FPAC, what when why and how?

arcticsid · May 8, 2009

I hear you all talk of this often and a few weeks ago there was a thread that made reference to several discussions about an F-pac. I tried to search it and could find little. if you don't mind, maybe you could bring this thread back up.
Thanks
Troy

smurfe · May 8, 2009

The F Pack is a sweet solution made by taking some of the juice the wine was made from and adding sugar to it and boiling it down to a syrup. You then use that syrup to back sweeten your wine after stabilization. It is a great way to keep the fruity flavor in your fruit wines. I have never made one so one of the others will have to give the dosage/recipe to make one up.

Malkore · May 8, 2009

The instructions for WineExpert kits also reference that some kits will have an F-Pack. My kit did not, but as i recall the instructions did have you add this after stabilizing (i.e. secondary) so what Smurfe says totally makes sense.

smurfe · May 8, 2009

That is correct. The only F Pack I have ever used are the ones that come in a Wine Expert kit.. You ferment you wine as normal. It will normally ferment to dry. You then add the Sulfites and Sorbate, mix it up good and then add the F-Pack which will bring the wine back to the sweetness level of the wine to style. For an example, the Island Mist kits are sickly sweet. They ferment to dry. You draw a couple quarts of the wine out into a container and then add the F-Pack and give it a good stir. You then add the drawn off wine back to top up. One tip if anyone has ever noticed. Wine Expert says to draw off like a liter of wine. I take out a couple quarts to a gallon and add the F Pack. I did as they said a few times and could no way get all of the F Pack in the carboy.

Bailey · May 8, 2009

I've done a few kits which did include the F-pack. It's the kit makers way of back sweetening the wine. It would make sense that the "F" stands for flavor - as in a "Flavor pack" - since the pack is a sweet concentrate of the original blend of fruit used in the wine.

cpfan · May 8, 2009

In the kit world, there are three types of F-packs.

1. The fruit flavour and sweetening type that is included with Mist wines. Liquid invert sugar with fruit flavours.

2. The Suss Reserve style is included with better quality whites like Gewurztraminers and Rieslings. To me at least, these seem to be grape juice/concentrate.

3. Sweetening packs for lower quality whites (Gewurztraminers and Rieslings) and blushes (White Zinfandel). Liquid invert sugar.

The above is generalized from what I have seen mainly in Vineco and Spagnols kits, but also other brands like Winexpert. Not every kit will have an F-pack. For example, in the Ken Ridge Classic line there are two blushes. The White Zinfandel has a sweetening pack, and the White Merlot doesn't. (Info up to date as of Aug 2007.)

Steve

Tom · May 8, 2009

I and others make fruit f-pacs.
Speaking for myself I use 20-30% of the #'s I use to make the wine for my f-pac. So, If I use 25# of fruit my f-pac is 5-8+# in my f-pac. REMEMBER its to YOUR taste.
For those who have a juice steamer process as usual. I would then "simmer" it down. Some would add sugar hear so it it dissolved for backsweetening.
If you don't have a steamer then slowly add the fruit to a large pot or frying pan and "simmer" so the flavor juices come out. STRAIN thru a metal strainer and add to the wine. Then you can add simple syrup for backsweetening.
Some wise men here say;
TASTE
TASTE
TASTE
and
PATIENCE
PATIENCE
PATIENCE
hmm can you guess the authors?

Do all this BEFORE clearing and AFTER degassing and adding k-meta and sorbate.
This is the Readers Digest version.

Wade E · May 8, 2009

Some wine kits come wu=ith a sweetening pac that is merely just an inverted sugar solution which is basically just a simple syrup with the addition of some sorabte to prevent it from fermenting, these packs have just enough sorbate in there to prevent the package from fermenting and not enough to stop your wine from fermenting again. I use f-packs in my fruit wines and ifthere was not enough fruit left to make one from then sometimes I will go with frozen fruit from a grocery store or last resort I use juice from a nature store, not a grocery store but that can be used also as it doesnt matter whay it contains at this time as you are not going to ferment this.

FPAC, what when why and how?

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