Accidental Carbonation

[maddog]

I made a batch of apple wine in June. I let it ferment dry (.998 I believe) and stablizied it with Kmeta per the directions on the package and then back sweetened. It sat in my wine fridge in the garage for a month or so at 55 degrees. I noticed a very slight white sediment in the bottom of the bottle this week. When I opened the bottle at 55 degrees it had a high amount of carbonation and foamed fairly good for 5 minutes.

I obviously got lucky, because I have not had any broken bottles or corks that have popped out. The remaining 6 bottles are all now in the fridge to keep them from picking up too much carbonation. I'll drink them in the next week. I dont know exactly what happended that caused this. I probably messed up the stabilizer somehow. Anyway, I like the final product and would like to do it again with proper bottles and champagne corks or crown caps.

Researching making a sparkling wine makes this look fairly complex. Can I simply add the appropriate dose of sugar to the bottles and let it go? Capping and then freezing the necks, uncapping, and refilling the bottles before the final cap goes on to reduce the sediment seems like a lot of work. Most of the bottles I have now have little to no sediment in them and I have been drinking it with no real affect on the taste. Will this create issues in the future? Is it possible to make a semi sweet sparkling wine without making 750 ml bombs?

 

[PCharles]

MDs Sparkling Wine

Hi MD, I'm hoping to make some apple cider wine here this weekend, and was interested in you experience. I agree, it is complex to make sparkling wine. I lookforward to hearing about your progress with this.

I am interested in why your back sweetening resulted in this secondary fermentation. From what I've read, you should add both K-Meta and K-Sorb. I've seen comments that suggest waiting a few days between addition of the two, starting with the K-meta. Also, comments suggest waiting several weeks after adding the K-Sorb to add the backsweetener. I'm sure others who regularly backsweeten can be more specific.

Enjoy those sparkling bottles!
Paul

 

[winemaker_3352]

I add the k-meta and sorbate in at the same time. Then I wait about a week before backsweetening.

Never had an issue yet.

 

[maddog]

After looking back at my records I added both sorbate and metabisulfate. I cant remember exactly when they were added but it was several days before sweetening. I probably measured incorrectly.

 

[Arne]

I have posted this before. For some reason most of the posts about this happening are apple. The reason I kind of watchfor it is because it happened to me also. Anyway, on most of the posts we are reasonably certain that we stabalized the wine then get a referment. After I caught the blowing corks, the two bottles I had left were a pretty good sparkling wine after cooling them down. Handle carefully tho, lol, Arne.

 

[Runningwolf]

After looking back at my records I added both sorbate and metabisulfate. I cant remember exactly when they were added but it was several days before sweetening. I probably measured incorrectly.

I have posted this before. For some reason most of the posts about this happening are apple. The reason I kind of watchfor it is because it happened to me also. Anyway, on most of the posts we are reasonably certain that we stabalized the wine then get a referment. After I caught the blowing corks, the two bottles I had left were a pretty good sparkling wine after cooling them down. Handle carefully tho, lol, Arne.

You guys are right on with everything. I did the same thing. K-meta and Sorbate, waited a few days and back sweetened. Aged for about 6 months and bottled. The best wine I have made. One day I go into the basement to find a bottle missing a cork and capsule. I still haven't found the cork (the dog must have gotten it). Looking at the remaing 1/3 bottle left it looked kind of milky. I shook it up and it went phhht! Carbination and fermentation I believe. I immediately checked another bottle and it was perfect. I didn't have any other issues with the rest of the batch either. Like those blasted little spermies, I think a blasted little yeasty got by somehow. I also filtered the batch.

I don't have any other explanation but it was apple like others have had issues with. It also happened when numerous other folks were complaing about a single bottle blowing. Actually it kid of sucked to have it happen.

In conclusion I dumping my sorbate today that I bought last year and buying fresh today. Going forward I will be sure to date all of my chemicals and replace after a year and sorbate 6-12 months. I buy in pound jars and I know my supplier buys in bulk and repackages. Who knows how long the chemicals have sat in the warehouse?