NorCal, it seems like you already have your plan. However, you may be interested in this nonetheless. A few years ago, I "solved the math" and came up with a calculator to assist with when to do the fortification. You put in the density (or brix) of the must, and the ABV of the brandy, as well as the desired ABV and Brix of the resultant port, and the formula tells you when to pull the trigger and how much brandy to add.I'm planning on doing 5 gallons of port this year. 3 handles (1.75l) and 3.6 gallons of petite sirah. Planning on arresting fermentation at 6 brix.
It is currently set up to do SG or g/L, but it would be trivial for me to adapt it to Brix if you are interested. (I think for this purpose, you can just take Brix ~= (g/l)/10, but I could make the small correction to get it more exact than that if you are interested.)Well, I put this into an Excel sheet, which you are welcome to (if I can figure out how to attach it). There are two sheets: one you input the sugar in g/l, the other you input the SG of the must instead. In both sheets, you input parameters in the yellow boxes, and the answers come out in the blue boxes.
Two years ago I made some with 7 brix juice and some with 5 brix juice, fortified with Brandy to 20% abv. I think 6 brix will be just right, but you are right, the over port brix will be less with the Brandy dilution.Nor cal:
So, If my math is right, your port is at 4.32 brix (after fortification)?
Seems to be a really nice level of sweetness for port.. Yummy!.
What is your all over plan? Do you ferment on the skins until 6 brix, then immediately press or are you planning to macerate the after fortification?
What about oak?
Hope you do not mind all of the questions. I have made a number of ports and was just wondering what others are doing.
Sorry I missed this post. Yes, adding brandy will dramatically change the SG. The post I am linking to below has a calculator I wrote in Excel to calculate the SG and ABV after fortifying.Well, not sure what happened. Last night I pressed the Tempranillo at 1.070 so I could add the brandy to juice not must. This am it was at 1.030 wow! Took two hours to get my fortifier and tossed half gallon in and rechecked the numbers. 1.010 but I fortified with a 77% brandy. Would that change the sg much? Ive had it in the freezer since this am. Added the other .3 gallons and fermentation has definitely stopped. Bummed I missed 1.030 so drastically. My OVZ port I just made went dry AFTER I fortified it. Need something with higher brix to sweeten it. [emoji24]
Very interesting that your fortified port continued to ferment! Sorry about that, for you.Well, I put this into an Excel sheet, which you are welcome to (if I can figure out how to attach it). There are two sheets: one you input the sugar in g/l, the other you input the SG of the must instead. In both sheets, you input parameters in the yellow boxes, and the answers come out in the blue boxes.