acheiving a sweet wine. HOW!

[iasha]

I like sweet wines, but what is the best way. Am i correct in saying there are ywo ways? either stopping the fermentation process before the yeast has eaten all the sugar, using a hydrometer or adding sugar to a very dry wine where the yeast has has nothing left to eat?

the latter would give, i think a higher level of alcohol but what produces a better tasting wine? my first two wines have gone very dry but the tea one has not yet finished, how do i stop the wine fermenting as to leave some sweetness?

 

[oldwhiskers]

The best way that is repeatable would be to ferment dry, stabilize, and back sweeten with simple syrup or a concentrate.

 

[Noontime]

I agree with John. You can't really stop fermentation unless you dump a bunch of alcohol in like port wine. When you add sorbate it just stops the yeast from reproducing, so the yeast that are still active will keep on munching on sugar.So it will be very unpredictable where it will stop. Thus you can end up with a much higher alcohol or a much sweeter wine. Letting it go dry, then adding sorbate, then back sweetening is a very reproducible and stable method.

 

[portveyn]

Freezing the must ????

 

[Noontime]

Isn't there a third way? Starting your wine with a higher level of sugar and letting the yeast stop as the alcohol gets high but the wine is still sweet? This eliminates the extra step of back sweetening. Of course you have to like sweet wine that is up there in alcohol content.

Theoretically yes, but again there's no way of knowing where the yeast will stop. There's a tolerance for the yeast but that's a ballpark figure...using EC-1118 on a highly sweet must doesn't mean the fermentation is going to stop right when it reaaches 18% alcohol.

 

[Duster]

Also I believe that if a starting SG is too high it can shock the yeast may not take off.
Freezing is not a good method either, the yeast will go into hibernation but not be killed off, once it warms up then fermentation can start again.

 

[DoctorCAD]

I spoke with a really old Italian head winemaker at a tasting once and he told me that their sweet Italian wine is made by cold crashing at the right time (based on SG) and sterile filtering. I think it was 5.5% ABV.

Way too much work for a home wine making process. He told me that they used liquid nitrogen to cool the must very quickly.

I asked him if he ever let his must go dry and he replied that tradition would never allow that, but the expression on his face led me to believe otherwise (he spoke VERY little English).

 

[JohnT]

Theoretically yes, but again there's no way of knowing where the yeast will stop. There's a tolerance for the yeast but that's a ballpark figure...using EC-1118 on a highly sweet must doesn't mean the fermentation is going to stop right when it reaaches 18% alcohol.

It is more than a theory, but a common practice.

Two popular styles of wine that actually do this are ice wine and late harvest wine.

For ice wine, the grapes are partially frozen. When the grapes are pressed, the ice crystals are csught and left behind in the press. The result is a grape juice with a lower amount of water and, thus, a much higher percentage of sugar.

For late harvest, the grapes are almost at the "raison" stage, having been dehydrated in the sun. This also result in a much higher sugar content.

Most yeast will ferment out up to 36% sugar (or 18% apv). You could very well raise the sugar percentage to above, say 40 to 50% and end up with a sweet wine without the use of sorbate. Of course, a lot depends on the type of yeast that you are using. As said before, ec-1118 is more of a champagne yeast and should be avioded in favor of a lower-producing yeast (say RC 212).

The downfall of all of this is that we are dealing with "upper limits" of what a yeast will do. Although you can be sure of haveing a rather strong, sweet wine in the end, the hard part is knowing exactly how much sugar you will end up with. So much depends on the specific envionment of your fermentation (temp, ph, neutraints in the juice, etc) that it is hard to predict exactly WHEN fermentation will stop. In other words, you can be assured of ending up with a sweet wine, but you will not know exactly HOW sweet.


johnT

 

[saramc]

If you do not want to allow your wine to ferment dry, then stabilize with k-meta + sorbate and then backsweeten your options are:
1. cold crash, rack, stabilize, sterile filter and keep your fingers crossed
2. pasteurize
3. step feed and HOPE that you can kill off the yeast due to alcohol toxicity (many people due this when making a port style wine)
4. fortify with high content neutral alchohol

 

[iasha]

thanks for the replies. Looks like the best way for a novice is to back sweeten. Is it possible to add the correct ammount of sugar but to add it in stages ie letting the alchohol rise killing the yeast and hopefully not using all the sugar?

 

[oldwhiskers]

It' possible, but no telling exactly when the yeast will die. If you added more sugar and the yeast decided to give up, you may end up sweeter than you wanted it to be. It's kinda like rolling the dice.

 

[Arne]

It' possible, but no telling exactly when the yeast will die. If you added more sugar and the yeast decided to give up, you may end up sweeter than you wanted it to be. It's kinda like rolling the dice.

And then the fun starts when you get it in bottles and some of the yeasts decide to wake up again. Arne.