# How to sweeten you wine?



## B-well4200 (Dec 1, 2008)

hello everyone. I am getting ready to sweeten my first batch of wine. Any suggestions on what is the best method. I have heard that 2 part sugar to 1 part water. Is it better to sweeten at bottling time?


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## steve1 (Dec 13, 2008)

I pour wine in measuring cup with 1-10 ounces of sugar,depending on s.g you want and stir in cup ,plus stir in jug to also degas..this way does not cut alcohol.be sure to sulfite and sorbate before sweeting.


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## Wade E (Dec 13, 2008)

If its a fruit wine I like to take some of the same kind of juice and reduce it on a stove top on medium heat until its 1/3 its original size(concentrate it) and let it cool and add it to a wine that has been stabilized with both k-meta(campden) and sorbate. If its a 6 gallon batch then I usually start with 2 quarts of juice and reduce to a little over 1/2 of a quart and sometimes even add sugar to that concentrate if the wine went to very dry.


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## Luc (Dec 14, 2008)

First I would not sweeten at bottling time.

Sweeten and then wait a few weeks, taste and then bottle.

In a wine all kind of chemical reactions take place
and anything added to a wine my trigger such a reaction and
cause a haze.So after sweetening wait to see if that happens.

Sweetening may also restart fermentation if the wine has not
been stabilised properly. So wait to see if that happens.
Sorbate helps prevent yeast cells to multiply but it does
not kill yeast cells. So any remaining might restart
fermentation.

Wade's idea is original for concentrating juices.
I do agree with him but I have 2 minor considerations which
you might like to think about.

- Boiling might impart flavor change of the juices
while some chemical changes are made to materials when
heated. I have a scientific explanation on this made by Lum Eisenman
if anyone is interested.
- By concentrating you are concentrating all materials.
So not only will the SG rise but (depending on the amount added)
the acidity may rise also.

So I would definitely wait with bottling and do some tasting
and measurements.

My favorite means of concentrating juices is by freezing
them. Then let them thaw slowly and measure carefully the
first thawed fluids, they are high in acid, flavor and sugar.
So basically the last thing thawing is water.

I have a web-log entry coming up on this
with measurements on several kinds of juices
somewhere next year.

Luc


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## Wade E (Dec 14, 2008)

Luc, I have noticed some slight flavor changes as you said with my way of concentrating. 98% the juice tastes better. The only juice that changed for the worst was a cranberry which I threw out and bought a frozen concentrate. Ive been doing it this way for 4 years now and i make a lot of fruit wines. I only use good juices from health food stores to do this, not the crappy juices with all the chems in them from local grocery stores.


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## Paco (Mar 2, 2009)

What about the sanitizing aspect?

I'm getting ready to sweeten a btach of Dandelion Wine that has gone too dry to my taste but I'm questionning what is the best/most used method to avoid contamination. Do you guys pasturise (or even sterilize) your sweetening mixture? I was considering pasturizing the sugar and original wine solution... but then I'm affraid of the change from heatng the wine.


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## Wade E (Mar 2, 2009)

Why dont you just make a simple syrup by boiling 1 cup of water and dissolving 2 cups of sugar in it and then let it cool and slowly add it to your wine until you have the right taste. The best way to do that is to extract 1 bottles worth and work with that noting how much sweetening syrup you use and then mutilply that by how much wine you have left and add that to your wine.


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## shanek17 (Apr 6, 2012)

hey fellow wine makers, I have a topic id love to discuss here, its about alcohol sugars. Now iv only recently heard about it and noticed very few sources talk about it, and the general consesus seems to be that everyone uses regular sugars and therefore has to add more chemicals to battle the extra sugar. Why is this ? Is alcohol sugar just not well known ? 

For those of you that dont know about it, basically alcohol sugars come in different varieties such as the well known Stevia and the kind Im going to use called Xylitol. Now these are not technically sugar they are alcohol sugars, so the yeast cant feed on them, which to me sounds like their perfect for back sweetening. Also these 2 kind i mentioned are a natural product there not that fake artificial stuff like Splenda. 

Anyways im interested if anyone has had experience using these, my first wine batches are nearly complete , i got apple wine and red grape wine!


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