About
I wrote this calculator to perform basic calculations for brewing my imitation champagne. The basic ingredients are
white grape juice (from frozen concentrate), sugar, water, and yeast. I usually use Red Star Premier Blanc yeast (formerly
Red Star Champagne) and the result is a "prefectly good" sparkling wine for mixing into mimosas, champagne punch, etc.
The sugar calculations are based on the sucrose-water density equations given by Wagenbreth et al. (1988) and are also
based on the assumption that all solids are sucrose, which is fermented to completion. Also incorporated for the
ethanol-water calculations are the predicted ethanol-water excess volumes, as given by Grolier and Wilhelm (1981).
The final bottle pressure is based on the assumed Henry's constant for carbon dioxide in pure water (a conservative
estimate), found in Dalmolin et al. (2006). I find that bumping up the pressure a little compared to real champagne
makes for a more comparable beverage, likely due to the 100% fermentable sucrose assumption and using the pure-water Henry's constant. You can reduce the ratio
of grape juice to sugar water to make a drier wine and vice versa. It should be noted that I add half a cup of lemon
juice per gallon (or a couple of teaspoons of acid blend) to mimic the notable acidity of real champagne. Have fun!
Calculator
Scientific Links and References
Making Quality Sparkling Wine
Solubility of carbon dioxide in binary and ternary mixtures with ethanol and water
How does yeast respond to pressure?
Kinetics of Gas Discharging in a Glass of Champagne: The Role of Nucleation Sites
Excess volumes and excess heat capacities of water + ethanol at 298.15 K