Trying To Grasp The Steps... Help Needed Please?

[Xandra]

My 5 gallon batch of beet wine has been in the carboy, secondary, now for 17 days, and is stable at 0.996 SG. It needs to be backsweetened a bit as it's somewhat sour. I detect no yeast flavor, just sour and alcohol. It is not clear. I have 6 quarts of beet wine I started on 6/7, slightly different recipe but it's clearing nicely, about 2/3 done, also on the sour side with no yeast taste, but tastes strongly of alcohol.

Please advise me if my thinking process is correct. I'd like to rack the 5 gallon batch off the lees, then use some of the earlier beet batch to make the simple syrup and add to the 5 gallon batch. Then I would wait to see if it referments, and proceed accordingly. When the SG is stable, and the taste is what I want, I would like to add bentonite to clear, wait and rack again, then degass... mostly so I can get this batch into bottles and free up my one lonely 5 gallon carboy for my first batch of SP. I'm not using any chemicals, even using bentonite is a bit of a push but I'm willing to try it if needed. My goal is to create good wines without any additives. But I don't want to sabotage what will eventually become an excellent veggie wine. I need some advice so I don't mess up a good thing. Please? And Thank You?

 

[LoneStarLori]

Great questions! I'm a newbie too so I can't answer. But I would like to see the responses from the experts. Beet wine sounds so tasty!

 

[WI_Wino]

If you don't use k-meta and sorbate, the sugar you add will ferment and you'll just raise up the alcohol level in your wine with little to no sweeting. If you keep adding sugar since you want a sweet wine you'll get to a point where the yeast die from alcohol poisoning. The % depends on your yeast. For example I believe EC1118 has an alcohol tolerance north of 18%.

 

[Xandra]

I used RC 212, with a starting SG of 1.090. I'm less interested in ABV, more interested in taste, with this batch. I have a batch of pineapple in secondary, though, that whatever ABV I get is good (it's currently at 14.9) because I plan on trying to add gelatin-filtered coconut which will hopefully end up reducing the ABV to a drinkable level. This batch of beet, I'd like to see end up between 10 and 12, however. I don't want to use chemicals.. I don't mind using natural products to help, but my goal is to create good wines without mystery powders. That's my personal challenge, and in the meantime I'm not at all adverse to drinking whatever wines I might buy created by whatever processes. I just want to create excellent wines using methods that don't include modern chemistry, is all. My theory is that all these years before modern chemistry, people have been creating phenomenal wines... not just YouTube hootch-style beverages. I want to work to continue that practice, 'cuz there might come a day when that's all we're able to do, and if so I'd prefer to craft good wines rather than 12-day-getcha-drunk hootch - and be able to pass on the techniques, as well. So... Sounds like patience is the biggest key, sweeten in increments until the yeast can't deal with it. That can work, with some patience.

So I'll rack this batch off the lees, add my wine-based simple syrup for flavor, and see what happens. Do it over again if need be, in one of those "repeat as needed" kinds of techniques. OK, that's good... I'll budget for a new carboy, then... so I can continue the adventure

Thank you for your insight!!! I'm new at this, and deeply appreciate the feedback and knowledge of all of you experienced people

 

[Stressbaby]

Xandra,
If you don't use any chemicals, the only way to backsweeten your wine is to exceed the alcohol tolerance of the yeast. RC 212 is around 14-16%. So to get any residual sugar your ABV will have to exceed 14-16%. The way to do it is to step add sugar until the SG fails to drop any further.
Degassing may clear the wine, or at least help it clear. I would degas before adding any bentonite...you may not need it.
By deciding not to use chemicals you have put a ceiling of sorts on your winemaking. Before chemicals people may have produced phenomenal wines but they also produced a heck of a lot more stinkers. Personally, my time is too valuable to wind up down the road 6 months later, after all of that work, with a stinker.

 

[jamesngalveston]

Larger commercial wineries today can avoid sorbate in sweet wines by sterile filtering, but this is not an option for the home winemaker. Those who want to avoid sorbate can take some comfort from the fact that sorbic acid is a relatively recent (since WW II) wine additive. For many years winemakers successfully produced sweet wines without it, and some still do. No one says you can't make sweet wine without sorbate, they only say it is riskier. To reduce this risk you can:

Use a yeast with low alcohol tolerance.
Make sure there is no yeast activity in any sweet reserve you add.
Rack the wine very carefully and filter with as fine a filter as you can.
Store the wine in very cool conditions.
Pray—and drink the rest of the wine up fast if you begin to notice a spritz.

 

[Turock]

Well, you can't sweeten and use sorbate NOW because the wine is not clear. It's also very difficult to evaluate flavor on a young wine. So you should bulk age it, let it clear and degass, THEN evaluate what you need to do. You should be buying a couple carboys--not rushing because you need the carboy.