Need to sweeten blueberry wine

[SLoizeaux]

I made 5 gallons of Blueberry wine this summer, with 25 lbs of blueberrys and 11 lbs of sugar and 2 cans of welshes concentrated gape juice. It fermented out fine actually too well. The hydrometer reading is 0.98 and it tastes like it has a lot of alcohol, but lacks blueberry flavor and some sweetness. So I am thinking of adding 3 lbs of Blueberry puree and a 1 or 2 lb of sugar. Does this sound reasonable? How do I make sure it doesn't continue to ferment?

 

[Julie]

Make sure you add potassium sulfide and potassium sorbate before backsweetening. What was your hydrometer reading before it fermented? And I won't just dump a bunch of sugar and purée into it. I would start out with one can of purée and taste, if it is sweet enough take a reading so you know where your sweetness level is at. I really won't go any higher than 1.010.

 

[SLoizeaux]

Julie - Thank you so much for your insight. You obviously have a lot of experience. This my first time on forum - I have brewed beer for more than 25 years and made grape wine for 15 years. Still a novice. I tried to back sweeten a Zin last year and it initially turned out great until a month or two passed and I noticed some carbonation similar to a young wine. Well I only added potassium sorbate, not the potassium sulfide and that must have been the problem. I sucks having to call friends and tell them to open and dump the wine I just gave them (2.5 cases). Lesson learned on back sweetening - again thank you for your insight - live and learn to make a better wine. Merry Christmas.

 

[salcoco]

i would suggest a bench trial . take a sample of the wine say a 1/4 cup(60ml) add 1/4 tsp puree or use sugar syrup. sugar syrup is two cups sugar to one cup hot water. mix in a blender. let cool. take another sample add 1/2 tsp of sugar continue with same size samples adding 1/4 tsp plus to each then taste test. find right combination then take a 500ml sample add sugar syrup potassium metabisulfite and sorbate let sit a week or two to insure wine is stable taste test to see if sweetness level is as desired, if so the add to base batch along with sulfite and sorbate. wait again a few weeks to insure stability and then bottle.

 

[SLoizeaux]

I like that idea - thanks for the suggestion

 

[dralarms]

Also while tasting, once you get a sweetness you like, then back off just a little because once it ages the flavor will come through and sometimes it gets too sweet

Say it tastes good at 1.012.

Back it down to 1.008 and let it age. I find it tastes better if done this way.

 

[Scooter68]

For future reference - Blueberries flavor is not overpowering. What you are likely to taste with this batch is going to be a grape flavor (Like corcord grape wine) more than blueberries. Blueberry wine, if you really want to taste the blueberries should be a solo/single fruit variety wine. Back-sweetening is almost always needed with blueberries especially. AND finally as Juile said - go real easy on the sugar and puree additions. Bench trials with a cup of wine (8oz) is the safest and most accurate way to get a result you can reproduce in the future AND avoid over-sweetening. Every wine I've made in my first 2 1/2 years of this has turned out sweeter than I thought it would - but since I started modestly I've not had an overly sweet wine. DR Alarms has given you true and sage advice.

 

[wxtrendsguy]

Just for clarity the correct term is not "potassium sulfide" rather it is "potassium metabisulfite". To back sweeten a wine there are two methods that can employed to ward off a secondary fermentation in the bottle months later.
Method 1 involves sterile filtering using a membrane cartridge filter with a porosity <=0.45 microns and an addition of potassium metabisulfite.
Method 2 involves an addition of Potassium Sorbate and Potassium metabisulfite. However many will claim they can taste the sorbate.

Follow Salcoco advice about a bench trial. When it comes time to add your sugar and Sorbate, dissolve them in a gallon of your finished wine and then it back to your carboy....you do not want to add water at this point it only dilutes what you are trying to achieve.

 

[Donatelo]

I am a complete newbie at winemaking , but have you considered adding BSG flavoring just before you bottle? I have a Dragons blood 3 gallon batch that I just put in the cellar to age. I intend to add 4 oz of BSG brand cherry flavoring and a 1 1/2 cup sugar/ water to it just before bottling. One thing I learned is that it ABSOLUTELY must be finished with the ferment, then add campden tablets (ground to powder).

 

[Arne]

I am a complete newbie at winemaking , but have you considered adding BSG flavoring just before you bottle? I have a Dragons blood 3 gallon batch that I just put in the cellar to age. I intend to add 4 oz of BSG brand cherry flavoring and a 1 1/2 cup sugar/ water to it just before bottling. One thing I learned is that it ABSOLUTELY must be finished with the ferment, then add campden tablets (ground to powder).

Make sure you add potassium sorbate with the campden tabs. If not you stand to have a referment. Also you need fresh sorbate. It does have a shelf life. The campden tabs will stun the yeast, but might not stop them from taking off again. The sorbate stops the yeast from reproducing. Just a little stuff learned the hard way. Arne.

 

[Markjulie2000]

Sweetening blueberry wine is very simple. in order to avoid carbonation after bottling, simply put the wine into a pot on the stove with a lid on it and slowly raise the temperature to 150° Fahrenheit. This will kill all of the yeast in the wine. It has an added benefit of allowing you to easily dissolve sugar or honey or anything else that you wish to sweeten your wine with. I like to avoid using chemicals at all costs. And yes I know they say some things are safe, but I don't use them.

 

[Scooter68]

Markjulie2000 This thread is over 8 months old. I doubt that the OP is going to see your post.

 

[rustbucket]

"simply put the wine into a pot on the stove with a lid on it and slowly raise the temperature to 150° Fahrenheit"

Scooter is right regarding the lateness of the post but I also question the soundness of the advice. The boiling point for alcohol is 173 degrees Fahrenheit; it would certainly start vaporizing at 150 degrees. You could end up with a low alcoholic wine as a result of heating it up.

 

[Scooter68]

As well as it appears to be making a dangerous suggestion of heating corked bottles. (Doesn't say other wise) - When I speak of bottled wine I am talking about wine bottled and Corked
Also I've never heard of a proper sweetening process that didn't make sure that all of the sweetener is dissolved BEFORE bottling.

Finally that telling statement "I like to avoid using chemicals at all costs." Based on this guidance, the costs could well be exploding bottles and a wine with a variety of unknown characteristics.

 

[robert81650]

This is the way I back sweeten my fruit wines so that you don’t loose any of the original flavor. Take one cup of the wine and 2 cups of sugar and dissolve over low heat. When dissolved and cool, add about 1 cup of the fruit wine/sugar syrup to each gallon of dry wine. With a sp. gr. At that range, it will raise the sweetness up to about 1.010. You can adjust with more syrup if you want it more sweet. But don’t forget the sorbate to keep it from fermenting again.

 

[Gena]

My wine has fermented and I’ve rack it after a month, I took a reading and only had 4% alcohol. How can I raise the alcohol in my wine.

 

[meadmaker1]

Add sugar..and wait.
How did you determine you have 4%

 

[Gena]

By the refractometer, I added more sugar but husband added more yeast, hope we didn't screw up

 

[sour_grapes]

By the refractometer, I added more sugar but husband added more yeast, hope we didn't screw up

Gena, your reading is probably not accurate. You need to know what the Brix or specific gravity (SG) was when you started, and what it is now. Unfortunately, you cannot (easily) use a refractometer after fermentation. (This is because alcohol changes the index of refraction.) Did you record any reading of the Brix or SG when you started?

 

[Gena]

My reading was ,998 now is .996