# Back sweeten wine



## thunder2000 (Jan 10, 2007)

Some one fill me in on this. I need to know the way to back sweeten wine.


----------



## cpfan (Jan 11, 2007)

1) allow wine to ferment fully
2) add appropriate amounts of potassium metabisulphite & potassium sorbate
3) add sweetener as desired

The sweetener can be many things, such as

a) commercial wine conditioner - generally liquid invert sugar
b) homemade wine conditioner or simple syrup
c) sugar - have heard that some have encountered problems getting fully dissolved
d) reserved juice/concentrate from original must
e) whatever else people have tried to sweeten a wine

Generally I use a commercial wine conditioner, unless I'm sweetening a kit that came with some for of reserve or sweetner.

Steve


----------



## thunder2000 (Jan 11, 2007)

Thank you for the help. I wasn't sure and I have some banana wine just about finished.


----------



## Sacalait (Jan 11, 2007)

Honey also is a good sweetener. Besides adding sweetness it seems to smooth out the harshness that is sometimes present.


----------



## gird123 (Nov 17, 2010)

I know it is personal preference so answers will vary. When sweetening with sugar approximately how much do you use?

for example:
Skeeter pee 6 cups per 5 gallons? (right lon)
Jalapeno 4 tsps per gallon? Anyone?
Does anyone sweeten apple wine?


----------



## djrockinsteve (Nov 17, 2010)

I sweeten everything, even if it's just a few tablespoons. It can really bring out the flavor.

Take your hydrometer and a sample of you wine. In a beaker add a small amount of inverted sugar, take a reading and try it.

If you like it make all of it that gravity. Still to dry move up the scale 5 points and try again. You only need about a cups worth to experiment.

Apple wine is good around 1.015-1.018

I look at it this way, if the fruit is sweet, I'll make the wine sweet. etc.


----------



## Runningwolf (Nov 17, 2010)

I usually sweeten to 1.01 to start with. Then I continue to sweeten by taste. Often times I stop at 1.01.


----------



## ffemt128 (Nov 17, 2010)

Depending on what I am making here is my approach. I will take a sample and determine where the sg is. I usually like starting mine at 1.000 and going from there. 1.010 is on the sweet side for me. I prefer a semi-sweet and shoot for about 1.004 range. Again, it is to your liking but start low and add from there. Once you sweeten, you cannot take it back out.


----------



## Tom (Nov 17, 2010)

gird123 said:


> I know it is personal preference so answers will vary. When sweetening with sugar approximately how much do you use?
> 
> for example:
> Skeeter pee 6 cups per 5 gallons? (right lon)
> ...




Here is the KEY word

Sweeten to "YOUR" taste


----------



## gird123 (Nov 17, 2010)

you use inverted sugar?


----------



## PPBart (Nov 17, 2010)

Here's my method. I don't remember what was the source, but it works well:

First, be very sure the wine is stabilized before adding sugar to it or it will start fermenting again. One crushed and dissolved Campden tablet and 1/2 tsp of K-sorbate (also dissolved) per gallon of wine will do the trick. 

Second, you can sweeten with just sugar or you can make a simple syrup with two parts sugar dissolved in one part of water (as in two cups of sugar in one cup of water). Boil the water, remove from the heat, add the sugar, and stir like heck to make the syrup, as that much sugar doesn't easily dissolve in cold or warm water. Do NOT use commercial powdered sugar, as it contains corn starch which can permanently cloud your wine. Allow the simple syrup to cool to room temperature (not in a refrigerator or it might start re-crystallizing) before continuing.

Third (this might sound complicated when you first read it, but it's really not), measure how much liquid it takes to fill your hydrometer test jar to within 3" of the top. It take about ¾-cup to fill mine that far. Measure out that much wine into a large water glass and stir into it 2 tablespoons of simple syrup. Fill the hydrometer test jar with this sweetened wine and measure the SG. Write that number on a piece of paper and set a wine glass on top of the number. Pour about one inch of wine from the hydrometer test jar into that wine glass and pour the remaining wine back into the large water glass.

Replace the amount of wine you poured into the wine glass so you have as much as you started with and stir into it 2 more tablespoons of simple syrup. Again pour it into the hydrometer test jar and measure the SG. Write the number on a piece of paper and again set an empty wine glass on the number. Pour an inch of wine into the glass and return the rest to the water glass.

Again replace what you used and add 2 more tablespoons of simple syrup. Stir, pour into the hydrometer test jar, and repeat the previous procedures. Do this until you have 4-5 wine glasses sitting on their SG figures. Now taste them in the order they were filled (first glass to the last) and note the one that tasted best to you. It will be the one you tasted just before you picked up the one that was too sweet. Look at it's SG -- that's the SG you want to sweeten your wine to.

Here's another consideration. Over time, all wines mellow out somewhat and actually taste a little sweeter that they did when first bottled. If you plan on keeping the wine for a couple of years, you might want to back off the target sweetness just a hair to allow for this. For example, if the target SG is 1.012, you might want to sweeten it to 1.011 or even 1.010 to allow for this perception.


----------



## MadCow (Dec 2, 2011)

Sacalait said:


> Honey also is a good sweetener. Besides adding sweetness it seems to smooth out the harshness that is sometimes present.



If I use honey to sweeten my 1 gallon of elderberry wine, what sort of amount are we talking? A cup? A half a cup? A tablespoon? 

I know it will be to taste and to SG but what would be a good place to start?

Clueless as usual.


----------



## timber (Jan 4, 2012)

I think I've seen 1.005 as a good SG to aim for.
Thinking about trying honey as well to sweeten my gal of BB wine.

My BB is on second rack with Kmeta & Ksorbate added.
Is this too late to check or adjust acid level?
Never tested acid on this batch.
How much honey per gal is a good question, I'm not really sure but will likely sample before adding to the gallon.
*I do like PPBart's suggested method*, makes a lot of sense and lets you compare.


----------



## Arne (Jan 5, 2012)

Kinda like Bart said, draw a glass, put a spoonful of honey in it. Make sure you stir it in well, taste, more honey, stir, taste, until you get it where you think you want it. Let it sit for a while and see if you still like the taste. Stick it in the refrig. cool it off and taste again. If it is where you like it, sweeten the rest the same. With only a gallon, if you do all the taste tests on different glasses, you are going to use up a bunch of the wine you have. Course you get to sweeten all the glasses up to where you like em and drink it. Win win situation I guess. LOL, Arne.


----------



## talyrand (Apr 6, 2013)

gird123 said:


> you use inverted sugar?



Is that sugar that is upside down?


----------



## Arne (Apr 7, 2013)

talyrand said:


> Is that sugar that is upside down?


 
It is just sugar that is dissolved in water, usually 2 parts sugar to 1 part water. My method: get your water boiling, turn the heat down, add the sugar, stir and stir andstir. The sugar will go from chrystals to a white colored mixture and after a little bit will come clear. Many say to keep simmering for a while to make it invert, but I usually use it after it clears. If you get it too hot it will get cloudy again and if you dump it in your wine then, the wine will cloud up. Then back to the waiting game again. Arne.


----------

