Force carbing then bottling sparkling wine

[MattyIce]

I have a batch of wine going that I would like to carbonate at champagne-like levels. I plan to back-sweeten it after it finishes out, force carb it then bottle it.

If I force carb before bottling, can I use standard beer bottles if carbed at 5 vols? Or is that still dangerous?

 

[Subdivisions]

NO. They're only meant to handle around 3 volumes. Even though there's no fermentation happening (if you follow the advice below) the wine will still offgas into the headspace and produce 5 volumes of pressure in the bottle. I'd use champagne bottles. Some Belgian beer bottles can handle high pressure.

If you backsweeten you'll want to use potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfite to keep any yeast from starting fermentation again. They're also good as a preservative and for limiting oxidation also.

 

[lumpher]

NO. They're only meant to handle around 3 volumes. Even though there's no fermentation happening (if you follow the advice below) the wine will still offgas into the headspace and produce 5 volumes of pressure in the bottle. I'd use champagne bottles. Some Belgian beer bottles can handle high pressure.

If you backsweeten you'll want to use potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfite to keep any yeast from starting fermentation again.

i'm with the rush guy on this 1. do not do that, or you'll feel like you're in a war zone when the shrapnel starts flying. definitely make sure you use the sorbate and sulfites, also, since if you don't, it'll keep fermenting till there is basically no sugar left and blows out the bottles. even if the bottles survive, it'll be dryer than the sahara desert by the time it stops, anyway

 

[Subdivisions]

i'm with the rush guy on this 1.

hahaha. Good catch.

it'll be dryer than the sahara desert by the time it stops, anyway

I've used this same analogy about Apfelwein

 

[MattyIce]

Good to know. I knew to nuke it with potassium sorbate prior to back-sweetening. Sounds like I have some bottles to source though...

 

[TexasWine]

I'll be curious if you're successful at kegging and bottling this at such high CO2 volumes. I would think you're going to have a large, foamy mess and a tough time actually getting any liquid into the bottles.

Trying to jog memory here, but isn't champagne traditionally carbed in the bottle, upside down so the yeast collects in the top, then they freeze the the tops of the bottles, open them up and dump the yeast? I might be dreaming that up though.

 

[PapaO]

I did this with skeeter Pee. I chilled to about 32 and used 50 ft of line and filled frozen bottles. It was slow and I could have less line but I did not want to cut it up.

 

[MattyIce]

I'll be curious if you're successful at kegging and bottling this at such high CO2 volumes. I would think you're going to have a large, foamy mess and a tough time actually getting any liquid into the bottles.

Trying to jog memory here, but isn't champagne traditionally carbed in the bottle, upside down so the yeast collects in the top, then they freeze the the tops of the bottles, open them up and dump the yeast? I might be dreaming that up though.

I have heard of that process, but I'm not sure if that is the standard or not. I hear ya on the foamy mess. I'm going to get everything as cold as possible and hope for the best.

 

[TexasWine]

I did this with skeeter Pee. I chilled to about 32 and used 50 ft of line and filled frozen bottles. It was slow and I could have less line but I did not want to cut it up.

50 feet of line is one way to do it!