Hello -

This is my second shot at a sparkling white wine. The first time I added
sugar (1/2 cup for 23 litres) and the carbonation was a bit lame. This time
I talked to a fellow at the local wine store, who said to add yeast. I tried
that and got zero carbonation and lots of yeast lying at the bottom of the
bottle. But I HAD let it ferment out dry, and it had been sitting for a
while. So tonight I took 12 of the bottles and added 10 ml of a
1/2-cup-of-sugar-to-1-cup-of-water syrup, then re-corked (in champagne
bottles, with those plastic champagne corks)

Sooo... my questions... will I end up with

a) 12 bottles of cheap, flat, overly-sweet white wine
b) 12 glass-encased explosive devices.
c) A case of sparkling wine

Also... how long will it take?


Thoughts, anyone?



Jeff

Jeff,
I am traveling and doing this from memory so it's not worth anything,
I think it 4gram per liter per atmosphere. So if you want a 750 ml
bottle with 6 atmospheres that would be 18 grams per bottle. that's 90
PGIG, the highest you should ever go. It sounds like you will be
around 2 atmospheres if my memory is correct...

I'm certain Lum defines the right proportion in his book, so just grab
it off the internet and read through the section on sparkling wine. I
use a different yeast on the second fermentation, EC1118 works well if
you are looking for a source.

Joe

I have done this following Lum Eisenman's instructions, and had good
results. Here is the link:

http://home.att.net/~lumeisenman

Read Chapter 20 for sparkling wines.

The amount of carbonation you get does depend on the amount of sugar
you add, IF you successfully re-start fermentation. Just adding sugar,
or yeast, or both may not be adequate. I add the sugar to the base
wine, then re-start fermentation gradually from a yeast starter,
following the procedure for a 'stuck fermentation'.

Lum recommends 1 1/2 oz. of sugar per gallon. For a six-gallon batch,
that's 9 oz. of sugar; I think a cup of sugar is around 7 oz., so that
works out to around 1 1/4 cups. That would at least get you into the
reasonable range.

When the second fermentation is active, bottle in champagne-style
bottles using crown caps (metal bottle caps). These are much easier to
pop off during the disgorging process. I use the plastic champagne
stoppers and wire hoods after disgorging.

Fermentation in the bottle takes several weeks, at least. I usually
start the "riddling" phase after 3 months or more, as the contact time
with the yeast is supposed to be beneficial. If you add any sweetener
during the disgorging process, I'd recommend adding some sorbate to the
sugar syrup, to prevent yet another fermentation. The whole process
usually takes me 6 to 12 months, but it is very satisfying to do the
disgorging, and wire down the plastic stoppers on the finished product.


Happy fermenting --

Doug