Adding water after Fermentation ended

[habanerojefe]

Hey,

I'm on my 4th batch of raspberry wine. I just fermented 2 gallons(6 days). The receipt called for 3 gallons which I followed correctly except for water. Can I add tap water to the must to make up the difference?

Thanks for your help

Jeff

 

[heatherd]

Hey,

I'm on my 4th batch of raspberry wine. I just fermented 2 gallons(6 days). The receipt called for 3 gallons which I followed correctly except for water. Can I add tap water to the must to make up the difference?

Thanks for your help

Jeff

I would taste the wine to see if you need the water.

I typically used tap water that has been filtered through a Brita pitcher

 

[Noontime]

If everything was for 3 gallons and the only difference was volume of water, then most likely your 2 gallons are not balanced (assuming it went to dry). But as heatherd said you can go by taste. There's no reason you can't add water afterwards to get the volume and balance where it should be, it just means your primary fermentation was maybe a little stressed due to the higher sugar.

 

[Scooter68]

Keep in mind that your calculated ABV number is going to drop when you add water. I'm not certain of the exact affect it but if you add 1 gallon of water to a 2 gallon batch, it's going to drop a lot and it may jeopardize how well you wine will keep. I believe if you had a 15% ABV with two gallons and you add one gallon I believe you are going to have a 10% ABV at best. That's the bare minimum most folks recommend for a wine to keep.

Not to mention the dilution of the taste. I would add water in small amounts (Get a 1/5 gallon carboy) for 2 gallons I would even hesitate to add 1/2 gallon of water unless you have a very very concentrated wine right now.,

 

[habanerojefe]

Thank you all for your comments. I will add to taste. I'm just sorry I made the earlier mistake. Live and you learn.

Heatherd - that's an impressive list of wines. Is this time of year a good time to purchase the grape juices from Chili. I have a friend who only makes wine from that source and I'd like to try. Can you list a couple of sources or is this a topic for a new thread. Thanks again.

 

[heatherd]

Thank you all for your comments. I will add to taste. I'm just sorry I made the earlier mistake. Live and you learn.

Heatherd - that's an impressive list of wines. Is this time of year a good time to purchase the grape juices from Chili. I have a friend who only makes wine from that source and I'd like to try. Can you list a couple of sources or is this a topic for a new thread. Thanks again.

Thanks! It's taken several years to get there.

This is a good time to get fresh juices from California, Italy, Australia, and local to you.

Chile and South African juices are in the spring.

It's your thread to hijack!

The answer depends on where you are. If you can find grapes and juice local to you, then that's ideal. You save on shipping and get fresh juice.

The other option would be mail ordering juice or must. You can check www.juicegrape.com for their current list, and there are others around. Note that this website may show juice as not in stock but they plan to have juice in stock 9/15/16 according to the notes on the product pages. You just have to call them to find out what's up.

I get mine from a vineyard in Maryland. They sell grapes and juice to home wine makers twice a year. The vineyard is called Harford Vineyard. The nice thing is they will crush and destem the grapes for you.

You can also get frozen must from a few places and that is year round.

 

[codeman]

You can get Australian juice now? They're south of the equator though.

 

[habanerojefe]

Ha. I live in MD. I'll look into Harford Vineyards and juicegrape.com

I know several people who have found that being responsible for producing the grapes was way to much work!

Thank you for your recommendations heatherd !!

 

[heatherd]

You can get Australian juice now? They're south of the equator though.

Presque Isle has Australian juice,

 

[heatherd]

Ha. I live in MD. I'll look into Harford Vineyards and juicegrape.com

I know several people who have found that being responsible for producing the grapes was way to much work!

Thank you for your recommendations heatherd !!

@habanerojefe Where in MD are you? You can also get buckets from Maryland Homebrew in Columbia.