I'm getting excited now!!! I have my wine boxes all padded and ready for riddling a week from today!!
Northern Winos, how hard should I have been shaking the bottles all this time? All of a sudden I'm thinking the semi-vigorous rocking I've been doing might not have been enough. Or maybe all I needed to do was rile things up good. Yes? NO?
The first batch I just tipped them back and forth...then I became more vigorous with each batch.
On your clear bottle look at the lees...then make sure you are getting them stirred up real good.
Once you start riddling watch your clear bottle..make sure there are no lees stuck to the bottom or sides of the bottle....You can assume that all the bottles are acting like your clear bottle. The leeswill be in the neck of the bottle at the onset of riddling and each day they will settle down more till they will all be either in the plastic top and around it...Sounds like your having fun.
I discovered that one of my bottles has been leaking and opened it and
dumped it. Boy do they have some pressure in there. More pressure than
any bottle Ive ever opened in my life but that may be because it was
only half full and may have had more room to build pressure but I tell
you I was ready to chuck this bottle and run when I started to open it!
Poooooooooof!!!!
Ive been shaking it till everything was stirred up nicely and I guess
it was just a bad cork and when leaned over on its side with all that
pressure it was just enough to start leaking.I shook it up without
looking at it and heard it hissing at me.
I had a scare today! I took all of the bottles out of the box and set them on the floor while I lined the boxes with newspapers. As I picked them up I riled the lees and put them in the box. One bottle I put on my knee to get a better grip on it and it was wet!
I panicked! Then I realized my dog had just had a drink from her water bowl and she'd goobered on the floor! PHEW!!
Joan and Wade, many years ago I attempted a sparkling Riesling. During the bottle fermentation period, I closed the champagne bottle with a crown beer cap and my beer capper. No leaks, no problems.
Thanks Joseph, next time Ill give it a try as I just purchased caps and
a capper as I just started my first batch of beer. How did your
champagne come out?
Wade, the can of Riesling concentrate I used was not of the best quality and the resulting wine was just okay. The most important thing was that I learned something from the process. Subsequent attempts were better. Although I have not made a sparkling wine in many years, the thought of doing a sparkling cranberry for the holidays occasionally crosses my mind.<?amespace prefix = o ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />
Wade, sorry I missed your question earlier. It was canned concentrate similar to Alexander’s. The brand was <?amespace prefix = st1 ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficearttags" /><st1lace wt="on"><st1laceName wt="on">Indian</st1laceName> <st1lace wt="on">Valley</st1lace></st1lace> and it came in 12 ounce cans that were reconstituted to one gallon. Their fruit concentrates were better than their grape concentrates. The company is no longer in business. <?amespace prefix = o ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />
I used sparkle tops on 12 of my sparkling bottles. I stood them up for two weeks then laid them on their sides for the aging process. I'm not sure what happened, either the pressure was so great that if pushed past the spring or they weren't seated well; either way I looked at the box a week after I had laid it down. Mold was every where. It appears they all leaked thru the top. The wire caps were rusted. I consolidated 12 bottles to 9 and added new wire caps. No pics because camera is down butI amvery disappointed none the less. I have them standing now and I'll keep an eye on them but I think the fermentation was done. I don't know how much of the fizz I lost.
The only upside is that the wine tasted like a fine champagne.
Bummer!!!! And I was hoping to try those Sparkle Tops...this is not a good report on them.....When we dégorge we loose some fizz and in couple months of being upright the bubbles are back again...so...don't dispair...give it some time and hope for the best...