Back sweeten or clarify first

[Flame145]

I am making a pumkin pie spice wine. Started the batch in november 2010. Just sorbated the wine last week. I wanted to back sweeten to sg 1.02 my question is 2 fold. do I back sweeten or clarify first. 2nd part what is the normal procedure to back sweeten ??? I read one of Tom's posts on making a simple syrup, 2 parts sugar 1 part water heat up and dissolve sugar. I 'm good with that part. What starting point do I start with ?? If I have a 2 1/2 gallon carboy of wine, do I start by adding a quart of simple syrup, mix well, then check SG. Looking for some type of starting point.
When I go to clarify, what would you recommend for this type of wine ???
Bentonite, superkleer ???? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Julie]

backsweeten first, and pumpkin will not come into it's own for at least a year, two would be better. I would let it age for a while before I thought to clarify it . There is a good chance that it will clear on it's own.

 

[Midwest Vintner]

i'd let it clear without any sugar. better to keep it from re-fermenting again. i usually sweeten after the last racking, and bottle a few weeks later.

there are lots of different ways to do things in winemaking.

 

[winemaker_3352]

I sweeten mine first - then let to sit and clear.

 

[Tom]

Did you add Kmeta? You said nothing on that.
I would add a f pac then clear then add simple syrup to YOUR taste. 1qt to 2.5gal I think is to nuch

 

[Flame145]

Did you add Kmeta? You said nothing on that.
I would add a f pac then clear then add simple syrup to YOUR taste. 1qt to 2.5gal I think is to nuch

yes, I did kmeta. I also added sorbate, roughly a week ago when I racked. It tasted good. When I back-sweeten, where do I start ?? I have (2) 10 liter/2.5 gallon demijohns. Would I start with adding a quart of simple syrup, a pint ??? I know to stir it well then check SG. I was looking for a starting point. Didn't want to start with a pint of simple syrup and completely over shoot my target. The other thing I was curious about is what clearing agent should I use, if any???
My plan was to back-sweeten, Add clearing agent if I need it around August. Right now it is pretty clear. Then bottle in Late September, early October. Wanted to have it for this coming Thanksgiving.

 

[ffemt128]

yes, I did kmeta. I also added sorbate, roughly a week ago when I racked. It tasted good. When I back-sweeten, where do I start ?? I have (2) 10 liter/2.5 gallon demijohns. Would I start with adding a quart of simple syrup, a pint ??? I know to stir it well then check SG. I was looking for a starting point. Didn't want to start with a pint of simple syrup and completely over shoot my target. The other thing I was curious about is what clearing agent should I use, if any???
My plan was to back-sweeten, Add clearing agent if I need it around August. Right now it is pretty clear. Then bottle in Late September, early October. Wanted to have it for this coming Thanksgiving.

Here's what I do after stabilizing.

1. Take sample (375 ml)
2. Check sg
3. Add sugar slowly until it gets to desired taste.
4. Check sg. (target sg)
5. Use wine calc to determine how much sugar to add to your quantity of wine
6. Use wine as liquid for simple syrup.
7. Add simple syryp to wine, add slowly.
8. Check sg after mixing well.
9. Taste and add remaining if needed.

Let age and clear if not already cleared.

 

[Tom]

Doug has it ok
I would rack all to 1 container. Add syrup to your taste and add clearing agent. Ck gravity and write it down so you can repeat it again. Rack back to carboys. Age

 

[BMILLER]

I found this awhile back on here posted by PPBART and I think this way works perfectly! It was confusing at first, but after I took the time to read through it a couple times and even draw it out, it was simple. I enjoyed doing it like this because you end up with 4 or 5 small samples that ppl can give you their opinion on.

I hope I am giving the original poster the correct props on a great post.

PPBART:

Here's my method. I don't remember what was the source, but it works well:

First, be very sure the wine is stabilized before adding sugar to it or it will start fermenting again. One crushed and dissolved Campden tablet and 1/2 tsp of K-sorbate (also dissolved) per gallon of wine will do the trick.

Second, you can sweeten with just sugar or you can make a simple syrup with two parts sugar dissolved in one part of water (as in two cups of sugar in one cup of water). Boil the water, remove from the heat, add the sugar, and stir like heck to make the syrup, as that much sugar doesn't easily dissolve in cold or warm water. Do NOT use commercial powdered sugar, as it contains corn starch which can permanently cloud your wine. Allow the simple syrup to cool to room temperature (not in a refrigerator or it might start re-crystallizing) before continuing.

Third (this might sound complicated when you first read it, but it's really not), measure how much liquid it takes to fill your hydrometer test jar to within 3" of the top. It take about ¾-cup to fill mine that far. Measure out that much wine into a large water glass and stir into it 2 tablespoons of simple syrup. Fill the hydrometer test jar with this sweetened wine and measure the SG. Write that number on a piece of paper and set a wine glass on top of the number. Pour about one inch of wine from the hydrometer test jar into that wine glass and pour the remaining wine back into the large water glass.

Replace the amount of wine you poured into the wine glass so you have as much as you started with and stir into it 2 more tablespoons of simple syrup. Again pour it into the hydrometer test jar and measure the SG. Write the number on a piece of paper and again set an empty wine glass on the number. Pour an inch of wine into the glass and return the rest to the water glass.

Again replace what you used and add 2 more tablespoons of simple syrup. Stir, pour into the hydrometer test jar, and repeat the previous procedures. Do this until you have 4-5 wine glasses sitting on their SG figures. Now taste them in the order they were filled (first glass to the last) and note the one that tasted best to you. It will be the one you tasted just before you picked up the one that was too sweet. Look at it's SG -- that's the SG you want to sweeten your wine to.

Here's another consideration. Over time, all wines mellow out somewhat and actually taste a little sweeter that they did when first bottled. If you plan on keeping the wine for a couple of years, you might want to back off the target sweetness just a hair to allow for this. For example, if the target SG is 1.012, you might want to sweeten it to 1.011 or even 1.010 to allow for this perception.