Accidentally made champagne? :)

[barkingtreefrog]

Not sure how it happened but I brewed a 6 batch of peach apricot chardonnay and we opened it at our gender reveal party (we're expecting our first kid) and found a happy surprise, I had accidentally made champagne. It was awesome. So awesome, that I just ordered two more of those kits to make and have on hand for New Years this year. Anyway...I have two questions.

I'm going to try and recreated this, the kits say 5%-8% alcohol. I'd like to increase this above 10% without creating any off tastes. I understand that you can add more sugar to do this, but at what cost to the flavor?

Secondly, I'll need to replace the yeast it comes with and choose a champagne yeast, are there any issues with using a different yeast that comes with a kit? What do I need to look for?

 

[Arpolis]

Gratz on the happy surprise. Also Gratz on no bottle bombs. And final Gratz to the expected baby....... Girl/boy?

Upping the sugar to a gravity of about 1.080 would get you in that 10% ABV range if fermented dry. But changing that and the yeast will change the profile of the wine from your kit a good bit I bet. Not to say that is bad by any means. Just don't expect the same flavor with more alcohol. Keeping off tastes down should not be much of an issue with that low of a gravity. Just make sure to stir the wine twice daily for about the first week and use recommended nutrients. Also splitting the nutrients up into 3 parts and adding that over the coarse of the first week may help. Look up staggard nutrient additions for a more detailed explanation on that.

A good yeast for whites would be Lalvin K1v-1116. I have used it and Lalvin 71b-1112 in peach wines and actually both do very well. But to get that fizzy bit you will most likely need to prime the wine with a little additional sugar water. Once the wine is finished and cleared heat up about 2 cups of water and mix in about 4 oz of table sugar for a 6 gallon batch. Stir till dissolved and then let cool to room temp. Mix that into the wine well and then bottle.

Gratz again on everything and happy brewing.

 

[RegarRenill]

To help prevent bottle bombs (and for aesthetics) you may want to use champagne bottles, corks, & cages. The cages to prevent popping corks and the bottles so they don't explode under pressure...it'll also look more like real champagne that way for your guests...

 

[bernardsmith]

Hope mother and child are both doing well. When you said that you made champagne can I assume you meant that there was a great deal of carbon dioxide in the bottles and that was something that took you by surprise? If it was not anything you planned then that suggests that you did not control for the amount of CO2 in the bottles and THAT suggests that those bottles could have exploded because of the pressure.
Here's what I would have done. First make absolutely certain that the wine had fermented dry. That is that there was no residual sugar remaining. Then degas the wine to make sure that all CO2 has been expelled. Then, you can prime the wine in the same way that you prime beer (1 oz of sugar /gallon ) and bottle in champagne type bottles with caps and cages OR you can stabilize the wine and back sweeten it. Stabilizing the wine means that you have removed all the active yeast and then you have added K-sorbate and K-meta to prevent any remaining yeast from reproducing and then refermenting any added sugar.
It is a bit of a challenge - IMO - to both backsweeten and carbonate wine. Carbonation means that there must be yeast in the bottle and backsweetening means that there can be no yeast in the bottle and nothing can be both X and not X at the same time... but one possible way of solving this is to backsweeten with a non fermentable sugar (stevia , for example) and then add the 1 oz of table sugar /gallon to carbonate your wine.
Alternatively you can repeat what you did and take yer chances that the volume of CO2 next time is still insufficient to create bottle bombs nor sufficient to pop the corks .

 

[Xzarfna]

this sort of thing happened to me.
I made a batch of "golden mead" essentially a wine made using only golden syrup, (for those who dont know or dont live in the uk, a partially inverted syrup with a golden colour, and a slight buttery taste). It was fantastic, but i bottled it a bit early, and when i opened the bottles, a hell of a fizz came out.
Pouring the wine into a glass, it looked JUST LIKE champagne, golden in colour (though much lighter than the syrup thanks to Mr.Yeast) and fizzing perfectly, with a very slight haze i couldnt tell if was from condensation on the glass or a slight amount of yeast in suspension.
It retained its slight butteryness, and i feel it wouldnt have been anywhere near as delicious if it hadn't been carbonated.
I will try to find the recipe and post on the forums, and if so, i would have to advise to let it fully ferment and just prime with strong bottles, rather than try my early bottling method, as this could have gone a lot worse.

 

[barkingtreefrog]

Thanks guys! To answer a few questions:

@Arpolis -- It's a boy! I ended up going with Wyeast 4021 Dry White / Sparkling Wine Yeast from Midwest Suplies. I figured I'd try and recreate this since everyone liked it so much. I'd brew it now and let it sit until new years eve when the new mom can try some. Do you recommend adding all the sugar to get to that gravty at the begining or slowly, something like 2lbs a week? Also, what kind of sugar or does it matter?

@RegarRenill -- I ordered the bottles and cages yesterday

@bernardsmith -- It took me by suprise because I had it in seconday for 2 or 3 months and had drank several bottles of this batch with friends. Then all of the sudden I opened 4 bottles at our party and SUPRISE. Since then it hasn't been recreated.

 

[Arpolis]

Thanks guys! To answer a few questions:

@Arpolis -- It's a boy! I ended up going with Wyeast 4021 Dry White / Sparkling Wine Yeast from Midwest Suplies. I figured I'd try and recreate this since everyone liked it so much. I'd brew it now and let it sit until new years eve when the new mom can try some. Do you recommend adding all the sugar to get to that gravty at the begining or slowly, something like 2lbs a week? Also, what kind of sugar or does it matter?

Gratz again on the baby boy. That is a great deal.

The gravity you are shooting for is low enough that I do not think you really need to step feed the sugar. Just make sure to use the hydrometer to get an original gravity close to 1.080. More important would be to use proper amount of nutrient and energizer, along with stirring/swirling twice daily for at least the first week to help CO2 dissipate and splash in a little O2 to keep the yeast happy.