Too much sugar?

[goranmagdic]

Good afternoon! I received a wine kit for Christmas, and have started making my first 1 gallon batch of date and rainsin wine, using the following recipe:

1kg Stoned Dates
500g raisins
1.5kg sugar
High Alcohol yeast
Pectolase
Yeast Nutrient

After adding 4.5 litres of water, and letting the fruit soak overnight, I took a sample, and my hydrometer floated way above the scale. I had to add almost 2 more litres (stirring after each jug of water) to get the specific gravity to around 1.090 (if I've read it correctly). Do you think the recipe has too much sugar, as the high floating level of the hydrometer suggests? Or have I done something wrong?

Thanks,
David

 

[salcoco]

a specific gravity of 1.090 will yield a wine af about 12% alcohol by volume which is the normal range for any wine.

 

[cintipam]

Hi David and welcome!

That is a very hard question to answer since you aren't totally sure how to use a hydrometer. I just dug thru the tutorial section and couldn't find the great video another member had posted several times. So I hope someone will come along and post a link to help you be sure you are reading your hydrometer properly.

If you find you are reading it properly, then adding water was an appropriate way to reduce the starting specific gravity. However now your wine will prob be thin tasting. As a rule of thumb it is always best to check the sugar content in steps rather than blindly following a recipe since fruit and other ingredients can vary in sugar content. Also helps to know integrity of recipe creator as well as catching possible typos in the recipe. Stuff happens.

If this were my wine once I confirmed current SG I would add stuff to increase flavor but not have a huge impact on sugar. Easiest route would be fruit juice concentrate sold for making beverages, but you will need to add even more water to go that route. There are also some great concentrates sold in health food stores that are low sugar high flavor. Tart Cherry and Pomegranete are the 2 most common.

I will admit I can't translate the kg and grams in my head to figure the amount. Hopefully some one who isn't challenged by that weight and measure system will speak up if those totals of fruit seem plausible or not.

In any case you will learn a lot by your first experience. Better a gallon than a 5 gallon batch gone wrong. So not much to lose either way.

Pam in cinti

 

[Toque]

~3.3 pounds of sugar
~2.2 pounds dates
~1.0 pounds raisins
Most likely an Imperial gallon.

One of the on-line calculators after typing in the above info gave a SG of 1.201 or 24.2 Potential Alcohol. Seems just a bit high, yeah.

Though, who knows what the sugar content is in the fruit really.