How to lower SG?

[klein]

I started a Banana Wine last night. Took the SG this morning before pitching the yeast and it was as 1.130. The recipe calls for it a starting SG of 1.090. Do you bring the SG down by just simply adding a little more water?

 

[tonyandkory]

ya diluting the must is the only way I know how ... if you can figure a way to subtract the sugar let us know please

 

[klein]

Ha ok. Thays what i thought thanks

 

[Rocky]

How did the SG get so high? It surely did not just from the bananas. More likely too much sugar. I would consider adding additional bananas along with the water so you don't thin out the wine.

 

[Arne]

Depending on how much water you add, you mite have to add to the fruits to keep the flavor up. Everybody says bananna doesn't have much flavor anyway, so you mite bump it abit. Arne.

 

[Arne]

LOL, posting at the same time, Rocky. Arne.

 

[MalvinaScordaad]

I don't make fruit wine but with grape wine we can use Saignee to reduce Brix by adding water back after performing a Saignee. I would think this could be applied to some fruit wines.
Malvina

 

[Rocky]

Malvina, I thought thet the purpose of Saignee was to "bleed" off the juice from the skins in order to give a lighter (e.g. Rose') type wine. It is not clear to me how this would apply in this case. Can you enlarge upon your comment, please? Thank you.

 

[klein]

Not sure how it got so high. All i did was fallow the recipe

 

[klein]

How did the SG get so high? It surely did not just from the bananas. More likely too much sugar. I would consider adding additional bananas along with the water so you don't thin out the wine.

To do that though i would have to recut and boil more bananas to extract the juice and the yeast and everything has been added already?

 

[Rocky]

Klein, you would not have to start over completely. You just pitched the yeast today. I would just get more bananas, boil them, cool the juice and add it to the fermenter in roughly the same percentage as the additional water.

 

[bob1]

you could just let it ferment out. Might not be so bad.

 

[MalvinaScordaad]

Malvina, I thought thet the purpose of Saignee was to "bleed" off the juice from the skins in order to give a lighter (e.g. Rose') type wine. It is not clear to me how this would apply in this case. Can you enlarge upon your comment, please? Thank you.

Saignee has a few different purposes. The Classic is to make a Rose/blush wine. However the second is not having any interest in making Rose but instead to add structure to the main wine. CA Sangiovese and GSM blends often enjoy an improvement using this method. By bleeding off Saignee juice you are increasing the grape skin ratio to the main juice. The third use of Saignee is to reduce brix level. By bleeding off juice you are taking sugar out and returning the exact amount of water you are returning to the original juice volume with the same skin to juice ratio maintained but less the sugar content. By just adding water you are reducing brix but you are also diluting the ratio of Skins to Juice. Thereby weakening the structure.
Malvina

 

[robie]

Just a note. If you do try Saignee, if your acid level is where it should be and you intend on adding back water, be sure to use acidulated water, so you don't lower the overall acid level.

 

[klein]

I dont even know what that is or how important the acid level is to the wine

 

[BernardSmith]

I wonder if it is possible that the fruit itself was providing for such a high reading and not the sugar content. If there was a lot of starch from the fruit in the must would that not give you a high SG even although there was less sugar than might be suggested by the figure? How much sugar did you add and what was the quantity of must?

 

[klein]

It was 2 lbs sugar abd 3 lbs banana and 1 cup rasins

 

[MalvinaScordaad]

Just a note. If you do try Saignee, if your acid level is where it should be and you intend on adding back water, be sure to use acidulated water, so you don't lower the overall acid level.

Good point and it holds true if you don't Saignee and simply add water. In both cases you are diluting acid.
Malvina

 

[klein]

Good point and it holds true if you don't Saignee and simply add water. In both cases you are diluting acid.
Malvina

What is saigee and where can you get it?

 

[MalvinaScordaad]

What is saigee and where can you get it?

He's teasing Malvina Right?
Malvina