Port Making Questions

[dcteague]

So I've been working on a port and I've now racked for the 3rd time and I'm guessing there is still a minimal amount of fermentation still occurring - it was last at 1.004 but was sweetened a couple times over the past week to increase alcohol content. My sense from measurements is that I'm around 16%-17% alcohol at this point.

The recipe is a fig/blueberry concentrate mix - included banana, vanilla, elderberry and juniper. The wine has already cleared a good bit but still has a ways to go. I'm about 14 days into the process.

A few questions though.

1 - when making a port, do you perform your last back sweetening after the brandy is added - so the final SG is based on the brandy/wine mix, or is this done before the brandy is added? My guess is that this is done after fortifying, then aged.

2 - similar to the above, when should acidity levels/pH be adjusted if needed - pre or post brandy addition?

I'd like to age this for a while full strength to get the brandy/wine flavors to meld with the oak, so preferably, I'll be fortifying this tomorrow, then letting it sit for a couple months with oak.

For the most part, this all came out very well - tastes decent already as just a wine, so I'm hoping for good results as a port. Next time I'm definitely going to target 5 gallons or more as the final product. I was just a bit too short to make my 5 gallons - only way that would happen is if I added about .75 gallons of some random wine - I don't think there's anything I could add that would make up that much volume without adding flavors I didn't make myself. I'm just going to take the leftover wine and age it as a blueberry wine, or maybe mix the balance with some brandy and use it as a taster for the next few months to monitor progress.

Would be interested in some input/feedback on the above 2 questions. Most recipes I've seen don't seem to give you the various order of these steps.

 

[ckassotis]

I'll answer those in reverse. I'd say that if you are doing your third racking, you really need to make any correction that you will be to the acidity now. That will take time to mesh, and I wouldn't want to be doing that late in the process. Ideally you want to fix that up front and never after fermentation if possible.

For the second part, I would definitely fortify it first, and then sweeten. Two reasons. First, the addition of the liquor will modify your sweetness if you added sugar before, and you could end up with something sweeter than you like. The same holds true in reverse. After adding the liquor you might not need to add as much sugar as you would have before. The second point is that adding sugar to a wine that you pushed to alcohol tolerance isn't ever smart. Having a big influx of sugar might just get the yeast going again. So first, kill the yeast by bumping the alcohol well above what they can survive. Then I would add the sugar to taste after that. Maybe give it a bit in between.

 

[dcteague]

I'll answer those in reverse. I'd say that if you are doing your third racking, you really need to make any correction that you will be to the acidity now. That will take time to mesh, and I wouldn't want to be doing that late in the process. Ideally you want to fix that up front and never after fermentation if possible.

For the second part, I would definitely fortify it first, and then sweeten. Two reasons. First, the addition of the liquor will modify your sweetness if you added sugar before, and you could end up with something sweeter than you like. The same holds true in reverse. After adding the liquor you might not need to add as much sugar as you would have before. The second point is that adding sugar to a wine that you pushed to alcohol tolerance isn't ever smart. Having a big influx of sugar might just get the yeast going again. So first, kill the yeast by bumping the alcohol well above what they can survive. Then I would add the sugar to taste after that. Maybe give it a bit in between.

Thanks.

I measured pH/acidity originally, and although not perfect, they were within acceptable standards. I'm just wondering that if they've changed much, would it be okay to modify them before fortifying.

I had a feeling that fortifying first made sense. I'm less worried about the fermentation issue given how much I've gotten from the yeast already - they can't go much anymore anyway since I'm almost at 17% - I'm guessing I've topped out most yeasts capabilities.

I am going to fortify tomorrow then, add some oak, and bulk age this for a while.

 

[ckassotis]

It would be possible to make small adjustments, but just be aware that it will change a bit more once fortified. Usually it's good to have it a bit acidic so that it comes into line when you have added the brandy/everclear. Don't make any large adjustments post-fermentation though, as a general rule.

And yeah, doing the step additions is a good way to get the alcohol to kill the yeast off even before ya add some more to bump it up.

Good luck!