Adding sugar to increase alcohol

[Wade E]

Depends on the yeast used. Some yeasts have a much stronger abv tolerance. Some only can produce an abv of 13% while others are rated for 18%.

 

[PeterZ]

Most kits that are designed to end up sweet are designed to ferment to dry and then, after stabilizing, are sweetened.

 

[Chrisandsonyas]

Quick question, we made concord grape wine for our first time. The recipe we used called for equal amounts of grape juice, sugar and water. We thought it was too much sugar. So, we tasted the sweetness as we added sugar. We ended up with 4 1/3 cups of grape juice and 2 cups sugar then 1 packet of the yeast. The reason we used less sugar was some friends made the same recipe and we felt it was too sweet. I just hope we didn't screw up the fermenting process.

 

[Julie]

Hi Chrisandsonyas, welcome to winemakingtalk.

Adding sugar to the must does not dictate the sweetness of the wine. Once you add the yeast, that sugar will be converted to alcohol. What you could end up having is either a very high alcohol content or a very sweet wine because the yeast has reached it tolerance and died off before converting all the sugars.

You need to get a hydrometer and only enough sugar to get a reading around 1.080 to 1.090.