PPBart
Senior Member
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2009
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I have 1-gal batch of apple wine that I intend to fortify as an experiment. Like I'm sure most members here, I've made "rocket fuel" a few times in the past (that is not my intention here), but I've never deliberately fortified a batch.
The original SG was 1.086; current SG = 0.994. Good apple flavor, but rather tart. The wine has not been stabilized nor backsweetened yet. I fined with bentonite a couple of weeks ago and the wine has cleared nicely.
My intention at this moment is to rack the wine off the bentonite sludge, add sorbate and a C-tab, then after a few days backsweeten to good taste. Then, I will begin fortifying the batch in small increments, tasting each step and adding more sugar as needed.
My question is what spirits would be best to use for the fortifying agent? I bought a bottle of Everclear for this project, but would something else perhaps add complimentary flavor?
The original SG was 1.086; current SG = 0.994. Good apple flavor, but rather tart. The wine has not been stabilized nor backsweetened yet. I fined with bentonite a couple of weeks ago and the wine has cleared nicely.
My intention at this moment is to rack the wine off the bentonite sludge, add sorbate and a C-tab, then after a few days backsweeten to good taste. Then, I will begin fortifying the batch in small increments, tasting each step and adding more sugar as needed.
My question is what spirits would be best to use for the fortifying agent? I bought a bottle of Everclear for this project, but would something else perhaps add complimentary flavor?