Any Experienced Port Makers?

[Johngottshall]

I did not make it yet. Just wanted to have enough brandy on hand and yes it will be 1 gallon after fermention is finished.

 

[Johngottshall]

We need to know the ABV of your Concord/Black Cherry base wine. And verify its volume -- is that still 1 gal? Then I can do the Pearson square calc. for you if you wish.

So should I ferment wine to dry then back sweeten and then fortify.

 

[sour_grapes]

So should I ferment wine to dry then back sweeten and then fortify.

That is what I would do, although I should be quick to point out that I am anything BUT an experienced portmaker.

There are many pages giving instructions for using a Pearson's square. Here is one.


I will assume (for this calculation) that your wine is 12% ABV, and your brandy is 40% ABV (i.e., 80 proof). Further, I will assume you want a port with 20% ABV.

We set up the square like this:

12 ?parts wine?

- 20

40 ?parts brandy?


And subtract across the diagonals to get this:

12 20

- 20

40 8


So, you will use 8 parts of brandy to 20 parts of wine, (also known as 2 parts of brandy to 5 parts of wine). If you have 1 gal of wine, you will need (1 gal)*(8/20) = 0.4 gal. This is almost exactly 1.5 liters.

 

[dangerdave]

Dave it sounds like you're stirring up another competition. LOL

Dan, you always come up with great ideas! But, once again, just like the strawberry contest, and the Welch's contest, home made ports are outside my comfort zone.

I swear, some day, we are going to have a DB contest, just for ME!

 

[Johngottshall]

That is what I would do, although I should be quick to point out that I am anything BUT an experienced portmaker.

There are many pages giving instructions for using a Pearson's square. Here is one.

I will assume (for this calculation) that your wine is 12% ABV, and your brandy is 40% ABV (i.e., 80 proof). Further, I will assume you want a port with 20% ABV.

We set up the square like this:

12 ?parts wine?

- 20

40 ?parts brandy?


And subtract across the diagonals to get this:

12 20

- 20

40 8


So, you will use 8 parts of brandy to 20 parts of wine, (also known as 2 parts of brandy to 5 parts of wine). If you have 1 gal of wine, you will need (1 gal)*(8/20) = 0.4 gal. This is almost exactly 1.5 liters.

OK thanks I will start to make this later on today

 

[shoebiedoo]

I used a different flavored brandy for each of the different Port Kits I made several years ago. The brandy enhanced each one. You just want to make sure they complement each other. I now prefer to make Port starting with Chilean or Italian juice pails. The kits all turned out fantastic and I would personally recommend them to anyone. I just prefer to go the pail route now as I can control the outcome better. Dave it sounds like you're stirring up another competition. LOL

I'm IN!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[jamesngalveston]

Flavored brandies.

apple peach pear plum blackberry coffee cherry honey apricot

have not found anymore..the honey brandy is excellent.

 

[cmason1957]

How did you add the sugar back into the wine? Did you dissolve it in some water first or did you add it straight into the must?

I pulled a small amount of the wine out and stirred it into the sugar. I did it that way to keep the volume as close to the same as practical. And of course verified where it ended up with my hydrometer.

 

[GreginND]

I have a Tawny port that I made from a second wine of 50:50 blueberry and elderberry. I sweetened it up to SG 1.130 and added raisins. This was fermented down to 1.008 over about 3 weeks giving about 12.5% alcohol. I then added ever clear to raise the alcohol to about 19%. I then added some welches grape concentrate giving an alcohol of about 17%, some flavor and some more sugar. Oak cubes were added and it was aged in a carboy and some smaller containers for about a year until I last racked it in 2004. There it has sat in the carboy until today. I think I last tasted it a couple of years ago and I've drank off the smaller containers over the years. I tasted it today and it is delicious. It has turned clear and brown just like you want in a tawny port. It has that slight port oxidized flavor but not over oxidized like a sherry. I had to pull some french oak spirals out of my MN 1200 that still have some life in them so I added those to the port for one last shot of oak. I'll let it sit for a couple more months and then I think I'll bottle it. It's now 10 years old - time for some bottle aging!

 

[jamesngalveston]

if you take wine that has went dry, add flavor,add sugar , add spirits...
it is called vermouth.

 

[jamesngalveston]

vermouth does not always have to contain spices,are aromatics, the basic vermouth is made from a white dry wine, then add aromatics, then sugar then brandy are gin, then drink.
the up and coming thing is to make your own vermouth , which many have done here, they just dont call it vermouth.

 

[Pumpkinman]

I need to buy a bottle of port, I've never...I repeat never have tasted a port, but anyone that I talk to that makes port wines talks about them as if it were such an amazing experience to drink a good port, they talk about making them like as if they were talking about raising a child, lots of love and care. I am more than intrigued at this point, plus, you really don't need to twist my arm too much to try a new recipe, technique or variety of wine.

 

[jamesngalveston]

Ports go from cheap 8 dollars up to a few thousand.
A good port to try, would be a 20 year old, about 30 to 50 bucks.
It will be well worth the cost, you will enjoy it.

 

[the_rayway]

Has anyone tried a side-by-side using the two most popular 'port' methods?

1) Chapatalization to get high ABV, then backsweeten and flavour if necessary
2) Stop fermentation with brandy at 1.055-1.045ish without any further sweetning or flavouring?

I think I see an experiment brewing...

 

[cmason1957]

if you take wine that has went dry, add flavor,add sugar , add spirits...
it is called vermouth.

Around my house it is called port style. Just like the wine kit manufacturers do. And that is the last I will say about it.

 

[Runningwolf]

I need to buy a bottle of port, I've never...I repeat never have tasted a port, but anyone that I talk to that makes port wines talks about them as if it were such an amazing experience to drink a good port, they talk about making them like as if they were talking about raising a child, lots of love and care. I am more than intrigued at this point, plus, you really don't need to twist my arm too much to try a new recipe, technique or variety of wine.

Tom, you will find every port will taste different. A characteristic of most ports is a bit of oxidation.

 

[ibglowin]

I bought a $25 bottle of Port from Costco last year to compare with the LaBodega Port I made several years ago. It was weak/watery and flavorless in comparison. I think it was a 10 year old Ruby Port. The LaBodega Port (Mosti Mondial) is a fantastic Port Kit for the money. I made a double batch (6G) and it has lasted 2 years and I still have about 20 bottles left (375ml).

 

[jamesngalveston]

sounds interesting, i have only made one kit wine, maybe it will try this one..

 

[ibglowin]

I have tried several bottles of Port Styled wine from other kits and that one (LaBodega) is a winner for sure. Not cheap but worth the $$$ IMHO.

 

[seth8530]

I pulled a small amount of the wine out and stirred it into the sugar. I did it that way to keep the volume as close to the same as practical. And of course verified where it ended up with my hydrometer.

Right, that is most likely the best easy way to do it since you can skip out on doing the volume corrections for the ABV equation if you do it that way. However, it is quite difficult to add sugar to must and then get an accurate sugar reading since it takes time for all the sugars to incorporate in.. Which can make measuring the actual ABV of a chpitalized wine quite difficult since as you wait for the sugar to evenly distribute in the wine so that you can get an accurate SG reading the yeast is chomping away at your sugar addition.

BTW not ranting on your wine making at all just the methods which are available to home wine makers.

Honestly though, I have an idea. Perhaps the best way to judge what the ABV of chapitilized wine would be to keep track of the mass of all sugars added to the wine and then convert that into a calculated starting gravity and then at the end of the processes you could take your final gravity with a hydrometer and use that as the FG..

Ie using your favorite ABV equation come up with a calculated SG based on the initial sugar content of the wine and the sum of all the sugar additions and the FG based on a hydrometer reading. And then from that come up with the ABV instead of attempting to measure how much each sugar addition raises the SG during fermentation.