Thursday, January 10, 2002

I spend a few seconds each day riddling. My current science experiment is these two bottles of homemade champagne. Champagne starts with fully fermented wine, before it's bottled and before you put in chemicals (potassium metabisulphite) to stop the fermentation for good. Put the wine in a sturdy Champagne bottle, a little sugar (the dosage), a little yeast, then seal it up and set aside for some in-bottle fermentation. After the yeast & sugar has done it's stuff (make lots of carbon dioxide for bubbles) you begin the task of riddling. Riddling involves storing the bottle at a downward angle (a plastic bucket in this case) and giving it a small turn each day. The goal is to get the yeast sediment to all slide down into the neck of the bottle. Stay tuned: next month, disgorgement!