DIY prosecco

[tonyhibbett]

I've had good results with a Sodastream after some experimentation, but I have noticed that if left to go flat, it doesn't taste at all good, even though the base wine was good. With bottle fermented sparkling wine, the co2 bonds better to the wine, giving longer lasting and smaller bubbles. Also the yeast sediment autolyses with the wine over time, (up to 3 years for the vintage stuff) giving it that distinct Champagne flavour and aroma. Prosecco sits somewhere in between. The tank or Charmat method is said to be better suited to more aromatic wines, such as Asti, but I can't say prosecco is aromatic - pretty tasteless really, just like cheap Champagnes.
I make 2 types of bubbly - elderflower and fragolino, both of which I would call aromatic.

 

[tonyhibbett]

Crown caps have arrived but no capper. Also ordered a 'grey disconnect' and regulator but no gas bottle as yet. I have a Hambledon Bard S30 cylinder for use with my pressure barrel and probably won't fit the regulator thread. I also have Sodastream cylinders which definitely won't fit, although adapters are available. The S30 only holds 250 g and refills are the same price as Sodastream with 500g, which are more readily available. I have located a fairly local supplier of larger (1.5 kg and above) cylinders and refills who charge a refundable deposit of £25 and about £10 per kilo of co2 , so I'll go for that option when required.
As a test run, I have started a 5 gallon 'real' ale kit in a fermenting bin, which I will prime in the keg. This will produce sediment, as would the wine. Since the keg's outlet is fed from the bottom, the sediment may be disturbed when dispensing. We shall see.

 

[Honk]

You get sediment even when force carbonating but as long as it's not disturbed the sediment is usually drawn off in the first pint. Some people especially when priming cut the dip tube slightly short to avoid picking up the sediment.

 

[tonyhibbett]

Thanks for that. Probably get some initial froth too, as when barrels are changed in pubs. I don't normally fine beer before priming real ale in a pressure barrel, but as I will be fining the wine, perhaps I do the same with the beer in this test run. I could also fit a bit of curved plastic hose to the end of the tube to avoid disturbing the sediment, as with siphoning wine out of a cask, which works perfectly.
I've got the beer off to a racing start by pitching the yeast at 30 c. and maintaining that temperature with a heat belt.

 

[tonyhibbett]

Regulator (£18 from Amazon with free next day delivery and 5% discount) has arrived in box marked 'oxygen regulator'. In fact apart from 'made in China', these are the only words in English, almost everything else is Chinese, including instructions! Reassuringly the dials say co2 and go up to 1 (bar?) and 25 (presumably psi) respectively. The outlet has a barb hose connector, to which I have connected a length of hose from an old gas barbecue. Connecting the 'grey disconnect' , yet to arrive, poses a problem, as it only has a 1/4" male thread.
I was unable to contact my nearest co2 supplier, but contacted another who charges £35 deposit and £17 for 1.5 kilos of gas, don't stock hose adapters and don't deliver. A definite sense of' mission creep going on!

 

[tonyhibbett]

Crown capper has arrived. It not only does both sizes of cap but also does a great job of inserting champagne stoppers and corks. You just need to raise the height by 3 stops above the level for capping the bottle. No more bashing with a mallet!

 

[Drunkula]

I've got the beer off to a racing start by pitching the yeast at 30 c. and maintaining that temperature with a heat belt.

30c? Wow. Closer to 20c is standard. That could out being a funky tasting broth.

 

[tonyhibbett]

I have switched off the heating so it's down to 22 c.

 

[tonyhibbett]

I managed to get a 1/4 inch male to barb connector, from Screwfix, and found 2 jubilee clips to secure both ends of the tube. All I need now is the gas bottle and the 'grey disconnect'.

 

[tonyhibbett]

The beer is now fermenting very slowly. After 4 days it is down to 1013 from an initial 1035. I decided to use the sugar refractometer for comparison, because it is so much simpler to use. At 1016, it read 7 brix. Today it reads 6. In other words, roughly half the gravity reading.
My books refer to using a 'Clinitest' to measure residual sugar. This has been replaced by urine glucose test strips, which I have ordered. They detect up to 2% residual glucose, above which it is not 'safe' to add priming sugar.
I opened a bottle of the wine I recently carbonated with a Sodastream. It was too acidic. I should have checked the acidity before bottling. When sparkling, the pH was 3.8, but once flat, 4.0. The total acidity was 7.5 ppt (t), which is too high. It should have been 6. The carbonic acid increased this to 8. I added 2 pinches of granulated sugar to a glassful (in order to mask the over acidity), which instantly caused effervescence. Sugar and brandy are added to Champagne before final bottling to offset the dryness. The brandy is to prevent further fermentation. Potassium sorbate would have the same effect. It struck me that synthetic sweetener would do the job of both.

 

[Drunkula]

I opened a bottle of the wine I recently carbonated with a Sodastream. It was too acidic.

Yeah, same happened to me - it was rank. If you want to sweeten in the glass with sugar then dissolve the sugar with a tiny bit of hot water - as long as there's no edges on the crystals for nucleation you're fine. You can do the same with sweetener as stevia froths like bonkers.

 

[tonyhibbett]

Thanks.
Opened second bottle - 'tis the season to be merry! Dropped in a single tab of Sweetex and capped the bottle with a Champagne keeper. This tiny pill has the sweetening power of 5g off sugar! It did not dissolve immediately, as it might in a hot beverage, but released a stream of tiny bubbles, not the explosion I got from sugar. After a few minutes it had dissolved completely and Bingo! Worked a treat! OK, not the same as the mature bottle-fermented stuff but perfectly acceptable. Happy Christmas!

 

[tonyhibbett]

I used a standard dose of 'Clear It' in the beer, which left about 200 ml of sediment after 24 hours. After racking, I bottled 2 pints, leaving 20 litres to condition for a week. The gravity is just below 10, with no sign of fermentation.

 

[tonyhibbett]

After another day, the beer is now 'star bright' and the gravity down to 7. Interestingly the refractometer and hydrometer are now in agreement, despite using different scales and method of measurement!

 

[Drunkula]

Interestingly the refractometer and hydrometer are now in agreement, despite using different scales and method of measurement!

After using the adjustment based on the starting gravity?

 

[tonyhibbett]

I didn't take the starting gravity, but working backwards it was probably about 40. The beer kit just stated the abv to be 4%. At gravity 13, the refractometer was down to 6 brix, but fell no further as the gravity fell to 7.
The 'grey disconnect' arrived today, but not the gas bottle, so I drove to another supplier and took my regulator. Just as well, as it turned out to have the wrong connectors! The guy sold me the right regulator for £30, so now it's all connected up, finally.

 

[tonyhibbett]

Glucose test strips arrived and the beer at gravity 7 has no residual sugar, which just goes to show that final gravity of beer (unlike wine) is no good indicator of sugar content.
The clear beer now contains no detectable yeast, according to my microscope, so whatever remaining sediment will have to be roused for the priming to work., common practice for cask conditioned ale. There are a number of options for the priming sugar: granulated sugar (cheapest); castor sugar (dissolves quickly but twice the price) ; brewing sugar (ferments quicker but more expensive); spray malt (even more expensive); corn syrup (popular with Americans); and glucose (used by Fullers).

 

[tonyhibbett]

Racked the beer again and it was perfectly clear right down to the bottom. I removed 150 ml of slurry and set it aside. I then removed a further 2 pints of beer to reduce the volume to 19 litres. I opened the keg, which was immaculate inside, siphoned in the beer, removed a cupful, stirred in 85 g of caster sugar and some of the slurry. After adding this into the keg I tried to seal it, but the rubber ring almost fell into the beer, so I applied Vaseline to hold it place. The I attached the gas with the regulator set to 5 psi and opened the valve. Some alarming hissing was followed by bubbling and then all quiet. I turned off and detached the gas then purged the air with the safety valve. I attached a strip thermometer which reads 18 c.
I then filled 2 bottles with the spare beer, adding 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar and a shot of slurry. Capping was not straightforward using the twin lever hand capper but the bench version worked fine.

 

[pottsworth]

Some alarming hissing was followed by bubbling and then all quiet.

My cornys sometimes need a hit of 15-20 psi to seat the lid seals properly. Once they're sealed they seem fine even when the pressure drops quite a bit.

 

[tonyhibbett]

Thanks. The hiss seemed to be coming from the 'grey disconnect', which is new. Anyway it stopped and the pressure is holding, for now.