Secretly I was hoping that the mere addition of bicarbonate of soda and citric acid to a plastic bottle filled with white wine would instantly transform it into champagne.
It did make it fizzy, but also imparted a modest soda taste to it that clashed a bit with the wine.
It did make it fizzy, but also imparted a modest soda taste to it that clashed a bit with the wine.
I wonder if you added stoichiometric amounts would the taste remain to such a degree
it had to be done
Already looks like really bad wine considering it's in a plastic bottle.
Just mix it with 7up
Could be worth trying with powder-form ascorbic acid (vitamin C) plus the sodium bicarbonate (or as a variation, potassium bicarbonate, as suggested by another commenter).
This is actually an experiment I've been meaning to try, having loads of the above, but I currently have no wine, as I'm currently trying to take a break from alcohol. But I doubt if my resolve will hold out for ever …
I would mix up all the powders first (dry), before adding to the wine, instead of one before the other.
Just ascorbic acid plus sodium bicarbonate added to water actually makes a moderately pleasant sparking drink. My first experiment would consist of just adding the mixed powders to wine in a large-ish glass. It would froth up, and then settle down, but the result would still be reasonably sparking, if not exactly like champagne (which I think is over-rated anyway …. ).
Put bicarbonate first then the citric acid and you get a different reaction
Dom Perignon can breathe easy again…
Store at 4 degrees c for about 4 days and it will carbonate a lot more
I sometimes wonder what BigClive's level of sobriety is (or lack thereof) when he makes these types of videos. Not that it matters, of course….just curious.
Probably would have tasted better and been more fizzy if you'd have refrigerated it, since carbonation dissolves more in cold water.
it is very possible that the soda was completely neutralized by the acid however when sodium bi carbonate reacts with citric acid it makes sodium citrate which has a distinctively salty taste.
CO2 will take a bit to actually dissolve in, the liquid being cold helps.
I wish I could walk down the aisle of my local super market and find Dr Clive's "Chemicalized Champagne for really, really, really trashy people" on one of the shelves. You should sell this stuff.
When you combine the acid with the base you make a salt in this case Na3C6H5O7 Trisodium citrate that's left in the solution. Perhaps you could make a chamber that would react the citric acid and bicarbonate in a container and pipe the CO2 into the wine under pressure. The other option which I used in the past is a small amount of dry ice just make sure you don't make a bomb out of your pressure vessel!