margarita wine from frozen concentrate

I made a 2.5 gal. batch of margarita wine and it's finished ferminting, no airlock activity. It's been a couple of days sense it finished. Now there is bubbles on the top of it and it has a chemical taste with an aftertaste.

Has it gone bad? If not, what can I do to get rid of the chemical taste.

Well a lot of those mixer type concentrates are all flavors with lots of sugar. Once you strip out the sugar during fermentation other, perviously hidden, off flavors can emerge. Back sweetening will make a world of difference.

Ok thanks. That's great to know. I made it for my wife and was worried it wasn't going to be good to drink.

let us know how it turns out!

I sure will. I'll be transfering it from its current cantainer to another to strain the pulp out of it. Then back sweeten it and add another can of the concentrate. When should iput in the potassium sorbate. And about how much for 2.5 Gallons.

Countryboy73 said:

I sure will. I'll be transfering it from its current cantainer to another to strain the pulp out of it. Then back sweeten it and add another can of the concentrate. When should iput in the potassium sorbate. And about how much for 2.5 Gallons.

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You use the sorbate before you sweeten it. In other words, before you add anything else. It has to be totally clear, and without any more sediment, as sorbate inhibits yeast reproduction. But once that happens, and you add the sorbate, then you can sweeten with concentrate or sugar syrup or whatever, and fermentation won't restart. If you didn't stabilize before adding more concentrate, then that will ferment out and you'll have to wait about another 4 months until it's done, and clear, and no longer dropping lees, and then try.

Ok thanks but this one isn't intended to be clear, its going to be like a hard lemonaid but noncarbenated.

Countryboy73 said:

Ok thanks but this one isn't intended to be clear, its going to be like a hard lemonaid but noncarbenated.

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By "clear", I mean without yeast in suspension. It needs to be clear before adding the sorbate and then sweetening. Otherwise, the wine will keep fermenting and the bottles will explode.

oh ok. After I add the sorbate how long do I need to wait before back sweetening.

Well, after a week of having the sorbate in it. I finaly have the time to sweeten it.

The abv was 8.2%, that was before sweetening it. Topped it off to 2.5 Gallons from 2 g. I added 1 can of concentrate and 2 cups of sugar. It has that warming feeling when you drink it and my wife said it's too strong. I dont want to add to much and bring the abv down to far. Can I measure the abv the same way as if it's fermenting while I'm adding to it?

I got the wine sweetened and bottled. It taste more like limade than margarita but it's still good. I had to use 2 cans of the concentrate to get rid of that chemical taste and put 2 cups of sugar in it. I ended up with 2 3/4 gallons. I checked the gravity reading and it went down to 3% from 8%. Did I do something wrong for it to drop that much? Or is there a different way to check the abv after back sweetening it.

Countryboy73 said:

I got the wine sweetened and bottled. It taste more like limade than margarita but it's still good. I had to use 2 cans of the concentrate to get rid of that chemical taste and put 2 cups of sugar in it. I ended up with 2 3/4 gallons. I checked the gravity reading and it went down to 3% from 8%. Did I do something wrong for it to drop that much? Or is there a different way to check the abv after back sweetening it.

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You don't "read" the potential ABV as an indicator of the alcohol level.

The formula is (OG-FG) x 131 = approximately the ABV%. Adding liquid dilutes it, so then you'd just add the liquid as "water" and do some simple math.

I did 1.060-0.998 and got 0.063. Then 0.062*131 and got 8.122. I'm not following you onhow to figure it up after adding the liquid. I added about 3qrts to it to have a total of 2and 3/4 gallons. Oh man, call me stupid cause I feal stupid. I'm not sure how to figure up the abv after adding the 3qrts to it. I can help my kids with word problems all day long but with this I'm clueless. Would 5.077 be the final abv after add the 3qrts to it.

Countryboy73 said:

I did 1.060-0.998 and got 0.063. Then 0.062*131 and got 8.122. I'm not following you onhow to figure it up after adding the liquid. I added about 3qrts to it to have a total of 2and 3/4 gallons. Oh man, call me stupid cause I feal stupid. I'm not sure how to figure up the abv after adding the 3qrts to it. I can help my kids with word problems all day long but with this I'm clueless. Would 5.077 be the final abv after add the 3qrts to it.

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It's not a reason to feel stupid! It's just a dilution "problem", and you can use ratios.

If you have 2.75 gallons, 2 gallons of it was 8.1% and .75 gallons was 0% ABV.

That means that the total is now 2.75 gallons at 6.0% ABV. check my math, as I did it quick in my head- but it should be close.

Ok thanks. Ratio is one thing I'm not good at. I'll have to get my oldest kid to help me figure it out. Thanks again.

After bottling it I drank several 12oz bottles. When my beer was ready I started drinking it. It's been 3 weeks sense I drank one of the margarita wine so I got one of the bottles and it was hard as a rock. Wth I put potassium sorbate in it. Did I not put enough in it.

What was the final SG, before you added the sorbate & sweetened it up? Is it carbonated now?

It was .998. Yeah it's carbonated now.