Winemaking - How much sugar to add?

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CrackBadger
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Winemaking - How much sugar to add?

Post by CrackBadger »

I read a few tutorials on winemaking but none of them tell you how much sugar to use. Do you have to check the label of the fruit juice your using to find out how much sugar is already in it then add more until you get to the right amount?

I still have no idea how much your supposed to add. I know that too little sugar and the wine will have low alcohol content and too much sugar and the wine will be way too sweet. I read that some winemakers add the sugar in steps throughout the fermentation.

One other question I had was if using honey instead of granulated sugar will ruin the taste of the wine or not. I just added yeast to two 3 liter bottles of concentrated apple/blackcurrent juice (I diluted it of course) and added only about a table spoon of granulated sugar to each bottle but one of the bottles I decided to add a cup of water that had about 3 tablespoons of honey dissolved in it. I'll see how it turns out in the end.
nutmg1
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Re: Winemaking - How much sugar to add?

Post by nutmg1 »

Do you have a hydrometer? If you don't then you really need to get one. You'll be stoked.

When you do get one just to a google search and you'll get more info than you want on how to use it. For wine a usually shoot for 10 to 12% depending on what your making.

Sounds like your new to this stuff. Remember to read read read and ask questions when you need to.

I've been making wine for over 2 years and it still took me 6 months to get my act together on distilling.
Dnderhead
Angel's Share
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Re: Winemaking - How much sugar to add?

Post by Dnderhead »

First we do have beer/wine thread -but Id say if your talking about "concentrate" out of store 2-3 frozen concentrate to a gal +1-1.5 lbs sugar per gal of water and a little lemon for acid
Djurmz
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Re: Winemaking - How much sugar to add?

Post by Djurmz »

The amount of sugar to add to a wine can depend on the variety and largely on personal taste. Adding before fermentation gives higher alcohol, adding with Campden tablets at bottling time adds sweetness to the flavor profile

A great resource for winemaking can be found at http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/

Jack Keller has a very large collection of recipes and I've found way too many wine recipes to try anytime soon. I currently have a strawberry, guava, orange, and Welch's red wine at various stages. All were from recipes on Jack's site.
19Kilo
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Re: Winemaking - How much sugar to add?

Post by 19Kilo »

+1 on kellers website.
You need to tailor the ammount of sugar in your musts to the toxicity level of your yeasts... ie, if you use a Montrochet, you need to add enough sugars to hit a 12% ABV, If you use an 118, you can add enough sugars to hit 19% ABV.
I think... (and my memory is pretty bad) that 1 cup of sugar per gallon will increse the SG of .01 points per 5 gallons... 1 pound of sugar per gallon will give you 1.065 points.

My usual recipe is 3 cans of cncentrates, and 2 cups iverted sugar per gallon, for an OG of 1.100.
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