Fortify Port

[RickC]

I have a question on how to fotify a port. I have seen some discussionembedded in other threadsbut cannot seem to find them now.


What is preferred, Brandy or Everclear?
How do you determine how much to add? ABV measurement?
In a 3 gal kit, how much does it normally take.

 

[Wade E]

You want to use Pearson's Squareto do any fortification and here is a link to it that explains it in terms that even I can understand~
Pearson's Square</font>

 

[Tom]

Wade

That is easy enough to understand. Thanks for the link. The one I have is hard to understand.

 

[Wade E]

I have seen so many links that are just way beyond my comprehension level and when I seen this post I went digging for 1 I understood and it took a quite a few searches to do so!

 

[Waldo]

For wines made from grapes I use Brandy and for my fruit wines I use everclear to fortify. The Everclear does not mask the taste of the fruits as much as brandy seems to

 

[RickC]

Wade, thanks, this is definitly helpful and understandable.

 

[Wade E]

Actually thank you because until today I found this the hardest part of making a port cause every other way this was written just puzzled me as I am no scientist or mathematician. So you actually made me look around which made me find that easy to understand equation! So we helped each other!

 

[joeswine]

How about to taste?

 

[gaudet]

Real life problem then.

I make a carlos muscadine wine that 12% ABV (6 Gallons)

I want to make a port out of it @18% ABV

95% = abv (everclear)
-18% = desired final ABV
=77 parts wine


18% = desired final ABV
-12% = %abv of wine
= 6 parts everclear

So to simplify its a 77:6 ratio of wine to everlear ( I would round up 77 to 78)

to get a 13:1 ratio (simpler number to work with)

So divide 6 gallons by 14 and 13 would need to be wine and 1 would need to be everclear to fortify it properly

Please correct my fuzzy logic cause I have not had any coffee yet

 

[joeswine]

TRY TO TASTE...............you may add more than your palate will like but if you add to taste you,ll find your middle ground ,sometimes math isn,t the true answer

 

[Wade E]

I agree with that statement Joe, but the math will get you a little closer to where you want to be before you get drunk.

 

[joeswine]

yes but what and ending'''''''''''''''''

 

[whino-wino]

Jack Keller has a wine blending "calculator" on his website that I used to fortify a blueberry/zinfandel blend I made last year. Worked pretty slick. Just fill in the numbers that are asked for (amount of wine being fortified, what is the current abv, what is the abv of the fortifier and what abv are you after) and hit enter. Shoots out the amount you need lickety split. No need to do any smath.

 

[vcasey]

Jack Keller has a wine blending "calculator" on his website that I used to fortify a blueberry/zinfandel blend I made last year. Worked pretty slick. Just fill in the numbers that are asked for (amount of wine being fortified, what is the current abv, what is the abv of the fortifier and what abv are you after) and hit enter. Shoots out the amount you need lickety split. No need to do any smath.

Thanks for the info. When ever I see a math equation I have to start drinking! Which does not help solve the problem. Usually I just do the same thing as Joeswine.

 

[gaudet]

Jack Keller has a wine blending "calculator" on his website that I used to fortify a blueberry/zinfandel blend I made last year. Worked pretty slick. Just fill in the numbers that are asked for (amount of wine being fortified, what is the current abv, what is the abv of the fortifier and what abv are you after) and hit enter. Shoots out the amount you need lickety split. No need to do any smath.

Thanks for the info. When ever I see a math equation I have to start drinking! Which does not help solve the problem. Usually I just do the same thing as Joeswine.

You must be mathematically related to my wife vcasey

Here's the link to that calculator http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/blending.asp

 

[vcasey]

I confess - I am math challenged! My youngest son is an Architectural Design Major and when ever he and hubby start talking numbers my eyes glaze over! When he was working on his Eagle project he had so many different calculations for that project - As a joke he handed it to me to check his math. I handed it back and said well it looks like .......... MATH.
VPC

 

[wctisue]

How do you know what percentage of alcohol you want at the finish unless you taste it???


We fortified our last La Bodega port with brandy we had on hand. We (really my wife cause she's the port drinker) set up a taste test at the kitchen counter. I made small batches with various ratios by using teaspoons and tablespoons (1T = 3t). So it was really trial and error to get the taste at the level she wanted. She liked the 10:1 ratio. It tasted harsh to me at bottling. Now a year later the taste has smoothed and blended to be quite nice. I won't go open a bottle cause I'm just not into to it but I'll have a taste when a bottle is open. We bottle all of our ports in 375 ml so we don't drink it too soon.


Wayne