Home brew sparkling wine / prosecco clone

[Vulcan603]

Hi all, Not sure if anyone follows wine related news but I have heard that France and Italy have been hit by some unusually cold weather recently destroying large amounts of vines, An Italian friend of mine shared some videos of rows and rows of vines destroyed by frost.

Interesting post in italian here showing the lighting of fires in the early hours of the morning in an attempt to raise the temperature of the vines to protect from frost !

https://www.facebook.com/Venica.it/posts/1485619678149789

Obviously this will no doubt have a future effect on wine kits and bottled wine.
This got me thinking.

I want to make sparkling wine the closer to prosecco the better. Ideally I want to brew it and then force carb in my 19 litre corny keg.

Has anyone done this before? I would be interested to know the results? and what kits you have used.

 

[engineer]

Interesting that's given me a thought, i may try it in a mini keg with a pinot grigio.
I have had a few goes at making something like Prosecco using various wow recipes but haven't got close enough to the real thing yet. There are several threads on the forum just search for "prosecco".

 

[Tanzanite]

Interesting that's given me a thought, i may try it in a mini keg with a pinot grigio.
I have had a few goes at making something like Prosecco using various wow recipes but haven't got close enough to the real thing yet. There are several threads on the forum just search for "prosecco".

Glera is the grape used its a nothing grape, used for cheap sparkling wine , Asti is far better using the Muscat, but the muscat grape juice is not available in this country, so i would go to France and the Champagne grapes try Chardonnay, or Pinot may be a touch of Semillon to soften, use a good kit as the base to produce a sparkler you can back sweeten using Truvia if you want a less dry wine:thumb: or get some champers bottles fill with grape juice whop a alka seltzer in the bottle and seal. Jobs a gooden

 

[Vinotinto]

or get some champers bottles fill with grape juice whop a alka seltzer in the bottle and seal. Jobs a gooden

:) Now there is a money saving idea. If only! :mrgreen:

 

[Graz]

:) Now there is a money saving idea. If only! :mrgreen:

:lol:

As a side note, has anyone tried a sparkling WOW, I wondered about making up a WGJ and Apple but not stabilizing it at the end then just whacking it in some suitable bottles e.g. PET or beer bottles with priming sugar. I guess the problem would be that WOWs are generally still pretty hazy when finished and it's the finings that make them nice and clear. Not sure how well it would clear without?

 

[pvt_ak]

:lol:



As a side note, has anyone tried a sparkling WOW, I wondered about making up a WGJ and Apple but not stabilizing it at the end then just whacking it in some suitable bottles e.g. PET or beer bottles with priming sugar. I guess the problem would be that WOWs are generally still pretty hazy when finished and it's the finings that make them nice and clear. Not sure how well it would clear without?

I've done a nice sparkling wow before and have another batch priming now :

5l batch night - Prosecco
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?sh...um.co.uk/showthread.php?p=634258&share_type=t


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[davemorton]

Hmmm, thinking of giving this a go, as I do love a bit fizz. Would I be okay to use grolsh bottles for this, as I cant seem to perfect the art of corking.

 

[Tau]

What do they use to freeze the stopper? Liquid nitrogen seems excessive and probably would snap the bottle neck.. Liquid Co2 seems more sensible and can be purchased easily if you want to replicate their methods.

 

[Pirate_Pete]

:lol:

As a side note, has anyone tried a sparkling WOW, I wondered about making up a WGJ and Apple but not stabilizing it at the end then just whacking it in some suitable bottles e.g. PET or beer bottles with priming sugar. I guess the problem would be that WOWs are generally still pretty hazy when finished and it's the finings that make them nice and clear. Not sure how well it would clear without?

Bit of a late reply, but yes, I do sparkling WOW's.
There's a thread somewhere about my Grapefruit sparkling wow.
I love the sharp bitter taste of grapefruit so I love this one.
I've shared a few bottles of this and it's quite popular.
I'm just about to make another, but this time of year they only
seem to sell the Red Grapefruit here. I've been assured it will go back to yellow soon.

I also made a sparkling Orange WOW. This one lacked flavour,
but in that thread someone suggested adding orange zest to boost
the flavour.

 

[Pirate_Pete]

Hmmm, thinking of giving this a go, as I do love a bit fizz. Would I be okay to use grolsh bottles for this, as I cant seem to perfect the art of corking.

That's what I use.
With one lot of Grapefruit WOW I was adding sugar and more grapefruit juice. It was over carbed really, and one of my friends who I gave some to described it as "lively".

 

[davemorton]

"lively" is good :)

 

[DaveMac]

What do they use to freeze the stopper? Liquid nitrogen seems excessive and probably would snap the bottle neck.. Liquid Co2 seems more sensible and can be purchased easily if you want to replicate their methods.

Think its dry ice and rubbing alcohol that is used should get down to -80oC, I saw a youtube video of a guy using ice and salt -18oC takes longer but seems to do the trick.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuffnPO-OZY"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuffnPO-OZY[/ame]

I've thought about doing a bit of fizz, but think I'd be tempted just to clear and then reinoculate with a few grams of sugar at bottling. Then just see how much sediment is produced, if its only a little then I'm guessing careful decanting should be sufficient.

 

[pvt_ak]

I don't bother with the freezing to take out the yeast faff.
I put it into swing top bottles and then just decant when the Mrs wants a bottle.


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[fixit9660]

Following in the vein of the OP subject: I wonder if the recent wildfires in California will affect supplies? Having just been impressed by a recent first brewing of California Connoisseur Shiraz it would be ironic if it's the last because of them.

 

[tonyhibbett]

I use the crushed ice and salt method. I put enough of the mixture in a a plastic wine cooler to cover the yeast in the inverted bottle for a few minutes. The temperature is -23 c and lasts long enough for a batch of 6 bottles. I use open ended plastic champagne stoppers to encapsulate the yeast. It does not freeze solid but stays in place when the bottle is returned to the upright position. When the wire cage is removed, the stopper may take off like a rocket so hold the bottle at arm's length. Have a new (closed ended) stopper, mallet and wire cage ready. Very little wine is lost using this method, but I keep a bottle of still wine in reserve for topping up. A sweet wine is best for this purpose, because the bubbly is extra dry at this stage and needs a little sugar to make it brut. Champagne makers also add brandy to prevent the added sugar fermenting, which would defeat the object of adding it.

 

[fixit9660]

UNCANNY!!!

I use the crushed ice and salt method. I put enough of the mixture in a a plastic wine cooler to cover the yeast in the inverted bottle for a few minutes. The temperature is -23 c and lasts long enough for a batch of 6 bottles. I use open ended plastic champagne stoppers to encapsulate the yeast. It does not freeze solid but stays in place when the bottle is returned to the upright position. When the wire cage is removed, the stopper may take off like a rocket so hold the bottle at arm's length. Have a new (closed ended) stopper, mallet and wire cage ready.

I was just about ask how these corks are supposed to work......
Thank you. And you can stop reading my mind now..... stop it.... stop it...