Muscadine sweetening question

[Julie]

I agree with WindyCoastWine, use your tastebuds to determine what you want. My first year of muscadine I backsweeten to 1.010, this past year I had to up it to 1.020.

 

[Sirs]

hmmmm seems your liking the sweeter muscadine after all huh next thing you know you'll be upping the alcohol too lol

 

[LCW]

Should I back sweeten now and let it age in the carboy for a while or backsweeten just before bottling?

 

[jab007]

Should I back sweeten now and let it age in the carboy for a while or backsweeten just before bottling?

I would recommend back sweeten then let it age at least another month in the carboy before bottling.

I normally back sweeten then age for about another 2 months in the carboy before bottling, come out tasting pretty good.

I'm in SC and it's almost time to go pick some muscadines for this year's batch...

 

[LCW]

If I backsweeten now and wait a month or two to bottle do I need to add pot. sorbate or not.Lewis

 

[jab007]

If I backsweeten now and wait a month or two to bottle do I need to add pot. sorbate v or not.Lewis

Sorry for the confusion. Always add potassium sorbatev, I just like to let it bulk age some before bottling after I back sweeten. Some people bottle right away, I want to make no more fermentation occurs and plus I'm a pretty patient guy...Oh and I'm not a drinker so I'm not thirsting for the drink...

Currently on the rack:

3 gal of Apfelwein
3 gal of Blueberry
3 gal of Plum
1 1/2 gal Peach

I need a good recipe for bottled grape juice...

"Don't ever look down on someone unless your helping them up!"

 

[Julie]

Lewis, you only add sorbate once. If you are going to age your wine for a month or two after you backsweeten, you add the sorbate first before adding the sugar for backsweetening and that is it. You do not need to add it again at bottling.

 

[LCW]

Cool,appreciate the info.Lewis

 

[garymc]

I am also new to the winemaking hobby. I'm new to muscadine wine also. I started growing muscadines 4 years ago and have a batch that I divided into 1 gallon jugs at the time of backsweetening. I put the ksorb in it when it was in the big carboy, then divided it up and used different amounts of sugar for backsweetening the different one gallon batches. I have some dry, some semisweet, and some almost sweet. I've spent decades developing a taste for dry red wines. Now I'm trying to develop a taste for sweeter wines. I can see why muscadine wine is normally made sweet. However, I find I'm able to drink it dry also. You just have to brace yourself for it. Mine is also pretty high in alcohol content. So it's a little like drinking sipping whiskey. I have relatives I'll be giving some of it to. They are not really wine drinkers. But just about all of them seem to prefer sweet wine.

 

[LCW]

That pretty much mirrors my lifestyle so you can appreciate my dilemna.Lewis

 

[garymc]

Kind of a drink what you like and like what you drink situation.

 

[LCW]

I'll be sweetening this week to be on the safe side how much sugar solution should I add to a 5 gallon carboy to make a semi-sweet wine.Any ideas would be appreciated.LCW

 

[Julie]

I'll be sweetening this week to be on the safe side how much sugar solution should I add to a 5 gallon carboy to make a semi-sweet wine.Any ideas would be appreciated.LCW

That is a tough question to answer, backsweetening is more of a personal preference, depends on how sweet you like your wines. I would do some bench trails first. TAke so much wine out sweeten that slowly and tasting as you go, once you get it to where you like it, take a hydrometer reading. Now you know how sweet you like it.

 

[LCW]

Thanks that shall be done.LCW