Cherry wine sugar content

[Vega1]

Hello,

Very new to making wine, have made some mead in the past.

I'm planning to make a gallon of cherry wine from 100% juice.
What would be the ideal amount of sugar to add per gallon to keep it very dry but still a good alcohol content?

Thanks in advance.

 

[salcoco]

use a hydrometer add sugar until sg=1092 achieved this will result in a abv of 12%

 

[winemaker81]

Agreed -- the amount of sugar in any juice varies, so you have to measure each time. Recipe that call for "X lbs of sugar" were recorded before hydrometers were widely available, so people simply recorded whatever amount worked for them. Without a hydrometer, it's a guessing game.

 

[winemaker81]

I searched to see if I could find an "average" SG for cherry juice. Nope -- the numbers I found range between 1.040 to 1.090.

If the juice SG is 1.040, adding 1 lb sugar/gallon will increase the SG to ~1.085. If the juice SG is 1.090, no sugar is required.

If you can't get a hydrometer, my best advice is to add 1 lb sugar/gallon, with the expectation the ABV will be 11% and 18%. As I said, without a hydrometer, it's a guessing game.

 

[Vega1]

Thanks for the advice! (Sorry for the late response)