Apple juice 13.5 brix - add sugar?

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crcarey

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I am making apple wine. I have apple juice with a sugar of 13.5 brix. Should I add sugar?
 
I am making apple wine. I have apple juice with a sugar of 13.5 brix. Should I add sugar?

Like John said, it's going to depend on how much abv you want.

I recently made it and I started at a higher brix level than you, and my tasters and i agreed it didn't have enough body... my abv ended at 8.5%. Next time, I'm going to add enough sugar to take it to 10%abv.
 
You have to decide - Do you want to make Hard Cider or Wine?
Your brix if perfect for a Hard Cider.
For wine you need to increase the Brix/SG so that your ferment provides an ABV of about 10% or more. (Brix of 18)

Hard Cider is most often done with just the natural sugar in the Apples and no additions. The drawback is that it's shelf life is likely to be shorter. With Hard Cider some folks don't worry about letting it clear completely either.

Remember that increasing the ABV will not increase the body. The choice of apples used is the primary controller of that. Using all one variety is not recommended but rather a mix with most of the apples being of a tart variety.

See the following for your future Cider/Wine making decisions. The same basic concept applies to wine as well.

https://www.blakeshardcider.com/best-hard-cider-apples/
https://winemakermag.com/article/1513-make-hard-cider-apple-wine

https://homebrewanswers.com/apple-wine-recipe/

In Europe Apple Cider MEANs Hard Cider. Unfermented is Apple Juice. This article is from the UK and as it never mentions fermenting, that is an understood step when making Apple CIDER.
https://www.vigopresses.co.uk/Addit...hat-are-the-Best-Apples-used-for-Cider-Making
 
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