Making our own champagne

These steps were taken from the book Three Sheets by Zane Lamprey.  Click on Zane's name to go to his website to order the book and other fun things from Three Sheets and Drinking Made Easy.

Step 1:  To start this process you will need an empty champagne bottle because the design of the bottle helps prevent a possible mess.  Donnie is describing it on air below

Step 2:  Pour a bottle of chardonnay into the empty champagne bottle

 Step 3:  Start to add the other indgredients.  We started with the juice of a lemon first, but in hindsight we should have added the dry indgredients first to avoid them sticking to funnel since there was still lemon juice on it.  Because of that I'll describe I we maybe should have done it.  So, add 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Step 4:  Add 1/4 teaspoon at brewer's yeast.  We used Safbrew s-33 dry brewing yeast that we purchased at Friar Tuck's.

Step 5:  Add the juice of 1 lemon

Step 6:  Cork the bottle.  I highly recommend using a corking device if you have one.  We did not so we had to resort to more old school tactics.  Also, we used a cork from the chardonnay wine bottle.  Because there is swelling involved there I would suggest buying a cork just for this process.

Step 7:  Place a wire cage over the cork.  In addition to the concave bottom of the bottle aiding in the prevention of a prematurely popped top, the wire cage is that added safety step.  We just simply used the wire cage that came with the champagne bottle and retwisted back onto the bottle.

Initally the mixture appeared cloudy.  The book did not give a timeframe on when the newly made champagne would be ready to drink so we're letting it sit and process.  As Zane mentions in his book, yeast eats sugar and (his words) poops alcohol.  Thanks to Zane for his inspiration for this, not only from his book but also from his drinking adventures in the TV shows Three Sheets and Drinking Made Easy.  DVDs for these shows and his book can be found at http://zanelamprey.com.  Follow Zane on Twitter at @zanelamprey.  You can also follow the progress of our mixture at @cjhhpodcast.  If you try this process please let Zane and us know!!!!!