Sweetening

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Runningwolf

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In another month I will be racking 12 gallons of Niagara and 6 cranberry. At this time I will be sweetening them. Is simple sugar the best or what if I went back to Walkers and got some more Niagara and sweetend with the same juice I started out with. Would there be enough sugar in it and how much do you think I would need for each 6 gallon batch. Would this be the as good as an f-pack to get the additional flavor?
 
Your confusing f-pac with back sweetening
For f-pac you can get "juice" and reduce 2-3 qts in 1/2 and add for Flavor. This will add flavor and a LITTLE sweetener
Simple Syrup (2parts sugar to 1 part id water) is the best way to back sweeten.
REMEMBER you MUST have added k-meta AND Sorbate before adding f-pac or simple syrup.
Hope this helps..
 
Your right Tom I was thinking it would sweeten it also. Would you recommend getting the juice to make an f-pack for each of them for additional flavor? I am going to blending the cranberry with the Niagara, not sure of the ratio yet but probably 25-30% cranberry to the Niagara. I want to rack and sweeten in about another month (I will sorbate and k-meta) and then bulk age/clear for another 3 months. Then I will blend and bottle.
 
yea get some 100% cranberry juice NOT cocktail. get at least 2 quarts and reduce it by 1/2 and add to YOUR "taste" (there it is again the 3 "T's). Once added you may have to add more clairifiers as it will cloub up the wine a little. Then again BULK aging will help.
 
I will get that at Walkers also when I get the Niagara. Isn't Cranberry already pretty strong though? That's why I was looking at a 30/70 blend approximately. Am I just wasting my time even thinking about an f-pack if I am just using pure juice to begin with and nothing else added in with them?
 
You know I am probably going to start a whole new conversation on this because no one seems to backsweeten in this method but what I do is pull about 2 cups of wine from the carboy and add sugar (depending how far I need to sweeten) and warm up the wine, NEVER HOT. Once the sugar is dissolved I place the pan in a bowl of ice to get it cold and pour it back into the carboy. Works great everytime. :sm

Julie
 
That will work also! :br
But, having a quart of ready made simple syrup is just
convient for me. I also find it easier to mix to MY "taste"
 
Yep, both ways will work. If your wine requires more flavor from fermentation blow off then sweetening will only go so far, if it needs more flavor then you need more flavor and there are many ways to go about that. You can use syrup, fruit, juice, extract(Idont recommend these) or s combo of any of those.
 
Which is the best way to sweeten wine, add sugar water or remove some wine as you mentioned and add sugar then return to the carboy.

Another question is, is there a chart or equation for determining amount of sugar to be added to raise wine to a spec. gravity.
 
Id say remove the water just in case your water profile doest have a reaction to your win e due to high calcium or something like that and cloud it up. Ive seen this happen with a simple syrup and not sure if its the type of sugar or maybe water profile or just the status of your wine at that time reacting with normal water. Im no chemist but my bets would be on the water.
 
I am probably less of a chemist than Wade, so I would have to agee with him on sweetening but so far I have not had an issue with taking out some wine and adding sugar to it to backsweeten.

To raise sg, and I am not sure where I got this info, but for 1 gallon on wine 8 oz. of sugar will raise sg approximately .018.

Julie
 
Sweetening information

How much sugar (white and in pounds) will one gallon of water hold (extra added for evaporation during boiling)?

In addition the same question for bulk aged wine instead of adding water. I would think adding water to the wine would dilute it even though it's sweetened.

Any thoughts anyone?
Thanks
 
there is very little water being added. only enough to keep the sugar in suspension.

2 parts sugar to 1 part water. search inverted sugar (we add lemon to ours)
 
How much sugar (white and in pounds) will one gallon of water hold (extra added for evaporation during boiling)?

In addition the same question for bulk aged wine instead of adding water. I would think adding water to the wine would dilute it even though it's sweetened.

Any thoughts anyone?
Thanks


Roughly 16.7 pounds sugar to 1 gallon water at room temp to make a saturated solution (based on solubility of ~200g/100mL).
 

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