checking PA/SG after adding yeast

[scensce]

I was at the store earlier this week and noticed fresh cranberries so I picked up enough to experiment with a gallon or so of cranberry wine. I used the following recipe:

3 pounds cranberries (4 12 oz packages)
4 pounds of sugar
1 pound golden raisins
3 3/4 quarts water
1/4 teaspoon tanin
1/2 teaspoon acid blend
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
1/2 teaspoon pectic enzyme
1 packet red wine yeast

I sanitized all my equipment, picked through the berries and cooked them just before boiling (they popped in the water). Put them in my straining bag and crushed them. Boiled 2 quarts water, sugar and chopped raisins (recipe suggested soaking raisins over night but I figured boiling them would do the same). Dumped water and raisins into straining bag and mashed the bag again for good measure. Added the rest of the water, tanin, acid blend and yeast nutrient. Let it cool over night and added the pectic enzyme. Waited 24 hours and added the yeast, however, I forgot to get my PA/SG reading prior to adding the yeast.

The PA/SG reading I did take after adding the yeast was extremely high! It was about 20%/1.150. A few notes to keep in mind...1) the original recipe called for 3 1/2 pounds of sugar but since it comes in a 4 pound bag I was thinking convenience and that it wouldn't knock it up that high anyways! 2) Do cranberries potentially have that much extra sugar in them? I tasted them and they didn't seem particularly sweet, somewhat tart in my opinion. and 3) Could the yeast have affected the reading that drastically?

I'm going to push on with the expirement and see what happens. I expect I may add some water after I remove the straining bag and fruit to adjust the PA/SG but would appreciate any guidance from those of you in the know! Thanks in advance!

 

[Wade E]

2 1/2 lbs of sugar would have been fine and more around where I would ever recommend a starting SG. Yeast will not effect the SG. At this point I would make this a dble batch as just watering it down will dilute the flavor as you added the right amount of fruit just too much sugar and then upped the sugar again with the raisins. I would turn this into 2 gallons by doubling everything but sugar and yeast, check SG and add a little sugar if need to get a nice starting SG of 1.085.

 

[smurfe]

Cranberries don't have that much sugar but raisins do. Boiling them extracted the sugar. The main reason the raisins are in the recipe isn't as much for sugar or flavor but for body in the wine. It would of been best to adjust the SG prior to fermentation.

 

[scensce]

I added 3 more pounds of cranberries, another pound of sugar, and another 3 3/4 quarts of water and had to move everything to a bigger fermenter. Initially I had it going in a 2 gallon primary

I didn't think to take a PA/SG reading right away and finally got it the next day. It was 7%/1.054 - I have got to start using my hydrometer more regularly!

 

[Wade E]

All scratch recipes need to be adjusted as even if you follow the same recipe for your next batch the SG will be different due to ripeness of fruit.

 

[scensce]

There are so many different fruits (and combinations!) that I haven't had an opportunity to use the same recipe twice yet!

 

[Wade E]

I know what you mean but there is 1 that gets done almost every year here and thats the Black Currant as its awesome and everyone likes it and thats the problem.

 

[hannabarn]

Far be it for me to offer much advice but one thing I learned quickly is to rely on the hydrometer rather than the recipe when adding sugar!!

 

[Wade E]

The best advice is right above and for most recipes, dont take the SG above 1.085 unless you want it to finish sweet and thats a little risky but can be done if you plan very carefully with the right SG and the right yeast and try for the drier side of that so that if it goes a little further you can just sweeten back. If you end up too sweet which is very possible and the main reason that nobody recommends this then you have a very sweet wine and either need to throw it out or make another batch to dry it out. Making a wine with a very high SG like most recipes on Jack Kellar's site lists ewsult in a wine that is very hot and will take a very long time to smooth out and fruit flavor will still be hidden by high abv. He has done so much for winemaking but still cant for the life of me figure out why almost all his recipes start with atrocious starting gravities.