Adding flavour post ferment

[Shayne Edwards]

I’ve got a couple of versions of sweet iced tea wine going at the moment and one looks like it will finish with residual sweetness, ie EC118 just can’t process anymore sugar.
It tastes like it needs acid to balance it out some, what would the likely outcome be if I add a bottle of lemon juice prior to bulk aging?? I will be adding Camden tablets at the same time.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Johnd]

I’ve got a couple of versions of sweet iced tea wine going at the moment and one looks like it will finish with residual sweetness, ie EC118 just can’t process anymore sugar.
It tastes like it needs acid to balance it out some, what would the likely outcome be if I add a bottle of lemon juice prior to bulk aging?? I will be adding Camden tablets at the same time.
Thanks in advance.

Likely, you’ll either add too much acid, or not enough acid, or too much lemon flavor, or not enough lemon flavor, based upon your taste. Consider performing bench trials with a small, measured quantity of wine, and small, measured adjustments, find what you like best, and expand to your batch volume.

Also, decide what you want, if it’s acidity you want, use tartaric or acid blend, if it’s lemon flavor you desire, use lemon zest. The odds of using lemon juice and the perfect amount of lemon flavor being in concert with the perfect acidity are pretty slim......

 

[Kraffty]

I Agree with John, I've been playing with a white kit for a while now that I added some limoncello too. Trying to brighten it up and add a slightly more citrus flavor I added a couple of thin slices of lemon peel (zest) and a cup of juice to 6 gallons and it morphed into something that tasted like flat 7-up. That was months ago and the lemon taste is fading so it might be salvaged at some point but it's a touchy thing to try. Next time I'd start with Tartaric.
Mike

 

[Shayne Edwards]

Thanks for the input, i believe there is way forward from here. I will have to split the remaining batch again, it is 28 litres and i did a stupid thing, trying to help the yeast keep processing. The end result is the sg has started moving down again. So hopefully the residual sugar will drop away some more before i have to decide.
At the moment i think i will try the lemon zest in the 5 litre component and add tartaric acid to 23 litre carboy to taste of course. Hope it all works.

 

[Noontime]

Has been mentioned already, but the best way is to do bench trials... get some cheap graduated cylinders and dial in what you like. This will be helpful in the future for many decisions with other wines. But this being a "concoction" wine (which I have made and enjoyed many), you might be comfortable making a change to the entire batch and just enjoying what it becomes. Have fun my friend!

 

[Shayne Edwards]

Ok I did the final sg tonight and I believe the ferment has finally stopped. I did however use DAF to rekick the ferment a few days ago. I am now worried about nasties kicking in and buggering up what is there.

However, I added a sprinkle of tartaric acid to the wine used to check the sg and..........it rescued the flavour. So no lemon will be added at this point, I feel with careful use of the tartaric now, I will be able to add a couple of slices of lemon and some ice to a glass of this bad boy when it has finished Aging and have something special. That said, with the extra 5l demijohn I think I should add something in terms of flavour to see what happens. Any thoughts, I don’t normally drink iced tea??

Tomorrow morning I will degass and add campden tablets, bench test the tartaric acid and seperate into both secondaries. Thanks for the advice folks!!

The other ten litres has had Rosellas and Apple added for flavour and it tastes pretty damn good for a dry ferment.