Hi busygal

I've made lots of great sparkling wine using those special sparkling wine
stoppers with valves inside them (your homebrew shop will give you further
details).

Initially, you begin fermentation in a demijohn as normal, transfer to
strong sparkling wine bottles after a week or two and fit the valve
stoppers. Fermentation continues inside the bottle - and the valve releases
excess pressure from inside the bottle so no explosions!!! - the valve
leaves enough sparkle inside the bottle to give you the fizz you need.

When fermentation is complete, there'll be sediment at the bottom of the
bottle, You'll need to get rid of this - so now keep the bottle upside down
and each day for as long as it takes give the bottle a gentle twist to
encourage the sediment to fall towards the stopper - leaving a crystal clear
liquid above.

When this is done, release the valve and watch that sediment fly out! You
will lose a little of the wine (about half a glass or so) but if it bothers
you, you can always take the stopper off - top up with a normal wine - and
replace the valve stopper! From now on, you can keep the bottles upright
for the wine to mature and when you open them in a year or two (??!!!???)
your glass will fizz with delight! This method - which is similar to the
Methode Champenoise method, used to make Champagne and Cava - and makes
sparkling winemaking soooooooooo easy!

Once you've seen one of these valve stoppers, you'll know exactly what to do
but if you need any further help, please do email me personally.

Regards and have fun!!

World's Worse



"busygal" > wrote in message
om...
> Hi all,
>
> I am new to this group, so I apologize if this has already been asked
> and answered about 20,000 messages back, but....
>
> I am looking for a beginner / intermediate recipe or instruction set
> for making champagne or "sparking wine".
>
> I have made wine, both white and red, for several years now with good
> results, and am looking to try to convert a bit of it to champagne.
>
> Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated!
>
> Regards,
>
> busygal


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