A silly question about a Pressure Barrel

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NCFCcrazy

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So, I am making some elderflower champagne and wanted to store some of it in a pressure barrel. I dont have enough bottles.

So, here is the stupid question.... will it be fizzy? (obvs after 2nd fermentation)
 
Probably not as fizzy as putting it in a bottle as there is less head space in a bottle so the CO2 produced is forced back into the liquid. Might be okay though provided the barrel has a good seal.
 
You won't get a good fizz unless you block the release valve on your barrel and then chill it to a low temperature that way the c02 will stay in the liquid or just use old fizzy drinks bottles
 
I really don't like pressure barrels, they leak far to easily and are prone to cracks/ruptures, i just use mine for racking to before bottling as it has a bottom tap, gotta echo what Spoc says, use plastic cola/sparkling water bottles, if you have 1 or 2 champagne bottles you could use one for the "grand opening" at a party and then do all your refills from plastic bottles. Also unless your prepared to inject co2 into your barrel to maintain pressure the champagne is likely to go flat pretty quick.
 
I tried this myself but was unable to maintain enough pressure. A bottle of champagne can have up to 90 psi whereas a pressure barrel is designed for 10, primarily enough to drive out beer without sucking in air. Much depends on how sparkling you want your wine. Even if using recycled proper champagne bottles (800 g +) it is unwise to attempt 90 psi as the glass would be less strong second time around. A safe limit is an sg of 1.000 after the priming sugar has been added. This should produce about 40 psi. Past experience with recycled screw cap wine bottles is that they leak under fairly moderate pressure because the security seal has already been broken. The same would apply to fizzy drinks bottles, whether glass or PET.
I only use champagne bottles (gathered from front gardens after the festive season!) with plastic champagne stoppers and wire cages.
 

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