How about Sparkling Watermelon Merlot?

[jobe05]

I have a lot going on right now....... Tax season....... we are trying to start our own business that my wife will run till it gets going then I will join her in a year or so. Freedom from "The Man" is a life dream of ours and it's coming to fruition, with a tremendous amount of cash out lay and hard work, but the hard work has just begun I suspect.............

We get away on weekends as much as possible to get away from it all. We go out to the mountains and while there, we caught the bug........ the log cabin in the mountains bug that is....... so we are dreaming of buying land in the mountains to start our investment in our retirement. So thats were we have been spending our weekends for the past few weeks or so. Then theres the kids with flight lessons and the other one turns 21 this weekend and is leaving for Las Vegas on business......... Not sure what I think about that yet..........

To steal a phrase from a very wise person........ Life is good....... just to darn good to just sit here and miss it.

Edited by: jobe05

 

[scubaman2151]

Glad to see everything is coming along for you so well.


Side note,


When you guys shake the bottles up to get the lees to the bottom do you guys wear any face protection? I have heard of people doing that from other forums.

 

[Wade E]

I did not use protection but then again i live dangerously!

 

[jobe05]

Well.......... What a shocker............ sigh........

A week later, I decided to go ahead with the rest of the sparkling watermelon merlot.

For a refresher: When I started this, I did up 3 bottles, added flavor pack tp sweeten back to 1.005 (or so) added yeast and corked them. I let them sit for a few days to see if pressure was building, and it was, and it was getting bubbly..................

SOooooo.............

I decided to do 9 more bottles........ along with 5 bottles of the Chardonnay and 5 bottles of the Piesporter.

Last week I decided it was time to finish the rest of the bottles after the first one was so good, so I put them all in the freezer.

During degorging, the first 2, from the original batch shot off like a rocket, the rest of them......... NOTHING....

Flat!

Why? Exact same yeast bought at the exact same time, done the exact same way just one week apart.

I was out of champaign yeast so I took a little from each bottle, added EC1118, let it start for a couple of hours, added some yeast energizer and topped off each bottle. I just checked one of them by opening it and it is building pressure and bubbly. Dunno

I haven't done anything with the Chardonnay or the Piesporter yet, but I just put a bottle in the freezer so I'll let you know in a couple of hours.

 

[NorthernWinos]

We usually let ours sit for 2 month after adding the dosage of Champagne yeast and sugar....then dégorge.

Maybe.... if there was some k-meta it hindered the growth of the yeast....Maybe...it just needs more time.

 

[jobe05]

I just opened one of the Chardonnay's after freezing.

Same thing......... Flat! I few bubbles, kinda like a wine that wasn't degassed well.

Must be the yeast. I did all 3 batches at different times, the exact same way. One is great and 2 batches are not.

I'll have to re-do them also, but I'll stick with the EC-1118 as well with these.

 

[Wade E]

Sorry to hear that buddy. I will be back sweetening my Plum today and i have my keg and C02 tank now and just pressure tested it so Im ready to back sweeten and force carbonate these puppies.

 

[NorthernWinos]

We had a batch awhile back that wasn't very bubbly [almost flat] at dégorging, but we topped it off and let it sit as usual and over time it came out good.

Then toward the end of consuming the last batch we came across 2 bottles that were flat...then the last two were fine...go figure? ....I came to the conclusion that we had used some really old stoppers, even tho they were very tight and needed a pliers to remove them...perhaps used too many times.

Once a batch during the riddling stage 2 bottles leaked.....maybe I was too aggressive during riddling...the plastic stoppers were split....Need to get a riddling rack built so not dropping the bottles onto the stoppers.

Now we reuse plastic stoppers during the fermentation in the bottle, then use new stoppers after dégorging and are throwing the old ones away. We do reuse the wires maybe one time if they appear stable enough to get tightened again.

Also...have found some times the stoppers slip a little too easily into some bottles...so we try another stopper. All bottles and plastic stoppers are not equal....We are using recycled bottles and some are imported others are not...also the stoppers sometimes have a little degree of difference....So make sure the stopper goes into the bottle very tight, if not try another stopper.

So...when you get a flat bottle, and if the stopper is really tight but the wine is flat...check out the bottle and stopper. I think the stoppers Jim uses the pliers on should get thrown away..... that might also crack the stopper.

Just a few thoughts.

 

[joeswine]

well that sound like my asti all over,the process was right the forced carb was enought but know bubbly,how ever the taste was all asti just great and refreshing,so back to the drawingboard,went to beercrafters and had my vessels pressurize couldn't find anything wrong,well some time this month i'am going to try my blurberry wine and see what happens,only this time i got a beer person to guide me through the carb process,,stand by wade will keep you informed//as promised

 

[Wade E]

I am going to force carb my Plum wine in the next day or so. I think its the stoppers that mainly cause the problem. I had lost quite a few and probably still have a few dead bottles in my cellar that I wont find out till I open it. When I put 1 bottle on my rack it actually had a very fine mist leak that was hard to find as it was spraying ever so slightly and those were all new plastic stoppers. This is why I eventually will get the Champagne corker and use real Champagne corks if I get this force cabonating down to a science where it is worthwhile.

 

[joeswine]

you know last time i use plastic stoppers,is there a champain cork? or is it just the normal ones we alluse?and the cage stops the pop and allows for the expansion,wade your going to like this I,am going to take a scherider access fitting which i use in my HVAC work and glue it to a carboy seal cap i found. i have a 6 cfm vacume pump and gauge manifold on one side placed myvac/on the other dry nitrogen,pull a vacume to 30inchs. and cap it off with nitrogen,what do you think?//jp

 

[Wade E]

I think 30 might be a little too much but not sure what a carboy can take. I have my vacuum up to 25 and thats all it needed ever. Sounds like a great idea, just be careful as I wouldnt want you to implode a carboy and get hurt. I would set it to a max of 25". Would like pics of the apparatus also when done. Im pretty sure there is a considerable difference between regular corks and champagne corks as champagne corks are very flared out at the bottom where they must be compressed into the bottle plus I dont think the wire hoods would work with a regular cork as the champagne cork has that big bulb on top like a plastic stopper that makes the wire hood higher on the bottle to be tied at the spot on the bottle where the neck groove is.

 

[NorthernWinos]

The wire stoppers that come on store bought sparkling wine seem to be about the same as the ones we buy....some do have a tin disk on the top, but think that is mostly for advertising....or maybe to prevent the wires from cutting into the cork. We have reused those wire hoods off the real corked bottles on our plastic stoppers with no problem.

 

[jobe05]

Update:



The sparkled Piesporter and Chardonnay are still sitting on their second fermentation (as well as the Watermelon Merlot).



I froze a bottle of the Piesporter a couple of weeks ago, degorged,
re-corked (re-stoppered) and put it in the fridge to try. We tried it
last night and it is pretty good, very bubbly. I guess some wines may
take longer to sparkle than others. This was bottled to start the riddling process on 1/29, 5 months it took to get sparkled. But it was worth it.

Now I want to try a white Zin kit, and sparkle it.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Sounds good to me....anything bubbly sounds good to me....