Becks the Elder
Country Wines.
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2009
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Hi,
I am about to start the batch of Elderberry Wine which was discussed last week [See my "Intended Elderberry Recipe" post] but before I do I need to clarify issues surrounding the starting specific gravity of the must.
According to the guidebook I am using (Berry, 1996 – See earlier post for details) it is suggested that “A good general rule is that a really dry wine will often need a starting specific gravity of about 1.085, a medium sweet wine one of about 1.100, and a really sweet wine of up to 1.125.”
According to the SG Table (p.81) a SG of 1085 will give a potential 11.3% ABV. I was hoping to get an ABV of 12-14% while ensuring that I ended up with a dry to very dry wine (anything else tastes too sweet to me).
I have settled on adding:
Elderberries (Dried - 300g)
Raisins (250g)
White Granulated Sugar 1Kg
To 1 Imp. Gallon (4.5 ltrs.) of Water.
So should I adjust the recipe to get a starting SG of 1085 or should I just make the recipe and record the SG and then ‘ferment out’ to dry?
Will any recipe eventually ‘ferment out’ to produce dry wine providing you avoid causing the yeast to suffer from ‘sugar shock’? …Or is there an SG / sugar saturation point above which you only produce sweeter and sweeter wine?
According to the SG / Potential ABV Table (p.81) It seems that the more sugar you use the higher potential ABV you have but does the residual ‘sweetness’ increase alongside the rise in ABV or can it be ‘fermented out’? I presume it is possible to produce a very strong dry wine but if so why does Berry state that “a really dry wine will often need a starting specific gravity of about 1.085” ?
Sorry if these seem like rather stupid questions but I just need to get things straight in my head before I start on the must.
Cheers.
I am about to start the batch of Elderberry Wine which was discussed last week [See my "Intended Elderberry Recipe" post] but before I do I need to clarify issues surrounding the starting specific gravity of the must.
According to the guidebook I am using (Berry, 1996 – See earlier post for details) it is suggested that “A good general rule is that a really dry wine will often need a starting specific gravity of about 1.085, a medium sweet wine one of about 1.100, and a really sweet wine of up to 1.125.”
According to the SG Table (p.81) a SG of 1085 will give a potential 11.3% ABV. I was hoping to get an ABV of 12-14% while ensuring that I ended up with a dry to very dry wine (anything else tastes too sweet to me).
I have settled on adding:
Elderberries (Dried - 300g)
Raisins (250g)
White Granulated Sugar 1Kg
To 1 Imp. Gallon (4.5 ltrs.) of Water.
So should I adjust the recipe to get a starting SG of 1085 or should I just make the recipe and record the SG and then ‘ferment out’ to dry?
Will any recipe eventually ‘ferment out’ to produce dry wine providing you avoid causing the yeast to suffer from ‘sugar shock’? …Or is there an SG / sugar saturation point above which you only produce sweeter and sweeter wine?
According to the SG / Potential ABV Table (p.81) It seems that the more sugar you use the higher potential ABV you have but does the residual ‘sweetness’ increase alongside the rise in ABV or can it be ‘fermented out’? I presume it is possible to produce a very strong dry wine but if so why does Berry state that “a really dry wine will often need a starting specific gravity of about 1.085” ?
Sorry if these seem like rather stupid questions but I just need to get things straight in my head before I start on the must.
Cheers.