Bottling Bell Pepper Peach Wine for Competition

Most of the time when I bottle, I use bottles that either myself or my friends or family emptied, rinsed, and saved. Because there are so many different styles of bottles out there, quite often a batch of wine will be bottled into different bottles. Sometimes I even go for different sizes, such as a few wine bottles and a few beer bottles.

After I had blended my bell pepper peach wine, it was time to bottle. Since I was going to enter this into two different fairs, I turned to the competition rules for guidance on what kind of bottle to use.

The first set of rules I was interested in is the Clark County Fair. The rules stated that I was to enter one bottle, which would be open, tasted, and all remaining contents dumped. They recommended using small 375mL bottles, which are smaller than the more standard 750 mL. The other smaller competition I was looking at had almost identical entry requirements, but said that I had to enter two bottles larger than 4 oz – one for tasting and judging, and one for display. Since 375mL is not the standard wine bottle size, I actually went and bought some bottles. Because of the added sugar water, my previously one gallon batch of wine fit into twelve of these bottles.

One other interesting thing to note is that wine bottles, despite how much they hold, be it 750mL or 375mL, all have the same size opening, and therefore take the same cork. So just because I changed bottle sizes did not mean I had to go buy special cork to fit the new bottles. The same is true when using beer bottles in that a 22 oz bottle and a 12 oz bottle both use the same sized cap. It makes things nice and simple.

Bottling

In my last post, I said that when the must clears, there is another layer of lees, and the airlock stops bubbling, that it is time to bottle. However, before bottling a batch, test it first with the hydrometer to make sure all the sugar is gone. If there is some present and the yeast continue to work on it in a bottle, the pressure from the released CO2 could cause the bottle to explode. I also rack one more time minutes before bottling so that I don’t have to worry about sucking up lees when bottling. Using a hydrometer, a batch is ready to be bottled if it is 1.005 or less. If it is ready, it needs to be chemically treated to ensure it stops fermenting so that it does not release any more CO2 and create a “bottle bomb.”

Bottling works just the same as racking, only instead of having a second jug, there are bottles to fill up. When I bottle, I put the sterilized bottles on a chair with a large towel that I don’t care if it gets stained or not. The sterilized bottles are lined up to make it easier to process. I rack by either putting a clamp on the siphon tubing so that I can stop the flow and move my tubing to the next bottle, or I use a bottling wand. I got mine from my local supply store, and it is a tube with a ball in the bottom that has a little rod sticking out. Gravity and the force of the flow will push the ball down, blocking the flow, but when it is placed in the bottom of a bottle, the rod pushes the ball up, allowing liquid though.

When bottling, keep the hose or wand at the bottom to prevent splashing and too much contact with air. Fill the bottle as full as possible and then remove the hose or wand. The level will drop since the hose or wand was taking up space. Ideally, the bottle should only have half an inch to one inch of space between the top of the fluid to the cap or cork to minimize the amount of air in the bottle, or headspace.

I find bottling easier to do with two people. One person bottles while the other person takes away the full bottles and replaces them with new bottles. The second person may even have enough time to cork or cap the bottles, depending on the equipment. If there is only one person available for bottling, I highly recommend sterilizing a plate so that the tubing that goes in the bottle can be set down without contamination or the need to sterilize it again.

I should note that this is the method used for making a dry still drink, like wine. I’ll talk about how to make the drink sweet or carbonated in a later blog.