Sweetener

[mtstarr]

I posted this as a reply to another post with out much of a reply. I would love to get more insight. The topic was WE conditioner for sweetening your prebottled wine.
...I have used this in the past and had problems with it. I would love to know what to do differently. Here is the scoop. I started with 6 gallons of wine (chard) and split it into two 3 gallon batches. I did a bench test to figureout how much sweetener to add. I took one of the half batchs, 3 gal, and sweetened it with WE conditioner. Stirred it in to the 3 gallons of wine. It tasted great. I bottled all six gallons and labeled them to tell the difference between the sweetened and un-sweetened. After about a week the sweetened wine began to get floater in it. I have a bottle that I kept and it is disturbing how much "stuff" is in there.



On to the attempted rescue. I uncorked all bottles of sweetened wine, put them into closest fitting jug I had, add an air lock and put it into a 32 or so degree fridge. After a couple of weeks I pull the jug, rack the wine and rebottled. The wine is much more clear but still has a small of amount of "dust" like particles if you roll the bottle.


The wine was from a kit so it hashadpotassium metabisulphated andpotassium sorbate added prior to the last racking. The other 3 gallons have no haze or "floaters". The WE conditioner has a Potassium Sorbate in it so it should not have fermented.

 

[Wade E]

Did you use a mix stir o mix it in thoroughly? I dont use this product as I wasnt thrilled with the taste it left in my wine.

 

[mtstarr]

I used a mixing paddle, I believe it was mix well.

 

[Wade E]

This is a very thick liquid and I dont believe you can thoroughly mix that in sufficiently with that method. Thats my opinion.

 

[mtstarr]

Interesting idea, how would you mix it? Any ideas on why it would take a week + to show the floaters? Did they come back together maybe?

 

[Wade E]

Its very possible. I would mix it with a drill mounted mix stir.

 

[mtstarr]

I should have been more clear, that is what I mean by a mixing paddle. It is a fold up paddle that will fit into a carboy, you can connect it to a drill.

 

[joeswine]

WHAT do you mean when you state floaters,dust I can somewhat understand ,areyou saying fine particals still in suspension or are they on the bottom? did you filter the wine prier to bottling,if not you can begetting the haze do to the amount of gloucose add ,sort of like a peckten haze,let it settle out it might take a little time but it will settle out

in the future try using simple suyrp as a additive,2cups sugar,1 cup water desolve ,cool and use,don't forget the chemicals also,this will do the trick

Edited by: joeswine

 

[hannabarn]

Now I am wondering! I was about to add some WE conditioner to my lambrusco. Is simple syrup better? I want to bring the sg up from a little less than 1 to 1.1

 

[rgecaprock]

I've used both, I think simple syrup is better and besides it is always on hand and cheap. I'm not very precise....I just add it until I get the desired sweetness by taste.
Ramona

 

[hannabarn]

Well, I added the conditioner. So far, so good! Will wait and see. Tastes pretty good now!

 

[joeswine]

LADY YOUR SO RIGHT

 

[hannabarn]

I added the conditioner to my nice clear lambrusco and now I have some nice cloudy ugly looking lambrusco. I stirred the heck out of it with a wine whip so now will let it bulk age and see what happens. So much for the WE wine conditioner!

 

[Wade E]

This is 1 reason I use sugar syrup, the other is the artificial flavor i think it gives.

 

[hannabarn]

I flipped a coin! Heads---conditioner, Tails----simple syrup. I guess I lost!!!!
At least I don't have to buy any more conditioner

 

[joeswine]

we all make mistakes thats how we learn

 

[muscadine wine]

I have a question on this topic. I made some simple syrup by adding 2 cups of sugar to 1 cup of boiling water. Boiled and stirred for 5 minutes and allowed to cool. I now have crystals and part of the liquid seems to be turning back into sugar. Any suggestions on this problem would be appreciated. The wine conditioner I had been using from my LHBS did not exhibit this problem.

 

[grapeman]

See the following from Masta



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<TD style="WIDTH: 140px" align=middle>Author</TD>
<TD align=middle>Message</TD></TR>
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<TD colSpan=2>Forum: Winexpert

Topic: Started Island Mist</TD></TR>
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<TD vAlign=top rowSpan=2>masta

Replies: 22
Views: 642

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<TD>Started Island Mist
Posted: 02 March 2007 at 3:59pm </TD></TR>
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<TD =msgLineDevider style="BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px" vAlign=top height=84>
<DIV =msg style=": left; OVERFLOW: auto">So do you add the sugar to meet a specific SG? Shooting for 1.090? Do you just dump it in the juice and stir or dissolve it in water first and add to the juice?Smurfe I have been following the directions for making invert sugar (in the link below paragraphfive using lemon juice) to help hydrolyze the sucrose into fructose and glucose which the yeast has an easier time converting to ethanol and CO2. I starting doing this since some of thebatches I was adding a lot of sugar to were taking longer... </TD></TR></T></TABLE>

 

[Tomy]

You might try this making simple syrup. 1 cup water in a pan on the stove trun on stove just below med heat and add one cup sugar then stir till water becomes clear with no crystals in the bottom of the pan, and making sure you do not boil. Then slowly add the last cup of sugar while stiring untill the water becomes clear again, and there is no crystals in bottom of pan. I do not let the simple syrup cool but pour it in the wine and give it a good stir. It has allways come out great using this method for me.

 

[Bert]

muscadine wine...I have a question, was the syrup nice and clear after it cooled or was it cloudy???? I have usedsyrup prettyoften and even make it up ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator for later use.