# Adding sugar to increase alcohol



## Car-Boy (Nov 29, 2008)

A guy at a wine store in Las Cruces, N.M. told me that if I wanted to increase the alcohol % in my wine to add corn sugar. Has anyone tried this?


----------



## Wade E (Nov 29, 2008)

I have done this as many have to increase the abv of some of the Mist wine kits. Most of us use regular table sugar and it works fine but you can use corn sugar and actually that corn sugar is a little easier for the yeast to eat but none of us have had problems using the table sugar. We typically add about 4 lbs o bring the abv from about 6 1/2 -7% to about 10 1/2 -11% which will make these kits cellar much better as a low abv will decrease its shelf life. I would not recommend doing this with a high end kit though as those are in range for where they should be.
*Edited by: wade *


----------



## Bert (Nov 29, 2008)

As Wade said most of us have tweaked a kit by adding some sugar...Just a small warning, watch your SG. as you add the sugar...Getting too much alcohol will mask the flavors of the wine ....Good Luck..


----------



## Car-Boy (Nov 29, 2008)

Thanks for your advice, I would hate to ruin a high end kit or alter the flavor.


----------



## Wade E (Nov 29, 2008)

What wine were you planning on doing this to?


----------



## Car-Boy (Nov 30, 2008)

I was thinking of doing it to a Cellar Craft Merlot, until I read the post about masking the taste of a high end wine.


----------



## Wade E (Nov 30, 2008)

Most likely it already has a pretty decent abv level as the high end kits usually do.


----------



## dfwwino (Nov 30, 2008)

Depending on the kit, you could also add honey if you like a hint of honey. Honey adds body to wines.


----------



## Chopper (Jan 6, 2009)

I got my first winemaking kit for Christmas, and got the "Island Mist Blackberry Cabrenet" juice for my first try. Little did I know that the potential alcohol was only 6.5%, and little did I know that I could add sugar to boost the alcohol potential.
Anyway, this juice has been bubbling away in my primary fermenter for a few days. I assume it's too late to add sugar. Is this true?


Thanks,


Chopper


----------



## grapeman (Jan 6, 2009)

First if you can check the SG of the wine and make sure it is above about 1.010. If it is dissolve a3-4 pounds of sugar in a bit of water- like a cup or so while you heat it not to boiling. Let the syrup cool down and add to the wine. It will continue to ferment and will raise the ABV.


----------



## Wade E (Jan 6, 2009)

This will void the warranty and will extend the time for everything like racking etc. I did this with a few of mine and worked out well.


----------



## Vince (Jan 7, 2009)

I just got my first CC Merlot kit Tuesday and it already fermenting quite well.The grapes pack that came with it was very impressive tasting and jacked up the SG quite a bit as compared to juice only. The SG was 1.085 when starting (combined, before adding oak and bentonite)so that's plenty for me for the kit, for now.


----------



## Wade E (Jan 7, 2009)

Is his the 12 liter kit Vince. I know most of the grape skin kits from RJS have a Starting sg of around 1.105. These are 16-18 liter kits though.


----------



## Vince (Jan 7, 2009)

This is a 12L kit, actually my first kit with the grape skin pack. A starting SG of 1.105, wow that's totally awesome. Guess I'll be getting one of those kitstoo!


----------



## Wade E (Jan 8, 2009)

I havent done the Cellar Craft kits but all the RJS grape skin kits are up there!


----------



## Millzy64 (Jan 31, 2009)

I just started a CC Merlot kit last week and my initial SG was kind of low (1.070). I bumped the SG up to 1.090 with some sugar to bring it up to the 12% range. We'll see if it masks the fruit in a few more weeks I guess. I even called my supplier who told me that most of the CC kits are designed to fall around the 10% range to make the wine appealing to a wider audience. To me, 10% is too low for a Merlot.


----------



## Wade E (Jan 31, 2009)

Almost all the smaller kits come out this way, If you want a higher abv wine then go with the big grape skin kit. I know all the RJS Winery Series start off with an sg of 1.100 and usually a tad higher.


----------



## pizz65 (Feb 7, 2009)

How would you know what the ABV will be before its done???


----------



## Wade E (Feb 7, 2009)

You would assume it will ferment to dry right around .998 give or take.


----------



## pizz65 (Feb 7, 2009)

I do not know what to assume thats why I asked the question. Would sweeter wine ferment to .998 also??


----------



## Wade E (Feb 7, 2009)

Depends on the yeast used. Some yeasts have a much stronger abv tolerance. Some only can produce an abv of 13% while others are rated for 18%.


----------



## PeterZ (Feb 9, 2009)

Most kits that are designed to end up sweet are designed to ferment to dry and then, after stabilizing, are sweetened.


----------



## Chrisandsonyas (Oct 9, 2013)

Quick question, we made concord grape wine for our first time. The recipe we used called for equal amounts of grape juice, sugar and water. We thought it was too much sugar. So, we tasted the sweetness as we added sugar. We ended up with 4 1/3 cups of grape juice and 2 cups sugar then 1 packet of the yeast. The reason we used less sugar was some friends made the same recipe and we felt it was too sweet. I just hope we didn't screw up the fermenting process.


----------



## Julie (Oct 10, 2013)

Hi Chrisandsonyas, welcome to winemakingtalk.

Adding sugar to the must does not dictate the sweetness of the wine. Once you add the yeast, that sugar will be converted to alcohol. What you could end up having is either a very high alcohol content or a very sweet wine because the yeast has reached it tolerance and died off before converting all the sugars.

You need to get a hydrometer and only enough sugar to get a reading around 1.080 to 1.090.


----------

