Quick and easy sparkling wine?

[NorCal]

Perhaps an Oxymoron?

I've read the other posts on the steps to make sparkling and at this time, it is just more than I want to do. However I do want to dabble this year.

Here is what I am thinking:

I'm making Cab Franc this year. I have on order 1200 pounds. My plan is to make 65 gallons of red, 5 gallons of rose, 5 gallons of sparkling rose.

I would target for 25-26 brix, 3.7 pH to pick the grapes. I would pull 18 gallons of juice out right away for the Roses. Let it settle, rack off 12 gallons or so and throw the rackings back into the main Red wine macrobin. I would then adjust the Rose to 21-22 brix, 3.3-3.4 pH, add red juice to attain the desired color. Let the rose must ferment dry, then make two carboys. The one destined for sparkling, I would plan on keeping the SO2 down to 10 ppm or so. I would cold stabilize, clarify, whatever I needed to do to make it a nice wine.

Now this is where I would leverage my very limited beer making experience and I would create a priming solution, add it to the wine and bottle and cap it in 22 ounce beer bottles or champagne bottles. I wouldn't try to remove any sediment, rather carefully pour upon drinking (like I am when I make beer).

I'm sure I'll get carbonation, but will it taste anything remotely like a sparkling wine or would this just be a waste of time and wine?

 

[salcoco]

you will get a sparkling wine not quite a bubbly as the ol fashioned way but it will be delightful. normal priming that I have done is 3/4 up of sugar for 5 gallons stir well then bottle should carbonate in less than a month.

 

[joeswine]

Use the sugar tablets i believe it's 1 per bottle.
Process,while still in the primary about 1.02 to rack into your bottles add 1tablet of sugar pills ( like you would for beer or cider) per bottle cap as you would do champagne and let it sit,for safety's sake in garage or somewhere that if a bottle pops theres no real problem... Done....
It will settle out over time and not to much work but always remember you need the same champagne bottles,corks and wire nets or beer bottles and caps ,don't use standard wine bottles.

 

[NorCal]

It will settle out over time and not to much work but always remember you need the same champagne bottles,corks and wire nets or beer bottles and caps ,don't use standard wine bottles.

So, 22 ounce beer bottles and bottle caps should be safe, give I follow the normal sugar addition for sparkling wine?

 

[joeswine]

Yes there designed for higher pressure if I get a chance tomorrow or suSund I'll post pics.

 

[Country]

You can put a beer cap on champagne bottles too. Looks weird, works great.

 

[NorCal]

I made two 12 ounce bottles, using flip cap beer bottles. Simple syrup, 1118, a little extra headspace, in a 65-69 degree environment. I used a rose I made a few years ago as the base. I created the below sheet to do my micro experiment to see if this is worth doing this season. I have a few cases of 22 ounce beer bottles I would use.

I’ll let it sit for 3 weeks or so and see if we have proper carbonation.

 

[markur]

I made two 12 ounce bottles, using flip cap beer bottles. Simple syrup, 1118, a little extra headspace, in a 65-69 degree environment. I used a rose I made a few years ago as the base. I created the below sheet to do my micro experiment to see if this is worth doing this season. I have a few cases of 22 ounce beer bottles I would use.

I’ll let it sit for 3 weeks or so and see if we have proper carbonation.

View attachment 49922

 

[markur]

Great thread on making sparkling. I want to dabble with this year too. Better start saving sparkling bottles. Any other tips on the subject would be welcome. I’m a still winemaker with AS degree in winemaking. Made 60 cases of dry semillon back in 2012 from Lake County. Wine turned out great. Still have about 10cases left. Mark in Napa, CA

 

[Slappy]

I'm considering doing a sparkling wine next vintage myself if I get my hands on some white grapes. I've only been making wine for a couple of years now but have been brewing beer for 15+ years and mess around with carbonation levels for many different styles.
One thing to be wary of is that most beer bottles can only handle approx 3 volumes of CO2 safely. 4 grams of table sugar per litre gives approx 1 volume CO2. With beer I run on there being approx .8 volumes already in solution at room temperature, with wine sitting around for months in a carboy there will be degassing but would be difficult to determine how much.
For a safety margin in standard beer bottles I would not dose higher than 8g sugar per litre, maybe 9 grams as the wine probably has slightly lower CO2 in solution than beer.
The exceptions are:
500ml German beer bottles used for hefeweizen are thicker glass and can handle approx 4 volumes, so would likely handle 12g sugar per litre safely.
Swing top bottles are also generally thicker glass as well.
From what I've seen champagne is carbonated to approx 6 volumes which would probably be a 20g litre addition which is huge, someone else would likely know more on this.
If going for high carbonation please only use champagne bottles that can handle the pressure. I have read champagne bottles are safe to 7 volumes CO2.
Pressure in bottles also increases with temperature so more care is required if storage is in a warmer spot.
Not wanting to take this thread off track too much just wanted to give a little advice on carbonation as bottle bombs are not fun at all!

 

[Rewam]

I don't know if this would work, haven't tried it myself YET but am thinking of using a beer keg system and carbonating the wine in kegs, super chilling to maintain maximum CO2 and bottling. Perhaps someone can tell me if this is folly or not.

 

[Slappy]

I don't know if this would work, haven't tried it myself YET but am thinking of using a beer keg system and carbonating the wine in kegs, super chilling to maintain maximum CO2 and bottling. Perhaps someone can tell me if this is folly or not.

I think it would be difficult as you'd likely get excess foaming. If you already keg beer try it with beer to see if it works. Having to plan B a keg full of sparkling wine could be a headache, unless you don't mind the idea of pouring pints of wine!

 

[NelsonC]

Yes there designed for higher pressure if I get a chance tomorrow or suSund I'll post pics.

I read somewhere the pressure can be 3 times that of your car tires!! So, if you have 33 psi on a car tire, your bottles can be as high as 99 psi... Food for thought (Danger too, wear glasses and gloves when handling the bottles).