I ferment my wines to dry and want to backsweeten afterwards. I know I'll get a lot of "depends" answers but is there a general rule of thumb for how sweet? What SG is lightly sweet, medium sweet and sweet? Like someone said that to bring out the flavor of fruit wines you should sweeten to 1.005. Is 1.005 lightly sweet? How about 1.010? Any answers out there in wineland? Thanks!
How much to backsweeten?
- Thread starter tcavan01
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Rodnboro
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I bulk aged 3 gallons of Blackberry for 9 months then split it into 3 1 gallon carboys for 2 more months after backsweetening one to 1.005, one to 1.010, and left one dry. I like the 1.005 better. But I guess it depends on each ones taste. I'm from South Georgia and I don't even drink much sweet tea! You could draw a sample and sweeten it to where you like it and then measure. There are charts on the subject, but they seem to all be different.
You could set up a little comparison taste test for yourself and see what you like. Most people can begin to detect sweetness in wine in the SG range 1.000 to 1.005. Here is a simple little taste test. Pour four glasses (3 oz. each) of wine. Do nothing to the first, add 1/8 t to the second, 1/4 t to the third and 3/8 t to the fourth. The %-age of sugar for the four samples will be approximately 0%, 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5%, respectively. Taste each (after all the sugar has dissolved) and see what you like. If one is too dry and the next is too sweet, split the difference in the amount of sugar. Once you find what you like, scale up the amount to the amount of wine you have to sweeten. Be sure to stabilize the wine with K Sorbate before sweetening the entire batch.
