Back sweetening

[dave60]

Reading quite a few posts here about back sweetening. They almost all say sugar or sugar syrup. Does anybody use non sugar sweetener tabs? Could you just click a tab in to bottles before sealing them or after opening? If you pop a sweetener in a bottle before sealing it, could it cause it to referment as it's not sugar?

 

[toadie]

Hey Dave I just bottled some Dragons Blood. I bottle condition so I used my 4 or so ounces of dextrose to carbonate but I also added 1/2 cup of erythritol/monkfruit (which is non fermentable) to sweeten it up. I will likely adjust this in the future because this is a small amount (for 5 gallons). If you are referring to still wine I see no reason not to try it. You avoid using sorbate to kill the yeast this way. If you leave the wine in a carboy well past 6 months the yeast should be dead and you should be able to backsweeten though I have never tried it. I'm also a big fan of adding a squirt of simple syrup or in my case Ribena (sweet black currant concentrate) to whatever beverage I feel needs a boost when it's in my glass.

 

[dave60]

Hi Toadie
Thanks. Yeah it is / will be still wine in 1 gallon demijons or bottled. I only do small batches I like the idea of the Ribena. Never considered that.

 

[cmason1957]

You avoid using sorbate to kill the yeast this way. If you leave the wine in a carboy well past 6 months the yeast should be dead and you should be able to backsweeten though I have never tried it.

Just to clear up a couple of misconceptions and many folks have these.

1) Potassium sorbate does not "Kill the yeast", it prevents the yeast from budding to form new yeast. If you have residual sugar left in your wine the available yeast will consume what sugar it can, until it. It just can't reproduce.

2) the yeast die given enough time, this is just a perhaps, if you have residual sugar, you should always add potassium sorbate (and potassium metabisulphite) prior to bottling, no matter how long it has been. If you do not, you run the risk of that yeast awakening from it's slumber and start consuming the left over sugar, causing bottles to explode. Many folks will attest to this.

 

[winemaker81]

You can use any sweetener to sweeten the wine. However, do a test first as many of the non-table-sugar sweeteners will affect the flavor, not always in a good way. Make sure you like it before you bottle 2 cases of it!

 

[salcoco]

the artificial sweeteners may break down over time giving up it sweetness and possible adding it own flavor

 

[winemanden]

Just to clear up a couple of misconceptions and many folks have these.

1) Potassium sorbate does not "Kill the yeast", it prevents the yeast from budding to form new yeast. If you have residual sugar left in your wine the available yeast will consume what sugar it can, until it. It just can't reproduce.

2) the yeast die given enough time, this is just a perhaps, if you have residual sugar, you should always add potassium sorbate (and potassium metabisulphite) prior to bottling, no matter how long it has been. If you do not, you run the risk of that yeast awakening from it's slumber and start consuming the left over sugar, causing bottles to explode. Many folks will attest to this.

As cmason1957 says, If you do use Sorbate, make sure you also use Metabisulphite as well otherwise you could end up with a not very nice Geranium bouquet.

 

[Snafflebit]

As cmason1957 says, If you do use Sorbate, make sure you also use Metabisulphite as well otherwise you could end up with a not very nice Geranium bouquet.

Looks nice to me!

 

[montanarick]

only way to safely backsweeten is to not only use K-Meta but sorbate. however if you put wine through MLF there will definitely be a problem with rotten geranium smell unless you treat the wine with lysozyme prior to adding the sorbate. Lysozyme will kill the MLB which is responsible for consuming sorbate thus causing geranium fault - hope this clears things up.

I put my Frontenac through MLF and use the above protocol when backsweetening with no problem

 

[Rice_Guy]

Curious have you tried any?

the artificial sweeteners may break down over time giving up it sweetness and possible adding it own flavor

. . . in a carbonated soda a nutriasweet (amino acids) will break down, this is my favorite natural sugar sweet
. . . am bench testing some with crab apple today and erythritol won, since it covers the tannic notes off of the crab apple with a fairly fast natural sweet. Second place is apple concentrate ,,, and un natural long lasting flavors on monk fruit and stevia.

Curious what non-fermentable "sugar" substitute folks are back sweetening with?