Gabriel -
I made a reasonably successful batch of "champagne" using a
Chardonnay kit last winter, but I followed steps on Lum Eisenman's
site for making sparkling wine (Chapter 20). See
http://home.att.net/~lumeisenman/chapt20.html
The base wine apparently should be just a little thin, and slightly
acidic, for best results, so I diluted mine a bit with water, and
added some extra acid blend to bump up the acidity a notch.

While your symptoms could be related to temperature, it is
possible that the lack of yeast action relates to other factors. That
is why I think it's a better idea to get the second fermentation
going, before bottling in the champagne-type bottles. Making another
batch of "champagne" this summer, it took several tries of yeast
"starters", warm temperatures, yeast nutrient, etc. to get the
fermentation re-started. I managed it (finally) and now have about 5
cases of champagne which I am "riddling" (letting the sediment settle
into the neck) and disgorging.

I also use crown caps - e.g., "bottle caps" rather than champagne
stoppers for this phase - much easier during the disgorgement process.
After riddling, I put 6 bottles at a time in the freezer in a little
wooden rack, upside down. In about 3 to 4 hours, the liquid in the
neck starts to freeze. At this point, you can turn the bottle
right-side up (over the sink!), pop off the cap, and get virtually all
of the yeast sediment out with minimal loss of wine or carbonation.
You don't want to let the whole thing freeze - the bottle may break,
or the cap may pop off (happened to me). Besides, maximum carbonation
retention should be obtained by keeping as much of the contents liquid
as possible (since CO2 dissolves in the wine, but not in ice, I
think).

Anyway, that's been my experience. Best of luck.


Doug




"Gabriel" > wrote in message >...
> Hello -
>
> I am making sparkling wine using a white wine kit (which I have had
> experience with before and am satisfied with the quality of). I fermented it
> out to .996 then added a sugar syrup as per instructions given by Terry
> Garey, and bottled into champagne bottles using champagne corks and wires.
> Naturally I did not add any sorbate or extra metabisulphite.
>
> I have made beer before and expected the process to take a couple of months.
> But looking at the bottles now I see very little sediment in the bottom -
> barely a light dusting - and when I opened one it was only very minimally
> carbonated.
>
> Naturally I am going to let this sit for a while longer as per the adage
> "all things come to he who waits" but I am wondering if I should be seeing
> different results by now. My wine making room is fairly cool - 22 C in the
> middle and about 16 C against the outside walls (where the wine was
> originally stored) but this has not had any negative effect on the beer I've
> made (which seems to carbonate nicely after just a couple of weeks).
>
> Any thoughts or advice from the wise heads of this group eagerly
> appreciated.
>
> Merry Christmas,
>
>
> Gabriel