quick help please! am I using the Pearson Square correctly to add grain alcohol??

[TimTheWiner]

So I am only 3 months into my new wine making hobby and for some stupid reason I used a Niagara Mist Blueberry Pom Merlot Blanc for my first kit. After making the kit I am realizing that this is not really going to be paired with meals but seems to be more of a chilled summer/picnic/campfire type wine. With this, I would prefer it to have a higher ABV. My starting SG was 1.057 and ending .998 which calculates to an ABV of 7.85%. Not terrible, but being this is going to be a "summer outdoorsy" wine, I would prefer to be more around 10%.

After a bit of research and reading I found links to the Pearsons square for calculating how much hard liquor to use to attain a higher ABV. It seems that grain alcohol is the most recommended as you need the least of it to attain higher ABV and hopefully not effect resulting taste too much. I just want to be sure I am using the Pearsons equation correctly. I would like a final ABV of 10%, so with the formula 95 (ABV of grain alcohol) minus 10 = 85 parts wine. Then 10 (final ABV) minus 7.85 (current ABV) = 2.15 parts grain alcohol. So it appears I need 2.15 parts grain alcohol per 85 parts wine. If I try to break this down to how many ounces of grain I need to add. I believe I divide 760 (rough volume in ounces of wine in my carboy) by 85, then multiply that number by 2.15. When I convert that number from oz to mL it looks like I need about 521 ml or about 2/3 the bottle of grain alcohol to add to the carboy to get the final 10%.

Does this sound right? Seems good to me. If I added the whole 750 bottle of grain alcohol it seems like it would give me a final ABV of about 10.7%. IF THIS IS the correct numbers, do you think my end taste would be terribly off and would I really taste the alcohol a lot? It is a very sweet wine as is and I wouldn't mind giving it a little bite, but still needs to be drinkable by most people. Whole reason for this is after racking again I have to top up quite a bit (maybe 400 ml) as there is currently about 10" of diameter of exposed surface area at top of wine level. Also, do I or should I be mixing in the alcohol after adding or will it mix itself when I rack again??

 

[TimTheWiner]

After a bit more math, and assuming my calculation of 568 ml to pure grain to achieve a final ABV of 10%, then it appears out of 30 bottles of product it will end up with 19 ml of pure grain in each bottle of wine (or 2.5% or .6 oz), so I would like to think that this would not have an effect on flavor. If I removed a tad more wine from carboy I could achieve 10.7% by using the entire 750 ml of pure grain.

 

[Runningwolf]

Shockwave, sorry I did not reply but I am absolutly clueless with the Pearson Square.

 

[Dennis_S]

ShockwaveCT, not sure exactly, but your saying 760 oz in the carboy. That's almost 6 gallon. What size is your carboy? Your formula looks close though from what I can tell. U would need roughly 2.15 oz of 95% for every 85 oz of wine.

 

[TimTheWiner]

Yeh, I am pretty confident about my math now. I am a big fan of math, but a bit rusty. One concern that I have is that I know that I have been using 6 gal PET/Better Bottles which were nearly topped right up to the bottom of the neck (maybe 3 inches from top), after racking to my brand new glass 6 gal carboys there is a LOT of air left. I hate to add water and dilute or lessen the ABV any. It appears 6 gal is 777 oz, so I just guessed on that it was 760 in the carboy since this is what I'm looking at. A local shop told me maybe I bought a 6.5 gallon, but looking at the box it says 23 litre, so I don't know why it is not filling as full as my Better Bottles.

 

[TimTheWiner]

Same problem with my Riesling I racked over to glass. There is same amount of space and I don't necessarily want to add so much water cuz I don't want to dilute ABV, plus I haven't added F pack yet. It would seem to make since to add F pack now (or some of it), but the local shop guy said wine has to be 100% degassed before F pack or and other additives (sorbate/kielsol). But I'm sure it is not close to degassed yet. I think I need to rerack a couple more times with my All in One pump, but I hate to let it sit to long contacting that much air...?? Help!?

 

[DoctorCAD]

You might be happy with the strength of the alcohol as is. I have made several of the "summer-drink" kits and they are a huge hit at picnics, neighborhood block parties and general pool-side drinking.

In the heat, less alcohol seems to work well and since these drinks are favored by the female side of the group, they seem to like the wine-lite feeling. I'd rather drink beer in the heat, and I think lots of people feel the same.

I think I might make a batch of that same wine for the upcoming summer. My neighbors love them and it gets me invited to lots of parties!

 

[TimTheWiner]

Well after adding the ENTIRE 750 ml bottle of whole grain, I still had to add a little water to get to the bottom of the neck. I am kind of annoyed and wish I had some marbles or an air bladder right now so I would not have to mess with the height of my Riesling with the same issue.

 

[BobF]

Try http://web2.airmail.net/sgross/fermcalc/

It makes winemaking math headaches vanish!