differences in sugar...

[countrygirl]

just curious...when i did my kit, i added the sugar and stirred.
doing the frozen blueberries, the recipe said to boil the water to dissolve the sugar. is there an advantage one way or the other? would dissolving the sugar first be better for a kit?

 

[Tom]

YES! It's best to boil water and add sugar to dissolve. Plus you know its all dissolved. You need to know that so you get a good gravity reading.

 

[Wade E]

Always dissolve the sugar so you can get an accurate sg reading and by boiling it first it converts the sugar into a product that the yeast can eat instead of the yeast having to expend their energy to convert it first and then eat it.

 

[Mud]

Just to add to what Wade said: If you boil the sugar with a little acid, such as lemon juice or acid blend, for a few minutes you will create invert syrup. It's easier for the yeast to consume as they do not need to produce invertase to do this work themselves. Without acid less sugar will be inverted but it will still work to some degree.

Whether this affects the taste of the wine or not I don't know.

 

[countrygirl]

ok, two thoughts/questions...
1. now i see what you mean about the kit directions sometimes being lacking.
why don't they say to dissolve the sugar in some of the water, lol?
2. if you add a little lemon juice, how (or does it even) affect the acid blend
you add to a recipe? should you decrease it in any way?

 

[NSwiner]

I'm curious what kit are you using that you add sugar to , none of the ones we have done have us add sugar to them ?

 

[countrygirl]

eckraus lambrusco. everything came with the kit except water and sugar. i think that's how they hook you into making more, lol, because then you have enough acid blend, yeast, yeast nutrient, tannin and campden tabs to make another 2 or 3 batches...oh, well, i'm hooked

 

[Runningwolf]

Many of us add sugar syrup to Island Mist kits in the beginning to up the abv. We also add half the f-pack in the beginning to cut down on the sweetness just a bit. Just a note, altering the kits in anyway will void the warrenty.

 

[Mud]

ok, two thoughts/questions...
1. now i see what you mean about the kit directions sometimes being lacking.
why don't they say to dissolve the sugar in some of the water, lol?
2. if you add a little lemon juice, how (or does it even) affect the acid blend
you add to a recipe? should you decrease it in any way?

1. Dunno. Lazy instruction writers?
2. You don't need much acid to invert sugar, so it doesn't amount to much. I wouldn't do it for a kit for the reason Dan mentioned, but if you're doing a fruit wine where you need to test everything and build your must then just correct for it later.

Recipes are usually guidelines anyway. If a recipe says "X amount of acid blend, X amount of tannin, etc" you're better off reading that as "add acid as necessary, add tannin as necessary, etc."

Same thing with sugar additions. Fruit sugars vary so best bet is to work to your target SG, not necessarily follow the recipe. Unless the final abv isn't crucial.

 

[countrygirl]

so next time i dissolve the sugar in the water, i should put the acid blend (or some lemon juice) in with the simple syrup? i'll have to come back and review all my posts with the next fruit wine (the peach or the blackberry), lol
thanks for all the advice. this site rocks!

 

[cpfan]

It would appear that the kit is actually the SunCal Lambrusco. ECKraus and many other retailers sell it. There have beem comments in the past that the instructions are poor. For those interested, the instructions are on the ECKraus web-site, and they are quite sparse.

http://www.eckraus.com/wine-making-suncal-directions.html

To me, this is more like a can of concentrate than a proper kit.

Steve

 

[arcticsid]

Girl do you have name?

We'll just call you Girl then.

You dont actually "boil" the sugar. I go with Toms method. Bring your water to a boil, turn off the heat and add your sugar slowly. Either way, stir it until the water comes clear again. Then you know it is disolved correctly.

Allow this to cool off before adding yeast to it. Too hot of a temp will freak the yeast out and kill it instantly.

Also, down the road when it is time to backsweeten, you will be bringing your syrup or reduced fruit to a boil. This too need to cool down. You do not want to add this hot liquid to your wine!

 

[Mud]

so next time i dissolve the sugar in the water, i should put the acid blend (or some lemon juice) in with the simple syrup? i'll have to come back and review all my posts with the next fruit wine (the peach or the blackberry), lol
thanks for all the advice. this site rocks!

What Troy said is the easiest thing to do. You're simply dissolving sugar in hot water clumps don't form. If you want to make invert syrup you bring the water to a boil, dissolve the sugar in it, add a little acid and continue boiling for 15 minutes.

 

[countrygirl]

first remember, i'm a little slow on computers, i haven't figured out some of the fancy stuff (putting the quotes in and stuff, lol)
sid, my name is kinda odd (most people mispronounce it, etc.), i don't mind girl, as i'm gonna be 44 real soon, lol or you can call me rica
thanks for the exact sugar info/conversion. it's alot like making sweet tea/hummingbird nectar, except for the extra boiling step, lol
even some of the recipes on line are not very clear. this blueberry recipe i'm working on said "boil the water, dissolve sugar, pour over blueberries" nothing about cooling! it sounds like a little common sense goes a long way with wine making that's what makes this site so special

 

[djrockinsteve]

Rica, welcome again good to make your aquaintance.

Regards to sugar, use a decent size pot, not massive, and use a little more than 1/2 the amount of water than sugar ratio to disolve. You can disolve 1 cup of sugar into a half cup of water easily. Less than that won't work. No need to exact measure just eyeball.

Once my water is good and warm I turn off the flame and finish adding sugar stirring. It quickly disolves and let it cool a bit.

I shoot for slightly less than my point of specific gravity needed. You can always add a dash more sugar the next day if you have to as that is when you will most likely be adding your yeast then. This way if a small amount of sugar wasn't disolved when you added it and the s.g. rose a bit, you are okay. If you are off a degree or two your fine.

I've never added acid to my sugar water (always learning) however my Lalvin yeasts always took off right away.

It's a shame that directions aren't more informative. If making a kits an aggravation some may never go back...lost revenue for them.

 

[djrockinsteve]

first remember, i'm a little slow on computers, i haven't figured out some of the fancy stuff (putting the quotes in and stuff, lol)

Rica, Select "QUOTE" at the bottom of a post. Delete what you don't want leaving the [brackets] on the beginning and end.

Me too still trying fo figure stuff out. I'm waiting for class to begin. I think I have Professor Wade this semester.

 

[countrygirl]

Me too still trying fo figure stuff out. I'm waiting for class to begin. I think I have Professor Wade this semester.

like this?? i think i did it! thanks steve!