Low alcohol content in kit wine?

[jeeptp75]

Let me start by saying I am very very new to all this. Just bottled my first batch tonight. It is an island mist pomegranate zin. Followed all the basic directions and everything went exactly as the directions said. My starting specific gravity was around 1.050. Now tonight wine I bottled it was 1.020. I know this is a low abv wine but I was told it should be 6.0%. Isn't 1.020 about 3%? Wine temp tonight was 76 when it was bottled.

Sorry if this is very rookie but I have done a ton of searches on a few issues tonight and having no luck.

Tim

 

[GaDawg]

I've only made 2 island mist kits. one I added 4 lbs of sugar as a simple syrup and the other I added 5 lbs. My ABV was 10-12%

 

[derunner]

Tim

This was the first kit I made also.

If you made the kit as described, it started at SG 1.050 and you fermented it to dry below 1.000, probably about .995. If you did this you did get about a 7-8% wine. then you back sweeten with the F-pack and that raises the SG I guess to about 1.020 from what you said. The alcohol is still there, but you did dilute it some by adding the volume of the f-pack to a about 6 gal batch. So you are now probably down to 6-7% ABV.

Most of these mistkits can be "capitalized" by adding sugar before fermention. If you add about 3-4 lbs of sugar by dissolving in some of the water you add you can raise the SG to 1.070 and then you will get a higher ABV. If you do this you will get about a 10% wine.

 

[sour_grapes]

That's "Chaptalized." It is an eponym, that is, the word was coined after a real person's name (like "Boycott," e.g.).