First batch ever...lots of questions

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HappyBecky

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Hello, Yesterday I mixed up my first batch of wine. My husband bought me a starter kit at Christmas and I bought a can of plum puree.

1) I added way too much sugar to the must. SG was 1.130. If our calculations are correct my wine will be 16% ABV.
Question) Does puree require less sugar than fruit, in general?
Question) If I try to stop the fermentation before the recommended <1.000 in an attempt to reduce the ABV, will the wine taste disgusting??

2) Stirring in the primary fermentation:
Question) My husband brews beer so stirring the must is a weird concept to him. Do I need to stir everything from bottom up, including any/all yeast sitting on the bottom of the solution?

I think that's it for now. Thanks so much!!
 
Hello, Yesterday I mixed up my first batch of wine. My husband bought me a starter kit at Christmas and I bought a can of plum puree.

1) I added way too much sugar to the must. SG was 1.130. If our calculations are correct my wine will be 16% ABV.
Question) Does puree require less sugar than fruit, in general?
Question) If I try to stop the fermentation before the recommended <1.000 in an attempt to reduce the ABV, will the wine taste disgusting??

2) Stirring in the primary fermentation:
Question) My husband brews beer so stirring the must is a weird concept to him. Do I need to stir everything from bottom up, including any/all yeast sitting on the bottom of the solution?

I think that's it for now. Thanks so much!!

More like 18% if it were to ferment fully. Yes, that is a lot. What yeast did you use? The yeast may not get started, and they may not be able to finish that fermentation.

The home winemaker does not really have a way to stop the fermentation. You are basically along for the ride at this point. It is not unlikely that you will wind up with a slightly sweet wine with high alcohol.

(The only real exception to being able to stop a fermentation is by adding distilled spirits at some point to raise the ABV to above about 20%, where the yeast can not thrive. This is how port is made, and is done to retain some unfermented sugar for sweetness.)
 
Hiya, HappyBecky and welcome. As sour_grapes hinted this may be a little to high in sugar but you can always dilute this with water (or a less concentrated fruit puree. Typically, wines tend to be better "balanced" when the starting gravity is about 1.090 (or a finished ABV of about 12%. You want the flavors, the heat from the alcohol, the acidity, the tannins to all be nicely aligned and too "hot" a wine (an excess of ethanol) can over-balance the other elements.

Again, as sour-grapes suggested, you don't want to try stopping the fermentation in mid flight - that is a lot like trying to stop a freight train on a dime... Better to allow the yeast to finish what they have begun and then you stabilize the wine to prevent it from fermenting a second time and then you add whatever sweetener you want to make the wine as sweet as you like it. You stabilize a wine by adding two chemicals in tandem - K-meta and K-sorbate. The challenge is that neither will halt a fermentation so you stabilize after you have racked a couple of times and so have removed almost all the yeast cells you started with.
Good luck!
 
On the bright side if the flavor is strong enough you could end up with a really choice dessert wine. I don't see any numbers on the 1)Quantity of puree, 2) Yotal wine volume at the start and 3) Brand of puree.
Adding some unsweetened puree now might dilute the SG enough to let the yeast do its thing. But don't add water .

A lot of folks on here have made some mistakes that turned into happy surprises. Be patient.
 
The yeast used is important. If the yeast used is not a high potency one like Lalvin EC-1118, it's likely the wine will not ferment to dryness. Your result will be a lower ABV (alcohol by volume) with some residual sweetness.

What was the SG of the diluted plum puree before you added sugar? If you have the room to buy a second carboy, start another batch of plum with no or little added sugar, to produce a lower ABV in the second batch. Blend the 2 to get a more palatable ABV in the final result.


Actually, it is possible for home wine makers to stop a fermentation -- if you have access to a walk-in cooler or have an extra refrigerator with the shelves removed. Chill the wine down to 30 to 35 F and keep it there for a week. Add sulfite and sorbistat before the wine warms up to prevent a renewed fermentation.

I was co-owner of a wine & beer making supply shop in the late 80's. We had a walk-in cooler and did that for a customer. He had Ravat 51 (Vignoles) that came in at 29 brix. He brought in a couple of carboys and we left them in the cooler for a week, which stopped the fermentation. He stabilized the wine and later bottled.
 

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