starting sg 1.12

[newbie2]

hi, I started a raspberry wine yesterday and waited my 24 hours for my campden to work. Took a sg reading today and its 1.12, looks like I might have got carried away with the sugar yesterday!

Is that going to cause me trouble or just be too sweet (and rocket fuel)?

Do i just add more water (and/or acid blend/fruit) or should I leave it alone?

Thanks!

 

[BernardSmith]

hi, I started a raspberry wine yesterday and waited my 24 hours for my campden to work. Took a sg reading today and its 1.12, looks like I might have got carried away with the sugar yesterday!

Is that going to cause me trouble or just be too sweet (and rocket fuel)?

Do i just add more water (and/or acid blend/fruit) or should I leave it alone?

Thanks!

Hi newbie, The sweetness of the wine will depend only on whether the yeast can convert all that sugar to alcohol and CO2 or whether you backsweeten the wine if it can and does. A gravity of 1.120 is an ABV of more than 15.5 percent.
My two cents would be- and this would very much depend on your recipe - to add more fruit to increase the volume so that your must is closer to about 1.090 (or about 11.5 percent ABV). How many pounds of fruit to the gallon are you using? How much water have you used to get the volume of must you have? My rule of thumb is to use the least amount of water you can possibly use but I wonder if raspberries are sufficiently acidic that you do need to add some water to reduce the level of acidity. If the pH is around 3.5 - 3.9 (the fruit juice itself) then I would think the less water you add the more body and flavor the wine will have.

 

[newbie2]

Thanks, I have 2.2lb raspberry and 300 grams raisins per gallon, the pH is currently 3.8.

I've now added extra fruit and a little extra water, sg 1.10 now, but still higher than wanted. I'm all out of fruit now and I don't want to weaken the mix too much so I guess I shall have to go with it and cross my fingers! Just hope it ferments!

 

[mjrisenhoover]

I think you will be fine, what kind of yeast are you using?

 

[Tom_S]

1.100 will give you around 13% or so IIRC, so it will be strong but not super strong like at 15%.

 

[newbie2]

I think you will be fine, what kind of yeast are you using?

I use Youngs yeast nutient and super wine yeast compound (i'm in the UK)

 

[BernardSmith]

I'm originally from Glasgow and now in the USA via Aberdeen and London
I think a kilo (2.2 lbs) of berries is going to make a somewhat thin wine although the raisins may help with the flavor. Not sure if everyone on this forum would agree but I tend to think that you need something like 2.5 K (about 5lbs or so ) of fruit per gallon but I have never tried making raspberry wine. The berry wines I have made used blends of multiple berries (rasps, strawberries, blueberries, cherries). Just a suggestion, but if you can get frozen berries in your local Aldi's or supermarket that might be one way to increase the berriness of your wine..

 

[newbie2]

I'm originally from Glasgow and now in the USA via Aberdeen and London
I think a kilo (2.2 lbs) of berries is going to make a somewhat thin wine although the raisins may help with the flavor. Not sure if everyone on this forum would agree but I tend to think that you need something like 2.5 K (about 5lbs or so ) of fruit per gallon but I have never tried making raspberry wine. The berry wines I have made used blends of multiple berries (rasps, strawberries, blueberries, cherries). Just a suggestion, but if you can get frozen berries in your local Aldi's or supermarket that might be one way to increase the berriness of your wine..

Thanks, I was following a recipe that did call for 2.5/3lb raspberry/gallon but i fell short so went with the raisins to make it up, hoped i could get away with it. The fruit I have added is a bag of mixed red berries out of the freezer as I wont get to the shops for a few days and i'm too impatient! Can I add more fruit mid ferment?

 

[newbie2]

PS. no raisins in original recipe I was just winging it!

 

[sour_grapes]

Yes, you can add more fruit mid-ferment. You won't really know what you will wind up with, but, then again, you don't really know that anyway!

 

[mjrisenhoover]

I use Youngs yeast nutient and super wine yeast compound (i'm in the UK)

Wow, I read that Youngs super wine yeast is specially formulated for high alcohol, as high as 18%, kind of hard to believe but I think it should work fine for you!