SP: Add sugar with final bottle of lemon juice?

[GaryNC]

I'm new at wine making and have 3 batches (5 gal SP, 2 gal peach, 2 gal Apfelwein) in progress, but none finished, so I have a newbie question.

I'm making my first batch of SP and using Lon's original 5-gal recipe, except that I made a yeast starter with EC-1118 instead of slurry.

It's day-4 in the primary. Starting SG was 1070 and current SG is 1055, so I'm getting close to time to add last bottle of lemon juice and nutrients.

I'm thinking of adding an additional cup of sugar with the final bottle of lemon juice & nutrients, to maintain the original SG. It seems that just adding a quart of lemon juice (without sugar) will dilute the potential abv. I suppose adding sugar will prolong the total fermentation time but I'm not sure why that might be a problem, since it seems to be moving along pretty well and no sulphur smell.

Is there any reason that I shouldn't add sugar? Does anyone else add sugar at this stage?

 

[wineforfun]

I haven't made this exactly as written but make a variation of it. With that said, I add lime juice at the 1.020'ish stage with no additional sugar. The minimal amount of lemon juice you are adding will barely make a dent in your final ABV.
Yes, sugar will prolong the ferment somewhat and also raise the alcohol level.

In the future, I would start your SG at 1.085-1.090 and this will eliminate any concerns of diluting your must/ABV.

 

[4score]

You do not want to add more sugar at this point. Your goal is to use up all the sugar and have your wine go "dry". You measure this journey by monitoring the SG (specific gravity). The SG tells you how much sugar is left. By noting the starting SG and the SG you finish at, you can then calculate the percentage of alcohol by volume.

After it's dry (SG .998 - .995), you add the sorbate and sparkloid....then wait another 14 days to assure there's no further fermentation....THEN you can add more sugar to taste without fear that it will start fermenting again.

 

[GaryNC]

I haven't made this exactly as written but make a variation of it. With that said, I add lime juice at the 1.020'ish stage with no additional sugar. The minimal amount of lemon juice you are adding will barely make a dent in your final ABV.
Yes, sugar will prolong the ferment somewhat and also raise the alcohol level.

In the future, I would start your SG at 1.085-1.090 and this will eliminate any concerns of diluting your must/ABV.

Yeah, you're probably right that adding a quart of lemon juice won't change the abv by much. Just started getting a little paranoid when I realized that from 1070 to 995 was only going to give me about 10% and that's before adding the additional volume of lemon juice. I'll probably just see how this first made-to-recipe batch turns out then adjust for future batches. It may be fine.

 

[GaryNC]

You do not want to add more sugar at this point. Your goal is to use up all the sugar and have your wine go "dry". You measure this journey by monitoring the SG (specific gravity). The SG tells you how much sugar is left. By noting the starting SG and the SG you finish at, you can then calculate the percentage of alcohol by volume.

After it's dry (SG .998 - .995), you add the sorbate and sparkloid....then wait another 14 days to assure there's no further fermentation....THEN you can add more sugar to taste without fear that it will start fermenting again.

Thanks 4score. I do understand that I need to ferment dry & about the SG & all. I've already calculated the final abv to 995 dry & I was a little concerned that it's going to end up below 10%, hence the second thoughts about adding more sugar during the primary fermentation to increase the final abv. But I suppose I'll just stick with the recipe on this and see how it turns out.

I was just sort of wondering if adding more sugar during primary fermentation would cause any negative effects other than just lengthening the fermentation period. It seems that SP has a tendency to generate sulphur dioxide (from other posts that I've read) and I wasn't sure if adding more sugar would make it more likely to do that, because I don't understand the mechanics of what makes fermentation tend to produce the rotten egg smell.

I'm not saying I have that problem but I didn't want to increase the chances of that happening.

 

[Arne]

This being your first try at this, I would say leave it finish out. You could add some additional sugar now and it should be ok but you have a good ferment going and it will probably finish without any problems. When you try again, you can start tweaking a little and change how you do things. If it finishes about 10% you should have a fine drinking beverage. If you get to playing with it and stress the yeast then you will wind up with the rotten egg thing. That amounts to more problems and if you get by with the first try without them it is going to have you wanting to make some more. Good luck with it, Arne.

 

[GaryNC]

Thanks for the reply Arne. Yeah, I was surprised at how well it seems to be going (knock wood), with the difficulties that I've read that people have had. I think that going with a yeast starter really got it off to a running start.

It was bubbling the first day and has been steadily cooking down the SG ever since. It's day-5 in the primary and I just did my second stirring for the day. SG is barely on the high-side of 1050, maybe 1051, so it looks like I'll be doing the second dose of nutrients and final lemon juice later today or tomorrow.

Still haven't made a final decision as to adding a little more sugar but I'm leaning toward not adding & just letting it run its course. I'd hate to throw a stick in the spokes when things seem to be going so well.

 

[Arne]

That is what I would do. Let it finish out, degass and clear, stabalize and sweeten. Time for drinkin. Another way of getting the ferment started fast, rack another wine off the lees (a fruit wine works \well for this), throw your ingredients for skeeter pee on top of the lees and watch it take off. That way you only have to wash your primary once for two batches. LOL, the lazy guy knows how to figure the easy way out. You shouldn't have to add any more yeast if you do this, there should be plenty of live yeast left in the lees. Arne.