making a sweet wine

[Todd]

I think I have seen this and did consider it. I already have a ton of wine bottles so I wouldn't mind using those, I'll look into this some more before I actually go through with it. This is a good idea.

Hi Todd,

If you are thinking of a way to store your wine for such a short time and are not interested in all the fuzz of bottling, corking etc. why bottle at all.

There is something called Bag in a Box. It merely is a plastic bag which you fill with your wine and then put in a more or less attractive carton box (which is supplied with it). It will cost only a few dollars and there is a little disposer on it from which you can fill your glass everytime you pass by.

They are available in different sizes and I have several of them for my small, directly consumable wines.....

It is not as romantic as opening a bottle but it is very practical and not much of a fuzz in filling an using. Then again a T-Cork is also not very romantic.

Luc

 

[Luc]

And I forgot the best part.

When they are empty, you just rinse them out with fresh water, and put a sulphite solution in it to store them for next time using. They are multiple times usable.

Luc

 

[smurfe]

Are you wanting to make a sweeter kit wine or a scratch wine? As others have stated it is better to ferment to dry and then back sweeten to taste. In the kits this happens by the addition of the F Pack after you stabilize the wine. This is how Wine Expert kits do it and I don't know what other brands call their F-Packs or if they even have them but if you see a kit that has an F-Pack in it, it will be of a sweeter variety.

In scratch wines you ferment to dry and you can add some wine conditioner or boil some water and add sugar to it and let it cool (I can't remember how much sugar off the top of my head). Add it to the finished wine a bit at a time tasting as you go until the desired sweetness is attained. Stopping a fermentation can be tricky as others stated.

If you go this route it is easier to determine the proper strain of yeast to use that will be used up before the wine reaches an SG below 1.000 and then add sorbate and sulfite's to stop the fermentation. You run the risk of fermentation re-occurring in the bottle this route though. I have to recommend that you ferment to dry and back sweeten.

Smurfe

 

[Wine4Me]

{ You can sweeten any wine kit by adding wine conditioner after the sorbate. }

After the sorbate? How long after? I mean can I add the sorbate, then add the wine conditioner right away or do I add the wine conditioner a week or ?? later?

 

[cpfan]

{ You can sweeten any wine kit by adding wine conditioner after the sorbate. }

After the sorbate? How long after? I mean can I add the sorbate, then add the wine conditioner right away or do I add the wine conditioner a week or ?? later?

Actually either way works fine. I think that the kit manufacturers recommend sweetening between sorbate & clearing agents (certainly Vineco recommends this). However, in the past, I have sweetened immediately prior to bottling wit no ill effects.

Steve

 

[ltcsludge]

i have had grest succsess using grape juice concentrare for a sweet red wine. 2 cans per gal and add sugar to a SG of 1090 or slightly higher.i use a red wine yeast and let it go for about 3-5 weeks till the ferment slows drasticly- in a 6 gal jug this takes some time- my first batch i bottled a bit ealier then i should have and wound up with cork bullets here and there but a little refridgeration solved that. anywho try this if you want a sweet red. i am sure it will work for wite grape as well