Fortification question

[Dend78]

I am looking at starting a batch and I would like to fortify with Brandy, lets say i set my SG at somewhere around 12-14%, I am going for a sweet wine here so I would stop this at 1.010-1.020. if this is a 6gal batch and I would like to bump this up between 15-20%ABV how much brandy would one have to add? this math question is beyond me. Im sure its something fairly simple once you see it but i cant see it. Any help would be appreciated.

too add to this madness http://www.cleavebooks.co.uk/scol/ccalcoh4.htm will that work for figuring this out? if so please explain i think i have the idea but need more guidance

I think if i go to 4) put in 750ml into 6gallons hmm but how does it know my abv of my 750ml i could be using 190 proof stuff

 

[Dend78]

i think i have it using the above calc.

if i were to stop/fortify at 12% ABV for 6 gallons i would have 24 proof

say 750ml of 80 proof brandy is 40%abv and .495 gallons round this up to 0.5gal for grins

take my 40% and divide it by 12, which is the total half gallons to get 6 gallons gives me 3.33333%

12% + 3.3333333% = 15.3333333%

correct?

wow i think i just overheated my brain...please leave a message after the explosion

 

[robie]

What you need is a Pearson's square wine calculator. Use it and check it against your results above.

 

[Dend78]

hmmm according to http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/blending.asp

using the second calculator

Base = 12 Fortifier = 40 BaseQ = 6 FortifierQ = .5 Adjusted Alcohol = 14.153

which would put me at close to 3/4 gallon of brandy to get from 12% to 15% does that sound right?

 

[Deezil]

Just covered this what-feels-like a few days ago in another thread

A = Your wine, ABV 12%
B = Your Brandy, 40%
C = The ABV you want - 18%?

D = Brandy by 'parts'
E = Your wine by 'parts'

C - A = E
B - C = D

18 - 12 = 6
40 - 18 = 22

22 parts wine, 6 parts brandy

22 + 6 = 28 total parts
6/28 = 21.42% brandy
22/28 = 78.57% wine

78.57% = 6 gallons of wine
6 gallons x 5 bottles per gallon = 30

BottlesBrandy = [%Brandy * (BottlesWine / %Wine)]
Brandy = [21.42 * (30/78.57)]

8.17 bottles (fifths) of 40% brandy to reach 18% from 12%

Just changed it all up to fit your situation

Does that make it better or worse?

 

[Dend78]

Does that make it better or worse?

WOW! I was right there with you when it was a picture with words then it went to all words and numbers and then a chicken ran across the room, and Jimmy bought 5 apples and sold 2 to Anne for 3 times what he paid for them and a cow jumped over the moon. What color were the apples Anne bought?

just kiddin yeah actually it makes perfect sense, this way i can actually see where the numbers are coming from i had to reread it cause i got lost at the end with the 6 gallons x 5 bottles per gallon = 30.....im sittin here thinking so that makes it 2.5gal of brandy to make one gallon of wine, so then what you are saying is don't waste time with the wine

 

[Deezil]

That part, is just "formatting" it to bottles.. So that the answer it spits out, is in bottles/fifths... 5 bottles (750ml) in a gallon.. if you have 6 gallons of wine - thats 30 bottles, etc

Just makes the answer in the end, pretty... the 8 bottles of brandy into 30 bottles of wine.. Which your new volume is then, about 7.5 gallons

 

[ibglowin]

When I fortified my 6 gallons of La Bodega Port last year I added 6 bottles of brandy to bring it up to 19% ABV from ~16%. So like 1 bottle per gallon was needed to fortify it properly. I ended up with 8 gallons total after adding in the ~1.5L of Port Essence.

 

[Dend78]

batch is now underway just gotta pitch the yeast tonight and toss in some more sugar, i actually ran out last night

 

[olusteebus]

I am doing that to a gallon of peach. Right now, the sg is about 1.000. I plan on adding 750ml of peach brandy, What is port essence, where do you get it and what does it do?

 

[ibglowin]

That is what comes in a Port Kit. You can' buy it. Its your pre-measured back sweetener that a mixture of a little bit of juice and a whole lot of invert sugar.

What is port essence, where do you get it and what does it do?