worribout bottles exploding elderflower champagne

[Ckfosse]

hi guys

im a complete novice at brewing (in fact i havent even started yet im waiting on my kit to come down and i am getting very impatient!)

this year im really wanting to give elderflower champagne a go due to me having access to quite alot. The one problem that keeps popping up time and time again is the bottle situation. the thing is i do really want to put them in glass bottles. I have a glass swing top bottle which i brought from a cooking shop but i have no idea if its the thick ones that need to be used or now. Its hexagonal more than round, are these ok?

im going to be going with river cottages recipe because i have their handbook to hand which has been the basis on me starting.

hope someone can help

craig

 

[Brewtrog]

I'm sorry that I can't say what the bottles you have would be like. When I've made sparkling wine, I've always used beer bottles and crown caps as they are definitely pressure vessels.
You only really have a chance of bottle bombs if you over prime your bottles. Make sure your wine has fermented dry (below 1000 and at the same number for a few days) then use no more than 1tsp per pint bottle.
One I found good for sparkling wine was the little 250ml green beer bottles (cheap continental lager from supermarkets come in them, stuff like St Omar) as they are the right size for a (large) glass of wine.

 

[Pedro]

I can understand why you would want glass bottles for aesthetic reasons, but honestly I'd urge you to consider using very well cleaned plastic bottles - lemonade, tonic water, supermarket table water etc.

Bitter experience shows that glass ones will likely explode (or they'll blow the cork or - yes - the swing top). I did a dandelion champagne four weeks ago (same principle as all flower "champagnes", including elderflower); one of the bottles was a two ltr plastic lemonade one, and filled to about 4/5ths full - within a week the bottle was distended heavily. Opened it and lost about a quarter due to the pressure release. Other 1ltr bottles weren't so bad - but I managed to get them in the fridge after a few days so it slowed everything down.


Best of luck with it anyway - truly a great summer drink so enjoy!

 

[Brewtrog]

Sounds like you're either over priming the bottles or you're not putting dry wine into the bottles (which is arguably the same thing). The safest way to make any sparkling wine is to make sure the wine has fermented dry before bottling (below 1000 and at a constant sg over a few days), then adding no more than 1tsp per 500ml (or pint) sugar to each bottle and then adding the wine.
Beer bottles and champagne bottles are fine and are unlikely to explode if the above method is observed.

 

[Pedro]

The reason is that it's a quick and dirty recipe :) Pint of dandelion heads, 800g sugar, 5ltr cold water, 2 lemons (1 juiced, 1 sliced) and 2 tsp white wine vinegar. Lobbed into a brand new Asda Smart Price washing up bowl and covered with a tea towel. Left for three days, strained into bottles. So probably <1% alcohol but VERY bubbly. Worked well with a slice of lemon and a shot of vodka!

Obviously wild yeast is a risk but worked okay this time!

 

[Brewtrog]

The vinegar is as much a risk, you could stand a chance of infecting the brew and turning it into vinegar itself. I'd personally have made a dandelion wine to about 12% and primed that.

 

[minpin]

On a similar vein, I noticed that Lidl have Elderflower cordial on offer this week. Has anyone made a 'champagne' from an Elderflower Cordial and if so, could they share the recipe please?