Champagne Bottles

viper123

Anyone know a good source for champagne bottles + corks for brewing elderflower champagne? I've seen some on amazon/ebay etc but wondering if there is somewhere local that these can be sourced?

BeerNut

Presumably you can get cheap cava/bucks fizz/champagne cider and re-use the bottles -- they're all the same spec AFAIK. Most of the homebrew suppliers will have cages and corks.

viper123

Figured that alright but not much of a sparkling wine drinker and am looking for 20 or so! Found some on amazon but none of the local homebrew places seem to stock.

BeerNut

viper123 wrote: »

not much of a sparkling wine drinker

Perhaps the person you're making the champagne for won't mind if it comes in a non-champagne bottle

viper123

Well thats true as well, but the current plan of brown PET bottles is a little too 'rustic' for me!

BeerNut

The 1L jobs here would be nice. Or the 75cl brown ones, if you want to re-use for beer at any point.

viper123

I was recommended against using swingtops because of the pressures involved in elderflower, that why I was looking into champagne bottles...

BeerNut

So control the pressure.

Wait. You're not planning to throw the ingredients together, bottle after a couple of days and let most of the fermentation happen in the bottle, are you?

viper123

No, plan is to brew for a week in a bucket, and then strain and transfer to a container with bubble trap for a fortnight or so before bottling.

BeerNut

Well fermentation should have mostly finished, then. Are you sure it'll carbonate at all?

Regarding swingtops, I've never heard of a case where the closure has failed due to pressure. The glass will break first.

If you have pressure that's sufficient to break a beer bottle but not a champagne bottle, the chances are you won't get to drink much of the contents whatever it's in, as most of the liquid will be departing the bottle at high velocity as soon as it's opened.

sharingan

viper123 wrote: »

I was recommended against using swingtops because of the pressures involved in elderflower, that why I was looking into champagne bottles...

Swingtops can take it. As long as you take appropriate measures to allow fermentation to get down to a regular level before bottling. Use a hydrometer, and ferment in a container that allows gas to escape.

Too high a FG when bottling, and your sparkly is just going to exit the bottle in one huge jet.

Good for end of match hijinx, not so good for consuming.

viper123

I've seen people brew it this way before and it seemed to go well in the bottle, not sure if they were adding sugar or not though when bottling so need to check up on that.
I don't mind the fizz on opening to be honest, it's all part of the drama after all
How do you brew it, or have you tried?

Slaphead07

Try restaurants, night clubs, hotels or tapas bars. They should have quite a few empties they'd be happy to get rid of.

sharingan

viper123 wrote: »

I've seen people brew it this way before and it seemed to go well in the bottle, not sure if they were adding sugar or not though when bottling so need to check up on that.
I don't mind the fizz on opening to be honest, it's all part of the drama after all
How do you brew it, or have you tried?

I have brewed elderflower champagne. Both wild and using commercial yeasts. Its pretty simple:
- put elderflowers in fermenting bucket (try to remove all stalks - this is tedious)
- put a lot of lemon juice in + zest (I would put in about 4 lemons per 10L)
- put in enough sugar to get your desired strength (1 kg of plain white sugar /10L will get you in the region of 3-4% ABV as a rough guide)
- wait until the wild yeasts kick in, or pitch a commercial yeast in

The big investment is a hydrometer. That way you know if it is safe to bottle.

And I mean *safe*. I have talked to people who bottled straight away and woke up to a kitchen full of glass shards.

The fizz in champagne, is a tiny amount of the sugar from the brewing process. We could be talking about very different kinds of 'drama' if you don't do it right.