BaddogBrewing
Active Member
Yooper, I have made several gallons of this and it works out great as a Sangria base! Need to start a 5 gallon batch now.
Does this wine need to be degassed?
It's pretty sweet but not sweet enough for my wife. I was surprised that it needed sweetened, too. I should also say that I threw in a few bottles of an older grape wine I made that was kinda dry.
I make cider in a simulations fashion and I just warm the juice on the stove to desolve the sugar with great results.
I made a 6 gallon batch.
O.G. 1.096
It was in the primary for 17 days. I racked to a glass carboy today at .998 S.G. It was clear and tart. I want it to be a sweet dessert wine. I have about a half gallon of head space in the carboy. Should I top that off with water and leave it in the carboy for a month or kill the yeast now and back sweeten at his point?
Acid blend is commonly used to increase the acidity of a must. There are many formulations of these blends. Commercially, acid blends usually contain tartaric, malic and citric acids in a ratio of 40-40-20, 40-30-30, 50-30-20, or 50-25-25. You should ask your supplier what the specific ratio of the blend he sells is if you want precision in your acidity. Most blends, however, are 40-40-20, and adding 3.9 grams of this ratio blend will increase the acidity in a gallon of must approximately 0.1%. This same increase can be achieved by adding to a gallon of must 3.78 grams of tartaric acid (you can use 3.8 g/gal for the sake of simplicity). Fumaric acid in food grade powder form is sometimes used as a partial substitute for additions of tartaric acid because it tends to inhibit malo-lactic fermentation when used in the range of 1.5 to 5.7 grams per gallon (achieving an increase of 0.05 to 0.15% acidity). When used in large doses, however, it may affect flavor so testing its use in a sample of wine is wise before using it.
One more question -- after reading through all 38 pages, I get the impression that red grapes will ferment much harder than the mead or cider I've already done... but I used a 2 gallon bucket as primary for 1 gallon batches. Is there a danger of it foaming up that much? It seems like most people are using a 1 gallon carboy for primary, so I can understand the concern of blow-off... but so far it looks like my foam has gone maybe 1/2 inch up the side of my bucket on the hardest ferment, leaving a good 7-8 inches of headspace to spare in primary. I probably don't need to worry about this overflowing in primary, right? (I understand, no guarantees...)
plan on finding some 1-2 gallon jugs/pails to start a few batches of this recipe, looks VERY interesting...
I'd just like to ask, in the recipe it mentioned "After additional 30 days, stabilize, sweeten if desired and rack into bottles."
I have a few questions on this part, if anyone can please help me prep ahead of time:
#1 it says to stabilize, what or how is everyone doing this for their batches?
#2 if you sweeten, will it not start to ferment again? just curious, I've been reading allot on this forum over the last few months & I'm trying to learn as much as possible...
thanks for any and all help and tips.
Cheers,
plan on finding some 1-2 gallon jugs/pails to start a few batches of this recipe, looks VERY interesting...
I'd just like to ask, in the recipe it mentioned "After additional 30 days, stabilize, sweeten if desired and rack into bottles."
I have a few questions on this part, if anyone can please help me prep ahead of time:
#1 it says to stabilize, what or how is everyone doing this for their batches?
#2 if you sweeten, will it not start to ferment again? just curious, I've been reading allot on this forum over the last few months & I'm trying to learn as much as possible...
thanks for any and all help and tips.
Cheers,
1. I use 1 campden per gallon plus 1/2 tsp potassium sorbate per gallon.
2. The campden and sorbate will keep it from re fermenting provided it was really over in the first place. I did have a couple that I rushed that developed a little sediment in the bottle. Not really a fermentation because they didn't go to dry or blow the corks but not something you want in your wine. I don't bottle them anymore until they are 4 to 6 months old but I have quite a few carboys and half my basement to use.
That's ok headspace for primary, but for secondary it has to go into jugs or carboys with a narrow headspace.
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