advice

[fowlmood77]

Racked my muscadine wine for the second time last night. It seems to be clearing nicely. ABV is 13.1%. Unfortunately I am disappointed in the body. The body is rather thin and the wine itself is a bit tart. I know patience is the key, but if I need to do anything to the wine now please chime in for this is my first experience. Should I degass now or wait till my next racking? I have about a pound of muscadines left in the freezer, should I make a F-pack and add it now or just go with what I have.

The recipe is from jack keller's site for a one gallon batch.

 

[Wade E]

Ok, by body do you mean flavor cause those 2 usually arent the same. If it needs flavor then go the f-pac route but body is usually not a result of this. To add body you need either tannins or something like bananas or even glycerin and if your looking for more body at this point the glycerin would be the best bet. As for tart, muscadines are very high on acid so you have a few options to get rid of this and an acid test kit should be purchased to do this especially if you are using plan B.
Plan A is to wait till it gets very cold outside and put your carboy outside in 34* or there abouts temps for a few weeks to drop out the high acids.

Plan B is to use Potassium BiCarbonate or Calcium Carbonate to precipitate out the excess acids.

 

[Tom]

If you are happy with the "flavor" then you can do a few things
1 add some glycerine
2 make a banana "broth" for body
3 you may want to back sweeten.
If not happy with the "flavor" make a f-pac

 

[fowlmood77]

By body I mean the "mouth feel" (very light and "watery") It definately smells right, the muscadine "taste" just isn't there yet that's really what I am after now. I can degass in the next day or two and check the acid then if degassing is necessary now.