# How & When To Sweeten Wine?



## critterhunter (Nov 8, 2010)

Our pear wine tastes good (on third racking, about 5 weeks out or so) and is clearing well, but it doesn't have too much sugar taste. In the primary we put in 30+ pounds of pears, 6 pounds of white raisins, and 10 pounds of sugar (7 gallon primary, 6.5 gallon secondary).

Before we bottle it we'd like to sweeten it to what we want taste wise. I've been told that about 10 days before bottling we should add 1 Campden tablet and Sorbate to kill off any remaining yeast, and then that same day add sugar to desired taste. Is this correct...and put the sugar in on the same day with the sorbate/campden, then bottle about 10 days later and add nothing else?

Also, since it's 6.5 gallons, what formula should we use to figure out how much sugar to add based on how much it took to sweeten our test sample? I'm guessing you'd sweeten 1 cup of wine to taste and then multiply that amount by 6.5 gallons? If anybody could give me a formula here that contains everything that would be real helpful. How many cups our in one gallon, how much sugar to add based on how many teaspoons or tablespoons we put in say 1 cup, etc. Thanks.


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## djrockinsteve (Nov 8, 2010)

Several things. If you have aged your wine then you most likely have killed off all of your yeasts by atrition. You have starved them from food and nutrients. The extra sulfite (pinch) you add is just to prevent oxidation as you expose wine to air.

Second yes you will bottle a few weeks after the introduction of sorbate and inverted sugar to the wine. Give the wine a chance to fully blend the sugar and to ensure fermentation does not start up in case a few yeasts survived.

When it's time to sweeten, take a sample in a pan. Place on the stove and warm. Add some sugar. This may be 2 cups of wine. Add a little sugar. (depending upon how sweet your talking it could be a few tablespoons to 1/4 cup. Stir and keep warm @ 8 minutes to fully disolve the sugar. Remove from heat.

Place 2/3 wine in a beaker and add maybe 1/3 of your sweetened wine. Add the hydrometer and get a reading. Sample. Too sweet. Too dry. Adjust until you get where you want it. My pear I sweetened to 1.018 I believe.

Next look on your hydrometer scales. Mine tells me how much sugar by ounces and pounds to add to get from one grav. reading (ex: .998 to where you want ex: 1.018) based on per gallon.

Undershoot that amount a little. Check and add additional if needed. You may want to do 2 dif. batches. One swwet and one a semi dry????

Once you've done some wines you will get an idea where (how) sweet you like it.

On my hydrometer to raise sp. gravity from 1.000 to 1.018 you need to add 6 ounces of sugar per gallon.


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## Arne (Nov 8, 2010)

I can help you with part of your problem. 2 cups in a pint. 2 pints in a quart. 4 quarts in a gallon. Do the math and multiply by 6.5 gal. Now howevere much sugar you want, multiply by the total number of cups.


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## Arne (Nov 8, 2010)

DJ got in here while I was still typing. lol Arne.


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## critterhunter (Nov 8, 2010)

*Cheap Source Of Juice?*

Thanks for the info so far.


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## djrockinsteve (Nov 8, 2010)

Another note, I recently sweetened 5 of 10 gallons of a Blueberry Pomegranate wine. It came out a little too sweet. I used the pearson Square calculation to determine how much of eack wine to blend to get thje gravity I wanted. I will post the pearson square on the HOW TO later today or tomorrow. So easy and it works great. Just FYI


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## Runningwolf (Nov 8, 2010)

djrockinsteve said:


> Next look on your hydrometer scales. Mine tells me how much sugar by ounces and pounds to add to get from one grav. reading (ex: .998 to where you want ex: 1.018) based on per gallon.
> 
> On my hydrometer to raise sp. gravity from 1.000 to 1.018 you need to add 6 ounces of sugar per gallon.



Steve which Hydometer are you using?


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## almargita (Nov 14, 2010)

Since everyone ferments there wine to dry (0.995) or so, isn't there some sort of calculator to figure out the amount of sugar to add to make a specific gravity say of 1.015 ( maybe medium sweet) using the hydrometer. Enter the number of gallons of wine, starting SG say 0.995 & the SG you want to end up at say 1.015, the answer should be to add XX this much sugar to reach that SG? It would be easy then to figure if you preferred a sweetness of 1.010 or 1.025 of exactely how much sugar to add to get to that SG. Or am I missing something along the way??...................


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## Julie (Nov 14, 2010)

almargita said:


> Since everyone ferments there wine to dry (0.995) or so, isn't there some sort of calculator to figure out the amount of sugar to add to make a specific gravity say of 1.015 ( maybe medium sweet) using the hydrometer. Enter the number of gallons of wine, starting SG say 0.995 & the SG you want to end up at say 1.015, the answer should be to add XX this much sugar to reach that SG? It would be easy then to figure if you preferred a sweetness of 1.010 or 1.025 of exactely how much sugar to add to get to that SG. Or am I missing something along the way??...................



For 1 gallon of wine, 8 oz of sugar will raise sg approx. .018. This should what you were looking for? When you backsweeten your wines and you have it where you like it, check your sg and record that. This will give you a guideline on how sweet you like your wines.


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## almargita (Nov 14, 2010)

Thanks Julie, I can figure it out to the sweetness I would prefer, We need some computer geek to make a program to enter the different variables to make life easier. Enter your starting SG which would probably be around 0.995 (DRY), the ending SG you want to reach depending if med sweet or very sweet & it would tell you how much sugar to add (your method). I would take a cup or so of the wine you are making & add the sugar & heat till disolved, cool & add. Maybe there is somthing out there I am unaware of that does this already???? Once you know the sweetness you prefer the calculation would remain the same for what ever wine you are making.........


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## djrockinsteve (Nov 14, 2010)

It's called your hydrometer. There are several different designs but mine will allow me to calculate this. Plus here is a link for WineCalc which is awesome. 

http://www.sweeting.org/jack/winecalc.php

Here is another great link

http://web2.airmail.net/sgross/fermcalc/fermcalc_applet.html


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