Bottle bombs, are champagne bottles the answer?

[shanek17]

Hey everyone I currently got some apple wines and grape wine batches nearing completion and im having a tough time trying to figure out how to keep them safe in the bottles. Iv been gathering different ideas and listening to peoples opinions on how to safely bottle a wine batch. Many people suggest to properly stabilize with chemicals, but that would require expensive equipment. Some have suggested waiting months and years for the yeast to naturally fall to the bottom, others had suggest cold crashing the wine.

These are good ideas, but these are also my very first batches and I do not intend on letting the sit and age until I am more comfortable with this hobby. So I was thinking okay well what about using champagne bottles? There supposed to be the thickest and most durable bottle out there, so im thinking maybe this would be a good alternative.

I have a honey apple wine and I am trying to ferment this one as dry as I can get it , but the SG has been sitting at 1.000 for weeks, and hasnt been fermenting ANY bubbles for weeks. and I have a concord red grape wine which i stabalized at a SG reading of 1.000, and after the chemicals were added it also has no more signs of fermentation.

 

[mmadmikes1]

if SG is stable and you are not adding sweeting, it would be fine. I am not a big fan of adding chemicals but add a 1/4 teaspoon of K-meta to 5 gallons of wine. You won't need champagne bottles, just use high quality corks.

 

[millwright01]

Unless I am misunderstanding I wouldn't call stabilizing with chemicals expensive. Is it not just the addition of meta and sorbate? I am paying $5 for 500g of Sodium metabisulphite, $1 for Pot Meta, and $1 for enough sorbate to do about 15-20 gallons.

 

[shanek17]

Unless I am misunderstanding I wouldn't call stabilizing with chemicals expensive. Is it not just the addition of meta and sorbate? I am paying $5 for 500g of Sodium metabisulphite, $1 for Pot Meta, and $1 for enough sorbate to do about 15-20 gallons.

thanks mike , im also trying to avoid the chemicals; thats why im asking around for alternatives! and yea mill wright, I meant for very accurate chemical additions; thats when it gets expensive. Because you gotta buy all the testing equipment or send it off to labs to see where you wines are at, and how much more chemicals to add.

Your rite though the chemicals themselves are cheap, and after weeks of researching iv gathered a general consensus for how to use them decently, but even then I still feel like im going on a hunch, since really im taking advice from others on the internet, no offense though I appreciate everyones helpful feedback, but alot of people have different opinions on wine making and also on how much chemicals to add. like for example some people say to use a certain amount per gallon for Sorbate, I think it was 1/2 or 1/4 , but then I came across this chart in many different places (i posted it below). So its confusing to know who to go with, without actually having the equipment to test it.

check this website for a better layout of the chart and info
http://nanaimowinemakers.org/Notes/Sorbate.htm

The available recommendations on sorbic acid additions are not entirely clear. In a recent review, Gallander (1999) cites a 1960 study that suggests 80 mg/L is enough. The most widely quoted recommendations come from Peynaud (1984: 275), who is specific about alcohol levels but vague about pH. He says that that sorbic acid is twice as effective at a pH of 3.1 as it is at 3.5 and that wines above 3.5 in pH may require sorbic levels in excess of the 200 mg allowed by the EU. Unfortunately, when he makes his recommendations for different alcohol levels, he does not say what pH he is assuming (see the table below):

Alcohol% Sorbic Acidmg/L Sorbateg/L
10% 150 0.20
11% 125 0.17
12% 100 0.13
13% 75 0.10
14% 50 0.07
Note: these recommendations presume a pH < 3.5, good clarification, and adequate SO2.