Back Sweetening

[MichaelZ]

I am making a Riesling wine and fermented to dry. I am going to back sweeten and have a few option for sure. as a newbie to wine making,I am uncertain of which method to use. Wine conditioner? Granular sugar? Corn syrup? Niagara Concentrate? I am leaning toward the niagara concentrate but would appreciate any suggestions I may get from this forum.


Thanking you in advance,


Z

 

[Wade E]

I myself did not like the condtioner. Any one of these methods is fine
as long as you have added the k-meta and sorbate first. Ive read that
the corn sugar will give it a more crisp taste which suits the
Reisling. Ive heard Rice syrup is also very good for whites too but
plain old table sugar works fine. Sweetening with a concentrate
will most likely throw off your acid balance but you can adjust that to
a point. Calcium carbonate will lower the acidity and tartaric will
raise it. Be careful not to over sweeten as the only way to unde that
would be to either add commercial wine or ferment another batch and
mix. One recommendation would be to draw a specific amount and
calculate how much you add to sweeten it and the multiply that by how
much you have left in your carboy.

 

[scotty]

I always remove a sample and then sweeten. My favourite 4% is sometimes too much.
I have already made the mistake of back sweetning before stabilizing.
How much back sweetning do you have in mind???

 

[MichaelZ]

Not sure Scotty due to the fact it is my first go around. I plan to sweeten in moderation and test often. My girlfriend and I like our wines a little on the sweet side but not too sweet...So I will sweeten and test....

 

[Wade E]

Another thing I do is after I figure out where I like it (referring to
sweetness) is check the sg of the sample and use that as a reference
for adjusting the other quantity and further batches but still be
careful as you might not want another wine as sweet as this style.

 

[scotty]

Not sure Scotty due to the fact it is my first go around. I plan to sweeten in moderation and test often. My girlfriend and I like our wines a little on the sweet side but not too sweet...So I will sweeten and test....

We like a sort of odd dry wine an find that 4 percebt is our average but as wade said it is sometimes too sweet so your testing is probably the best.

 

[smurfe]

What is it that some do not like about Wine Conditioner? Is it an off taste? I just sweetened my first batch of sweetened wine (Vanilla Raspberry)and used the WE Wine Conditioner. The samples I tasted as I was sweetening tasted OK for a sweet wine. Remember, I am not a sweet wine connoisseur. This is for the wife. Will it change in flavor over time or stay pretty well the same in taste?


Smurfe

 

[Wade E]

I think it totally changed the taste of my cranberry wine but I must
say I tried a bottle yesterday and it seems like it is starting to
change back but initially it gave it an undesirable taste. Its been
under cork for 5 months now, we'll see what another few months does for
it!

 

[grapeman]

I used it in a Raspberry wine I made. It went from a very tasty wine just a little too dry for my wife to one I haven't had any of in a year now because it tasted so bad after adding the conditioner.

My wife liked it before, but made a sour face after adding it!. I guess we might try it again now. Maybe the year in the bottle has worked a miracle.

 

[smurfe]

So if it tasted OK to me after adding itI ought to be OK then? I thought the wine actually tasted better after adding it. I wasn't to thrilled with the taste of the wine dry. I didn't sweeten it too much though so I would have to say it is just on the sweet side of semi-sweet now. I didn't sweeten to sweet. Of course though each has their personal preference to taste. I had just heard a few that were not pleased with the Wine Conditioner but felt the need to try it for myself. I guess next batch of a sweetened wine I will make my own solution and try it to compare.

 

[Wade E]

For fruit wines I always use a reduced fruit juice of similiar taste
now. I like alot of flavor. Im going to start using corn sugar on white
wines as I bought way to much when i started my first beer kit
not knowing I really should have been adding malt extract instead of
corn sugar initially. I told the nice old lady to give me $4.00 worth
and she gave me a big grocery style paper bag 3/4 of the way full!

Oops! I guess I'll have to sparkle some more wines too!

 

[PeterZ]

Wine conditioner is more than just sugar. If you add wine conditioner, you are also adding acid and tannin. You may not want that, especially in fruit wines. If the dry wine is balanced, but you want a touch of sweetness, then try sugar. If the dry wine is thin and insipid, then wine conditioner might be the way to go.

That's the thing about this hobby. Experiment, and don't be afraid to fail. We only learn when we fail, try again, and succeed.

 

[chevyguy65]

INSANITY=doing the same thing over and over and expecting DIFFERENT results!!!
Dont be afriad to venture out from the "comfort " zone, once and a while..... legally (of course)....

 

[OldWino1]

i have made a lot of Rielsing and it gets sweeter as it ages. I have made 30 gals of it from cans and kits

After the first batch have never added any sweetner to the wine. Just
bottled and let it age. the hard part. PS serve
chilled. Brings out the residual sugar in there.