RJ Spagnols Peach Orchard Breezin Mist

Good Morning

I am about to start a batch of Peach Orchard Breezin Mist for the summer. I have been considering adding some Corn Sugar and White Grape concentrate to increase the ABV due to it being so low without it. I have seen the boxes of concentrate recommended by the supply houses. I also have spoken to several people that have said use basically Frozen Grape juice but I am confused if I should dilute it or just add it. Also, the recommendations are to add a liter which is 33 ounces or about 3 Cans of frozen concentrate.

Questions...............

Has anyone ever done this? Did you use frozen Concentrate?
Did you Dilute it or just add after thaw?
Will 3 cans make it "too sweet"?
Should I just leave it as is?


As always everyone's input would be deeply appreciated. Thanks to everyone in advance

Michael
MSFGROUP

Sorry I haven't done this. If you add sugars to the primary fermenter it will increase the alcohol, not the final sweetness (unless you add a LOT of sugar).

Steve

Hi Michael

thaw the concentrate and add it as is. I don't make kits, but do create a lot of my own recipes and often include frozen concentrate. From what I've read folks who make the lower alch kits like to add more sugar to up the alch, but find to balance out the added alch (so it doesn't taste like jet fuel) they need to add more flavor also. Using concentrate achieves both these goals at the same time. Just be sure your SG doesn't go above 1.085 or so. That means you probably need to test SG in between each can of concentrate you add to be sure. BTW I taste my wine at all stages and if I feel flavor is still a bit lacking when finishing primary I even sometimes add straight thawed concentrate to "top off" the carboy when racking out of primary to secondary as long as I do it promptly when the SG hits approx 1.005 or so the remaining yeast have no trouble finishing off the extra sugar.

When Steve talked about adding a LOT of sugar, he meant that yeast can only convert sugar to alch up to a certain percent, and if you add more sugar than it can handle the yeast will die and the remaining sugar will make your wine sweet.
This is not a reliable way to make sweet wine as all yeasts vary in how much they can handle, plus each ferment will be diff based on temperatures, types of sugar in the must etc. It is more reliable to ferment to dry, clear, stabilize with Kmeta and Sorbate, then backsweeten to your desired sweetness.

Good Luck. Sounds like you are doing fine. Questions mean you are thinking, and that is a big plus.

Pam in cinti

Hey Michael,

I've made a few of the Orchard Breezin kits and added only sugar to bring up the ABV. They turn out fine but seem a little lacking in the body (not enough body to support the extra alcohol).

I've also made a few Island Mist kits (WE version), and have bought the grape concentrate and corn sugar that Label Peelers recommends to pair with these kits. Doesn't make a rocket fuel wine (the concentrate does add some body compared to just the plain sugar I added to the OB kits) and gets it up to or just above that 10% ABV we aim for to help with "biological" stability. So far we are happy with this method of increasing the alcohol level for added ageablility.

On a side note we do add 1/2 the flavor pack (f-pack) to the wine as it is fermenting so that when we add the balance of the f-pack after stabilizing, the final gravity (ie. sweetness) isn't as high as if we followed the directions to a "T". Both my wife and I have found that a final gravity around or just above 1.000 is sweet enough. But everyone likes a different sweetness level, so you'll have to try it out and determine what you prefer.

Hope that helps.

I'm with Craig on this - I'm in the middle of my second island mist kit right now. Added 1/3 of the FPac, simple syrup and white grape concentrate to the primary; then back sweeten using the remaining syrup from the FPac in the finish to about 1.00. It's settling for the next few days. Will rack, degas and bottle in a week or so.

We take a different approach. We don't try to goose the ABV up to typical wine levels. Instead we only add about 3 lbs of sugar to raise the ABV to around 8%. This gives it a little more kick and a little more body without throwing off the balance. This has worked well for us. It also allows us to consume more without getting tipsy.