Sparkling wine

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Delaney

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Hello,

I am not an accomplished winemaker, and I have questions about how to make a sparkling wine. Firstly, it should be known that the wine in question is red raspberry wine. I'd like to make a portion of the wine sparkling as an experiment.
I understand I have much to learn before attempting this. I'm having trouble finding good literature of how to produce a sparkling wine.
 
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Check the tutorials at the beginning of this forum. D.J.Steve has one on making sparkling wine. Read thru that and see if it doesn't answer most of your questions. Then come on back and we will try and answer any left over questions. Arne.
 
Check the tutorials at the beginning of this forum. D.J.Steve has one on making sparkling wine. Read thru that and see if it doesn't answer most of your questions. Then come on back and we will try and answer any left over questions. Arne.

thanks...for some reason this wasn't appearing when I searched the site for sparkling wine.
 
The tutorial indicates the following
Start off with fermenting your wine completely dry with an alcohol level not exceeding 10 and 11 ½ percent
. What the heck does that mean? My ABV% is going to be ~10.9%, because my OG is 1.072. so I'm above 10, but below 11 ½...Is my ABV% too high???

Each yeasts use up specific nutrients and these nutrients will not be in the wine if the same yeast was previously used. Recommend using Lalvin K1B-V1116 for the primary fermentation and Lalvin EC-1118 for the secondary or any equivalent. Champagne yeast is not a good yeast to use.
I used Lalvin EC-118 for my primary fermentation. I'm assuming this means I would require a different culture for bottle fermentation, which is equivalent.

Or can I add yeast nutrient instead of a different yeast culture?

To high of an alcoholic content will hinder secondary fermentation. Care must also be taken to ensure that sulfite levels are kept to a minimum (less than 25 milligrams per litre) and sorbate is not added.
I added 2 campden tablets for 2 gallons of wine, 24 hours prior to primary fermentation. Am I beyond this limit of 24mg/Liter. I don't have a kit to test my sulfite levels.

Immediately cap (or cork, however caps are easier to remove later). You will need a capping tool designed for sparkling wine bottles (due to the extra lip at the top).

Is it bad practice to bottle wine in beer bottles with beer caps? Or is a champagne bottle with cork required? What is achieved with a cork that is not achieved with a beer cap?

Thanks for help. Sorry for my lack of knowledge.
 
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The reason you don't want to high of a abv is that you will be producing a secondary ferment which will raise the abv higher. If you use a champagne yeast to start which has a higher abv tolerance you may not be able to start a secondary ferment. You should be fine with your sulfite level. I would not use beer bottles and caps, as they are not design to hold the higher pressure levels. I bought a cheap case of champagne for a party and then saved the bottles and stoppers (you can reuse the plastic ones) then all i needed was the wires and foil.
 

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