Easy Sparkling Wine

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Pumpkinman

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2012
Messages
3,433
Reaction score
648
I got this method from Bzac, it is an extremely easy, fast and low sediment method of making sparkling wine.


You will need to buy:
  • Encapsulated yeast, Prorestart/ UvaFerm 43, ProElif® QA23 might even be better if you can find it. These are the QA23 baynus strain of yeast used for sparkling wines.
    Find it here for under $20.00
  • Coopers carbonation drops
  • Champagne Bottles
  • Plastic Champagne stoppers
  • Wire cages
  • Stainless steel pipe screens


Put one gram of Encapsulated yeast in the plastic stoppers, pushed the stainless screens in to secure the yeast.
Rehydrate the yeast in a solution of warm water & sugar ( the instructions will give you the specifics)
Fill the Champagne bottles adding 2 Coopers Carbonation Drops (sugar) per 750 ml bottle, making sure that wine level is an inch or so from the top, put in the cook with the yeast (do not remove the screen, yeast must stay in cork).
Secure cork with wire cage, store bottle on their side.
Every day shake the bottle once or twice.
In 2-4 weeks, you have perfect sparkling wine with little to no sediment!
I tested a few bottles and it works well.

Test a bottle or two and you will be surprised!
 
Last edited:
I asked this question on another thread, but figured that I would ask it here as well.

Where do you get your "pipe screens". I never heard of this.

johnT.
 
We sampled another bottle tonite, flat out amazing!!!!!
Get your Stainless pipe screens here...click me..
 
Last edited:
sparkling wine

I finished making the millennium sparkling wine kit, and the way they perceive to make it wasn't instead of adding the normal chemicals at the end to stop the fermentation process. They add dextrose to the mix then allow the 4 to 6 weeks to pop the cork.

The sparkling wine itself was okay. Better than I expected. However, it did turn cloudy from the addition of the dextrose (should have used simple syrup)
This made a decent sparkling wine semi dry lots carbonation and an hour later, after the bottle was opened still have plenty of bubbles so satisfied with that aspect, so my questions pumpkin man are you saying that no wine was perfectly cleared and then you added sugar pills and then the yeast? Or can you break down the process steps for me would appreciate it goes one to make good sparkling wine finally did you know was a kit and it came out just great but still a little cloudy. I was wondering, if I would use simple syrup in the final stages it would've done the same thing as the dextrose without dissolving aspect, I have 6 gallons of Pinot Noir in the mix right now what I'm going to do that when the file the same aspects or resting at the millennium wine kit. What I'm going to do is take 3 gallons of this Pinot Noir and prior to bottling and added one shot glass of simple syrup then cork wire and let it set. The best champion of ever had was a Pinot Noir. It was exquisite better than the comparison's I had $140 a bottle. So please let me know the steps were that you did not take them under advisement. Meanwhile, if you want to swap bottle to bottle no always open to it. Yours always. JP
 
Last edited:
Joe! Hey bud, it would be my pleasure to break down the steps for you, but I have to admit, after tasting your wines, it would be an honor my friend!!!
I made a 6 gallon batch of Moscato, but obviously,Pinot Noir would be perfect as well.
The Moscato was perfectly cleared. A finished wine

The wine was a little bit too dry, so i adjusted it with just a little sugar to maintain the sweet Asti Spumante characteristics.
I weighed out exactly one gram of Encapsulated yeast per bottle - Prorestart/ UvaFerm 43. This is a QA23 baynus strain. The yeast almost looks like grains of rice, not powdered.
I put one gram of yeast in each plastic stopper, and pushed a stainless screen in to secure the yeast.
I rehydrated the yeast in a solution of warm water & sugar ( the instructions will give you the specifics)
I Filled the Champagne bottles adding 2 Coopers Carbonation Drops (sugar) per 750 ml bottle, making sure that wine level is an inch or so from the top, put in the cook with the yeast (do not remove the screen, yeast must stay in cork).
The coopers carbonation drops supply the sugar that the encapsulated yeast need for the secondary fermentation in bottle and produce the CO2 needed.
The best part Joe, is that there was no visible sediment, the yeast is still in the stopper, still looking like grains of rice.
The wine was fantastic, we opened up the last test bottle last night with friends, it was perfect!


As far as the kit you made using the dextrose, I would have used Simple syrup as well, or...At least when making beer, the dextrose is used as a priming sugar and normally, 5 ounces is used to carbonate 5 gallons of beer, it is boiled in 2 cups of water, making a very watered down syrup, it isn't added before dissolving it, that could have been the reason for your wine becoming cloudy after adding the dextrose.
I am also going to make a few bottles of Sparkling wine with 2 gallons of my Pinot Noir, I've had that many times when I lived in Italy.
I will use this faster method of making sparkling wine, 2 Coopers drops and 1 gram of yeast held in the plastic champagne stopper with a stainless steel pipe screen, it is almost too easy!
Joe, I purchased the yeast from M&M, on their website, although it seems like they have an error on the pricing. MoreWine has 83 grams for $18.95
If you have any questions, we can set up a few mins to talk on the phone, I believe I may have sent you my number, if not, let me know.
 
understand

see the difference ,but I would think that using the sugar drops ,with out adding the chems at the back end would do the same thing with out adding the yeast,the yeast is still abit active without finding and would then be stimulated by the sugar to start the reprocess,just my thoughts,????????????:mny they did't in the unstructions state to do any thing else with the dextrose ,so on this occausion I stayed the course,....................jp:hug
 
The issue with using the yeast from the first fermentation is that most of it is dead, plus, Spumante needs that tell tale yeast flavor, I swear, I goggled it to be sure...lol
In theory, I agree with you, but for hundreds of years they have been adding yeast and sugar for the secondary fermentation, it has to do with the amount of carbonation that you will get as well.
I look forward to hearing your results!
 
Sparkling wine

I'll try that the next time out, will be shipping the ports very soon............ remember what I added to my.:br
 
Cool idea Tom. Thanks. I assume you need to have a champagne corker to do this - correct?

I have two 1.5L bottles of dragon blood that have no sorbate. I'm going to bottle them in large beer bottles with a little sugar and see what happens. Would love to make some sparkling DB, but am concerned about clarity. Your method would solve that problem, but I don't have a champagne corker.
 
The wine was a little bit too dry, so i adjusted it with just a little sugar to maintain the sweet Asti Spumante characteristics..

Hi Tom,

What was your ratio for the backsweetening?
Also, do you think that over time the yeast would continue to eat into the sweetness level or over carbonate? I was thinking that once carbonated it may be prudent to pop them in the freezer upright, pull the corks and the yeast and then recork.

Last question (I think), what diameter were the stainless pipe meshes? The link didn't work ofr me but I did see various sizes on Amazon.

This will save me about $1k per year, thanks!

Scott
 
Boatboy24 - no corker needed, use the plastic corks (stoppers) I can push them right in by hand, then I add the wire cage.
sdb8440 - The beauty of this is that the yeast stays in the stopper, behind the stainless steel screen, you could just remove the wire cage and stopper and replace the stopper with another, without the yeast, sine the yeast is encapsulated, it looks like small kernels, it doesn't turn to a powder, or sediment.
I bought 1 inch stainless steel pipe screens. The link is here Stainless steel Pipe Screens
As far as back sweetening, for this particular batch, I used 14 grams of sugar (1/2 ounce) per bottle.
 
Hi pumpinkman!
I was about to bottle tonight some riesling from a kit that I want to make into sparkling wine, after reading this thread I am going to try this method, but I have a question: If I use the encapsulated yeast, pipe screens, and carbonation drops, that means that I don't have to get rid of the sediment later?
 
yep, I had no sediment! This is just another reason why this method is very appealing!
 
I've been kicking around the idea of tossing some Chardonell into a Corny keg and force carbonating it, then bottling it after a few days. any one else try this? or comments? We like a dry sparkling wine.
 
I've been kicking around the idea of tossing some Chardonell into a Corny keg and force carbonating it, then bottling it after a few days. any one else try this? or comments? We like a dry sparkling wine.

doug, i have done something similar to this in the past, only unfortunately we didn't keep it under pressure long enough, only a couple of hours...doing for a couple of days should work out fine....just 2 tips.....1) be sure once you fill the korney to chill it down, since as we know, colder temps will hold the c02 in suspension better, then go ahead and pressure the korney with co2....2) periodically take the korney out, lap it on your lap, and roll it vigorously up and down along lap, or i guess you could lay it on it's side on the floor and roll it back and forth....either way, that will help the wine take in the co2....with these tips, force carbonation should work out just fine....no, this isn't the methode champanois, but it will still make a fine sparkling wine....
 
Okay, keeper, how much carbonation did you lose? I have kept mine at 40psi for a couple of months at near freezing and have occasionally opened it up and done a sampling, and it is boiling as the co2 escapes. I have tried the counter pressure bottling system before but it is a pain and at 40 psi it blows by the seals. I believe commercial sparkling wine is up at around 50 psi or more. Other than chilling the bottles and chilling the wine, how did you keep the pressure up?
 
Okay, keeper, how much carbonation did you lose? I have kept mine at 40psi for a couple of months at near freezing and have occasionally opened it up and done a sampling, and it is boiling as the co2 escapes. I have tried the counter pressure bottling system before but it is a pain and at 40 psi it blows by the seals. I believe commercial sparkling wine is up at around 50 psi or more. Other than chilling the bottles and chilling the wine, how did you keep the pressure up?

I read somewhere that adding carbonation to wine makes it taste like cheap wine, and we don't want that in a bottle of champaigne, I don't know if this is true...
 
Anyone else having trouble finding the smaller quantity of the encapsulated yeast? So far I've only been able to find it in much larger quantities than I would need. Of course, I don't have anything ready now that would be appropriate for a sparkling wine, but I would like to try it at some point.
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Back
Top