WineXpert F Bags

[dowine]

I use only 1/2 of the F Bag to sweenten my wines. I am woundering if anyone has used this sweeet concentrate with other ingredeents to make other batches of wine.

 

[Wade E]

Welcome dowine, I have not tried that as I usually use 1/2 the fpack in the beginning to up the abv and the other 1/2 to sweeten back and add the rest of he flavor. This way you get all the flavor that you are looking for a higher abv to help the wine age better in the cellar.
Edited by: wade

 

[dowine]

adv? Is that alcohol content?

dowine

 

[Wade E]

abv, and yes. It will up the amount of alcohol produced and help in cellaring your wine. BEWARE!, doing this will VOID your warranty though.

 

[texasermd]

abv stands for alcohol by volume and is usually written as %abv or percent alcohol by volume. You will see the label on wine or other spirit that states 12% abv. Also, multiply by 2 and you have proof and vice-versa.

 

[myway22]

If your kit does not come with an f-pack or conditioner, should you consider adding a conditioner? Or does this just depend on your own personal taste for that particular wine?

 

[texasermd]

Wine conditioner contains a sweetening agent and potassium sorbate. If you want a wine that has some residual sweetness to it (not dry) then you may use the conditioner. It is best to run some small trials to see how much sweetness will meet your needs. The sorbate in the conditioner keeps any residual yeast from restarting fermentation once the sugar is added. There are other ways of sweetening wine before bottling such as table sugar, honey, grape juice, grape concentrate, etc. If any of these are used, though, sorbate is needed to keep the corks from popping off and making a big mess which would be the case if fermentation gets started again. You can get potassium sorbate alone or mixed with sugar as is the case with the conditioner. Hope this helps.

 

[Waldo]

I use only 1/2 of the F Bag to sweenten my wines. I am woundering if anyone has used this sweeet concentrate with other ingredeents to make other batches of wine.

I recently used about 1/4 of an F pack that was for a Strawberry/Riesling kit in a Mead. The Mead is still ferementing so the jury is still out on how it will turn out.

 

[PeterZ]

According to Allison Crowe (Winemaker Mag's Wine Wizard) people are starting to experiment with stevia and splenda for sweetening. For the Green Apple Riesling IM kit I have I am planning to void the warranty by adding all the F-pack to the primary, plus enough sugar for a 9.5% abv target. I will then experiment with Splenda for sweetening.

 

[Wade E]

Ive read and I think Masta posted it that Stevia will break down in wine over time. I dont recall what the effects were when it breaks down or if it was all artificial sweeteners though.

 

[myway22]

I was more concerned about a regular red or white wine, not so much a Riesling, Icewine or fruit type wine.

 

[PeterZ]

myway, if you want to add a little sweetness to a dry red or white wine you can certainly use a wine conditioner. Be sure that you have already added the sulfite and sorbate, and clarified the wine. I would not add the sweetener or contitioner until you have a clear wine that has been racked off the lees. Sorbate stops yeast from reproducing, but if you still have a lot of live yeast in the lees you risk restarting fermentation when you add the conditioner. Removing the lees eliminates that possibility.

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

In Waldos thread on "An Experimental Port" Dean made a must read / research comment on artificial sweeteners, the commercial conditioners do contain sorbate to prevent re fermentation, I wait until stable myself before adding just to be safe.






http://www.finevinewines.com//Wiz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3986&KW=splenda&PID=57183#57183

 

[myway22]

Thanks Peter, one question though. If you do decide to add a little conditioner, would you filter, add it then bottle? Or does it need to sit in with the entire batch before bottling? Thanks.

 

[Wade E]

I think the Conditioner Just has enough Sorbate in it to stop the fermentation of itself from fermenting, not enough to stop a 6 gallon batch from re fermenting.

 

[PeterZ]

I would add the conditioner to the whole batch, if only for uniformity. Filtering is another question all together. If you are going to filter then I would probably add post filtration. Given that you already know how much conditioner you want to add (from bench testing) then I would add the conditioner to a clean sanitized carboy and filter into that carboy and then bottle. Either way should work.