Sweet Wine

[Tom]

I would like to throw out a general question on sweet wine. No specific wine.

Lets say your gravity is 1.120 that would be a potential alcohol of 16%. You add a yeast that says is good for 14%. How will the wine come out? Sweet, Odd taste, good..

This is in lew of adding sugar during fermentation.

 

[Wade E]

Ive done this twice and it worked out great but there is a chance that the fermentation will finish also as that 14% is just a guestimation and it could go past that till dry possibly as I believe KG&B found out when they followed my Blackberry thread and mine stopped where I wanted but his went to dry. Luckily it was a Blackberry as that can hide the higher abv pretty good unlike some other fruits so I would only try this with those types. I would do this in the winter or if you have the means of chilling it down in a fridge to put the yeast to sleep if needed just in case. The only other option is to sterile filter your wine with a .25 micron filter.

 

[vcasey]

I can't speak for doing this for a fruit or grape wine, but I have done this meads. It tends to be hit or miss with this process in regards to the yeast actually stopping. Sometimes the yeast are really healthy and keep right on going and other times you get lucky.
VC

 

[Tom]

Yea what you both say is true. When I did my Ice Wine the yeast went way past what it should have. I also had a problem stopping it even by putting it in the fridge.

To much uncertainty. Just looking for some more info thru your experiences.

 

[Wade E]

The fridge is really not cold enough to stun the yeast, you need freezing temps to do so truly.

 

[Waldo]

I tried doingthat on a Peach wine oncetepe and it backfired on me too. I had 6 gallon of jet fuel that Iwas working with trying to salvage and finally ended up dumping it

 

[hartm]

So if you wanted a more consistent sweetness, would it be better to ferment to dryness and then backsweeten?


What would be the best ways to back sweeten that would prevent the fermentation from starting up again?

 

[Tom]

it's strongly suggested to ferment to dry and back sweeten.

Back sweeten with simple syrup to your taste (2 parts sugar to 1 part water boil water, add sugar, whisk till clear. I make a spaghetti sauces jar)

 

[vcasey]

So if you wanted a more consistent sweetness, would it be better to ferment to dryness and then backsweeten?


What would be the best ways to back sweeten that would prevent the fermentation from starting up again?

Absolutely fermenting to dryness and then back sweetening after adding sorbate & K-meta is the best way to go for consistency and preventing fermenting to restart.
With that said - I have done this several times with apple cysers and a couple of meads with great success and this may have more to do with using honey then anything else. My wines have been more hit and miss with this process.
If anyone wants to try this please choose your yeast and your fruit carefully. And keep the batches small in case you end up with rocket fuel!
VC

 

[hartm]

How would suggest back sweetening a large batch. Do you target a spefic SG for the back sweetening? or try to sweeten to task on a specific volume and then calculate how much you would need for the entire batch?

 

[Waldo]

I will typically add enough to raise the SG to a specific level such as .995 to 1.005 and let it rest for about a week then taste it again and add more if needed. Would not try to bump it too much , too quick though

 

[Winefarmer1]

I have a batch of peach wine finishing now. ABV is at 14.2and the wine failed to clear. I sweetened it and it seems to be undergoing further fermentation. I wanted to use superkleer again, but did not. I think that I may have a pectin haze, and am now thinking about using juice from really ripe bannanas, but have sooooo little experience. This is the first batch of 5 that failed to clear this year. The taste at the moment is excellent, and hopefully will remain so. I didn't even use a f-pak yet.

 

[Waldo]

You might try adding a little pectic enzyme to it and see it that will clear it up

 

[Tom]

How would suggest back sweetening a large batch. Do you target a spefic SG for the back sweetening? or try to sweeten to task on a specific volume and then calculate how much you would need for the entire batch?

That depends on what wine you want to back sweeten (mostly done in fruit wines). Make the simple syrup as I said in a previous post. The key is to sweeten the wine to YOUR taste. There is no gravity# to shoot for.


BTW what do you call a big batch?