Sodastream and wine

tonyhibbett · Dec 12, 2018

In theory a quick and easy way to carbonate wine but the system is only designed for water. Due to the presence of alcohol (and other stuff) wine cannot absorb as much carbon dioxide as plain water. Normally, on manual models, you inject the gas until you hear a 'burp', which indicates a minimum level of carbonation. Do that with wine and you get a huge loss of gas when releasing the bottle and probably a hell of a mess, both wasteful and costly. I have found the following works:
This only applies to the manual versions, not the automatic 'one touch' ones. Faults arising from using anything other than water are not covered under the warranty.
Use only dry white wine. Cheap chardonnay is a good choice as it is the main ingredient for champagne, but 1 bottle will not be enough as 1 litre is required for the Sodastream bottle. A 3 litre winebox is therefore a good option. Country homebrews such as elderflower, gooseberry and rhubarb are also good options, so long as they are dry.
Fill the Sodastream bottle with 1 litre of the wine down to 0 c, but no lower, in the freezer. It can absorb twice as much co2 at zero than at 20c.
Insert the bottle into the Sodastream and inject gas with no more than 13 one second bursts, pausing to allow the bubbles to settle each time.
Optimum gas absorption can take 30 minutes, but the temperature of the wine will rise, so, unless you have room for the whole unit in the fridge, go to the next step.
Gently and very briefly press the big release lever above the bottle to release some excess gas and let go.
Let the bubbles settle and repeat until there is very little foaming then unscrew the bottle and replace the cap. You can start drinking it. It is said that carbonated wine does not improve with time.
Carbon dioxide is slightly acidic, which affects the taste. After disgorging the yeast, some sugar syrup is added to Champagne, even brut, before final bottling, to offset the acidity. Brandy is also added to prevent the sugar from causing refermentation. The airspace in the Sodastream bottle is there to allow for the addition of a flavouring concentrate.
Carbonated wine, just like fizzy drinks, does not retain gas for as long as bottle fermented wine. If your wine goes flat before the bottle is empty, you can top up the bottle and recarbonate it.
There is an alternative to Sodastream, the DrinksMate, which is designed for carbonating any liquid. It seems it is only available in the US, so the delivery cost is high and also subject to import tax on top. it is compatible with Sodastream gas bottles, but does not come supplied with one, bumping up the cost still further. The advantage of the system is that you can detach the bottle of carbonated liquid with the cap, which has 2 release valves, one fast, one slow. This avoids any spillage due to excess gas.
You can buy a basic Sodastream for about £40, but there are plenty of used ones on eBay because carbonated water costs no more than still water.

Bigcol49 · Dec 12, 2018

Hi!
Definitely one of Cliff's best.

tonyhibbett · Dec 13, 2018

In terms of presentation, you can transfer the sparkling wine to Champagne type bottles which are readily available after the festive season from glass recycling bins. The labels are difficult to remove. Soaking alone won't work due to the heavy duty glue. Soften them by soaking in hot water and remove the paper layer with a pot scourer. Then apply a suitable solvent, such as brush cleaner, which dissolves the glue and rub clean.
Plastic stoppers, cages and foils are readily available from homebrew stores. I use a funnel just small enough to fit in the neck, fitted with a tube long enough to reach the bottom, which reduces the amount of gas inevitably lost during pouring. This must be slow and steady. The bottles only hold 800 mls, leaving up to 200 mls in the Sodastream bottle, which can be topped up with another bottle of still wine for the next carbonation.
There are 2 types of stopper - open ended, for use with bottle fermented wine to collect the yeast, and closed, for final bottling, which pressurise the the gas in the air space which must be left. So use the closed ones. They are tricky to fit because they are like corks and a conventional corking machine won't fit due the the 'bulb' at the top. They have to be hammered in with a mallet (not a hammer) while being held in place by hand.
Fitting the cage is a lot easier using an 8 mm allen key to pull the wire tight, then twisting to make a loop and final tightening. The stoppers can be reused but the cages tend to break if used more than once. The foil is largely cosmetic. Unlike standard capsules, they do not shrink fit, so you have to pinch, fold and try to smooth.
At this stage the bottles will be wet with condensation, which fine for applying gummed labels but not self adhesive ones, so dry the glass before applying.
A typical 1 gallon homebrew wine will fill 5 bottles. It is therefore helpful to have 4 x 1 litre Sodastream bottles. No other bottles will fit the machine. You can buy them in pairs from Argos at £12, so if you want 3 extra ones you have to buy 4. They have a 'use by' date, but since I don't subject them to the highest pressure and only use them occasionally and only for initial carbonation they last indefinitely.
Fill 4 bottles to the recommended level with the still wine and put them in the freezer. Remove them before they start to freeze and put 3 in the fridge. Carbonate 1, fit the cap and put in the fridge. By the time you have done the other 3, the first will have had time to absorb more of the free carbon dioxide into the wine, making it easier to transfer.

tonyhibbett · Dec 13, 2018

At some point, and without warning with the manual version, the gas will run out. In theory, one gas bottle is good for 60 litres. You can exchange an empty for a full one for £15 (25p per litre) from Argos. Buying a spare one will cost a lot more, but convenient if you use the system frequently.

tonyhibbett · Dec 15, 2018

I got 2 bottles from Argos for £14, less £10 on Nectar card. However, the current bottles are slightly too long for my older model, so I had to cut a strip of plastic off the base to accommodate them.
All Champagne and most other sparkling wine bottles will take 29 mm crown caps because these are used for the bottle fermentation stage. However, my Wilco (and most other cheap ones) crown capper will only take 26 mm (beer bottle) caps, so I have ordered a bench type model (£30 post free from Amazon) which has an adapter for the larger size, and caps (£6 per 100 from eBay). This will make it cheaper, faster and easier than using stoppers and cages.

tonyhibbett · Dec 22, 2018

I opened a bottle of the carbonated wine. There was a slight hiss and the wine came out sparkling but tasted somewhat harsh. Carbon dioxide is acidic, so the acid balance of the bone dry wine was pushed over the top. This is why Champagne makers always add sugar at the final bottling.
I added 2 pinches of sugar to the glass of wine, which immediately fizzed up, releasing lots of co2. This suggests that the yeast is still alive, even though the wine is clear and there is no sediment.
The sugar effectively masked much of the excess acidity, without actually sweetening, which is good, but achieving this at the expense of some latent fizz.
So it would make sense to add the sugar before bottling. But then the yeast would gobble it up and produce sediment which negates the benefit of no sediment carbonation. That's why brandy is added with the sugar, thus inhibiting the yeast, but also influencing the flavour, although the 'brandy' is just un-aged distilled grape spirit with no real bandy flavour.
A modern approach would be to add potassium sorbate (stabiliser) instead, which does the same job, prior to adding a sugar solution. As yet, I have only found this in wine kits. Alternatively, sulphite will also discourage yeast, as well as suppressing bacteria, both harmful and beneficial, such as those that can cause a malolactic fermentation.

tonyhibbett · Dec 29, 2018

The third bottle I opened had no fizz at all. These plastic stoppers don't seem very reliable. In future I will use 29 mm crown caps or possibly even natural cork stoppers.