the dosage stage at that stage? If any residual yeast is in the bottles with 1118 without sorbate I feel these would turn into something dangerous.

I will stop shaking, it seems dangerous hut remember reading it somewhere.

Thanks I will wear some gloves safety glasses and be sure not to do this alone.

 

[barbiek]

No no sorbate if you want it sweetened use non ferment able sugar befor you bottle it if you sorbate it no bottle fermentation and keep it stirred up while bottling it and there will be no need to shake if you feel compelled to shake it just take the bottle and turn it upside down once just keep the wine stirred at bottling to keep the non ferment able sugar and the yeasties equally distributed and to use the non ferment able sugar you must heat it in some water keep stirring till clear let it cool let us know how it's coming along
Good luck

 

[barbiek]

Tovis what was/is your procedure for 2nd fermentation? If I might ask I'm hoping your method wasn't just to dump the yeast on the whole as I forgot to mention how you do the 2nd fermentation

 

[Tovis]

I'm using Méthode Champenoise.

This site shows it. I'm not aging it as long so I want to put a halt to the reproduction of yeast during the dosage stage by using sorbate.

I'm now in the riddling stage.

http://www.winesparkle.com/what.html

 

[barbiek]

Thats exactly as I have made it with the riddling and disgorging! I would like to know where you got the info that adding sorbate to champagne would be ok? Because we add sorbate to wine before sweetening as not to add any re fermentation ie bubbles, co2, fizz, good luck! Let us know what you learn from your project

 

[Tovis]

Second batch so far is successful. After shaking one bottle I opened it warm and was covered in pineapple champagne. It was a joyous occasion almost like striking oil.

Now I am letting the other 24 bottles age a bit while letting them sit on the bottle sides. After that I will riddle.

I am thinking about freezing little ice capsules of frozen sugar water syrup with some sorbate to back sweeten. This way when I drop those in the chilled champagne it wont fizz up as much.

 

[Arne]

Are you going to use the ice to sweeten while drinking? If so, skip the sorbate. Sorbate is a birth control for yeast. it doesn't stop live yeast from finishing their lifetime. Add k-meta and sorbate to a finished wine, then you can sweeten. k-meta will stun any live yeast but it isn't going to kill it off. Good luck with it, Arne.

 

[Tovis]

Please pvt to get recipe information.

 

[x_diver]

Tovis, how did this come out?

 

[Tovis]

Amazing. Friends and family think we should open a winery. It turned out exactly how I wanted it to.