abv question

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silverbullet07

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If I have 100ml of wine at 13% and I add 15 ml of sugar syrup, what is the abv now? is it still 13% abv or has it been reduce?
 
Any reason in particular for those numbers? If you are back-sweetening, that's a huge addition in terms of sweetening a wine batch. Approximately like adding 1/2 cup (4 oz) of simple syrup to a bottle of wine.
 
@Scooter68 I’m Adding apple concentrate to back sweeten and to amp up the apple flavor to a 4 gal batch of apple wine. Seems me and the wife both like bold heavy fruit flavor. The wife did not care for the dull apple flavor that the honey crisp juice made but liked it when I improved the apple flavor with the concentrate. I could have went much lighter on the concentrate addition but this was what she liked. It went from .990 to 1.020 sg
 
@Scooter68 I’m Adding apple concentrate to back sweeten and to amp up the apple flavor to a 4 gal batch of apple wine. Seems me and the wife both like bold heavy fruit flavor. The wife did not care for the dull apple flavor that the honey crisp juice made but liked it when I improved the apple flavor with the concentrate. I could have went much lighter on the concentrate addition but this was what she liked. It went from .990 to 1.020 sg

But the figures you gave are not based on a 4 gallon batch. You suggested that the amount of wine you have is 100 ml and that to the 100 ml you are adding another 15% volume. If you add 1 pint to 1 gallon that is 1/8th or 12% , so you are going to be back sweetening 4 gallons by adding almost 5 pints (more than half a gallon) and that is why there is such a large (relatively speaking) drop in ABV. Typically, you might add that same amount of sugar and flavor to 4 gallons in a half pint or so and so the drop in ABV is insignificant.
 
I can use the formula based on my actual amounts and figure what the abv will actually be now. So now I can make some different batches and try to increase the sugar and flavor with out adding to much volume. I was just needing to know the formula and adjust it with my actual numbers.
 
The reason for the lack of a bold flavor is most likely due to being a single variety apple wine. Honey crisp apples are a sweet apple and the best apple wines normally are predominantly made with a higher ratio of tart apples to sweet apples. A 60/40 tart/sweet mix is pretty common
 
It is a learning process that one day will come together. I liked honey crisp apples and thought, hey this would make a good wine. LOL. It is still a good light white wine I think. I was able to figure out if I take 16 oz of concentrate and heated it with 2 cups sugar. I am able to ramp up the flavor with out much volume. So now I am adding 5 ml to 100 ml wine. So that will reduce the volume that i add by a lot. So now only adding 19oz to 3 gal. This will keep the abv around 12.4% for the 3 gal. I think it will be a happy medium point.
 
I made cider from some grocery store apple juice that was pretty one dimensional. I found that oaking it helped to give it a more complex flavor.
 

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