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Jacktar

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I'm about to start a Cellar Craft Showcase Port and I'm wondering if I need to buy brandy. Has anyone made this kit before? Does it taste like a commercial port on its own or does it need the brandy addition after fermentation is complete?
 
It will make a fine wine (~15% ABV) on it's own but if you want to make something closer to a commercial port you will need to bump up the ABV either through adding Brandy or step feeding the yeast to try and get it as close as possible to the max ABV that the yeast can tolerate (~17-18 %). That means less addition of Brandy which is good IMHO.
 
How do you step feed yeast?

By adding a little sugar boiled in a little water every couple days. For my we chocolate raspberry port I added half the sugar in the kit once it was fermenting pretty good. I added the second half of the sugar 2 days after the first addition. Some people will do 3 or more additions as to not stress the yeast too much. I got my port to 17.3%, and I'll add in the brandy to get it to 20%.
 
My kit didn't come with any sugar. Not sure if I should add more. I'm pretty new to brewing wine so I'm uncomfortable going outside of the instructions, hence the OP. Still, it looks like I'll need up to three bottles of brandy for my 3 gallon batch so bumping the ABV naturally seems to be the cheaper route. Unfortunately, no access to everclear in Canada.
 
What's your Starting SG?
If it has a grape pack, what is the SG after 24 hours?

With that info, you can estimate the final ABV. Based upon that, you can estimate how much brandy (80 proof, 40% abv) to add in order to get to what ever target ABV you want for the port (20%?).

Like Mike said, IMHO you are better off adding sugar to get the wine to 17-18% ABV, and then adding Brandy to get it to 20% abv.
 
Sg was 1155 but no grape pack. I'm in upstate NY for the day, but I think everclear is not sold here either. Wonder if the wife would allow a detour to checkout the "hills of Vermont"?
 
Sg was 1155 but no grape pack.

1.115 will give you an ABV of around 15%.

1.155 will give you an ABV of around 19.5%, but the yeast is likely to give up around 18%. That will leave you sweetness of around 1.02 sg. If they don't have an f-pac, that sounds about right - other than keeping the yeast happy as such a high sugar level.

What yeast came with the kit?
 
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1.115 will give you an ABV of around 15%.

1.155 will give you an ABV of around 19.5%, but the yeast is likely to give up around 18%. That will leave you sweetness of around 1.02 sg. If they don't have an f-pac, that sounds about right - other than keeping the yeast happy as such a high sugar level.

What yeast came with the kit?


I'd be happy with 18%. Do you think I'll achieve this without step feeding? Should I ferment a little on the warm side? My kit came with 2 packs of lalvin 1118. There were no special instructions beyond hydrating first so that's what I did, with both packs.
 
I haven't made the kit, so I can't tell you. The fact that they gave you 2 packets of yeast for a 3 gallon kit tells me they are expecting a high ABV (close to the 18% max rating of the yeast).

Keep it warm, stir it regularly, and give it a lot of time to ferment. What you want is the 5% of the yeast that can survive at the limits of the alcohol level to finally call it a day.
 
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