Backsweetening Question

[Sue]

I have 6 gallons of cherry, raspberry, and plum almost ready for back sweetening. I have used simple syrup on my trial one gallon batches but have considered other options to give more of the fruit flavor. Has anyone had good luck with the frozen juice concentrates? Or are you better off using juice? How much do you typically use? Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[BernardSmith]

Can only speak for myself. When I back sweeten I sweeten so don't use fruit to do the sweetening but I might add more fruit to the secondary to up the fruit flavor before I sweeten.

 

[Scooter68]

Adding fruit concentrate may add flavor but it will also likely add more time for clearing. Even a '''clear" concentrate can produce clouding in a previously clear wine. Otherwise, sure you can use concentrate. Did you sweeten previous batches and not get more fruit flavor? If that's the case I would add more fruit.to the initial mix. If you used say 5 lbs per gallon up it to 6-7 lbs.

 

[kirknotes]

I just finished back sweetening my year old wine (well its 8 months old)
I used raw honey from a local market, I stirred it in to each gallon in a large wide container and then sweetened to taste.
It did cloud it up slightly - but that was okay with me - it is only 15 bottles.
Now it is bottled and I am letting it age.

 

[Venatorscribe]

Back sweetening with inverted sugar is all you need. Inverted sugar being much sweeter than straight sucrose. The other trick is to blend different ( back sweetened) fruit wines. It really does lift your final wine to new heights.

 

[Sue]

Thanks, think I will give these ideas a try. I did try a frozen concentrate on a pineapple strawberry wine, and after adding it, the flavor was way off.

 

[Sue]

Back sweetening with inverted sugar is all you need. Inverted sugar being much sweeter than straight sucrose. The other trick is to blend different ( back sweetened) fruit wines. It really does lift your final wine to new heights.

I will definitely give the blending different wines a try. Thanks

 

[Sue]

Adding fruit concentrate may add flavor but it will also likely add more time for clearing. Even a '''clear" concentrate can produce clouding in a previously clear wine. Otherwise, sure you can use concentrate. Did you sweeten previous batches and not get more fruit flavor? If that's the case I would add more fruit.to the initial mix. If you used say 5 lbs per gallon up it to 6-7 lbs.

I have sweetened with simple syrup and it does sweeten , and brings back some of the fruit flavor. Just wondered if there were other options that worked just as well. Always like more fruit flavor so will try bumping up the fruit like you said. Thanks

 

[Scooter68]

One other approach is to treat a fruit wine like a white wine and keep.temps down to retain more flavor and essences.

 

[abrewkat]

Granted I'm very new to this, but I stirred 2 cups sugar in to 2 cups of inexpensive Pinot Grigio until it was clear, and used that to sweeten some sour cherry and concord grape and a blend of these. For a batch of DB, I added the sugar for all 5 gallons (3.75 cups) into a bottle of another white with a similar taste profile to the fruit I used in the DB (ie. a wine with tropical notes for a pineapple/banana/strawberry/mango batch). Both times the wine stayed super clear. We found that adding the sugar brought the fruit flavour forward and made it much more drinkable (even before aging!). Now just trying to figure out timing from back sweetening to bottling- should it sit in carboy with the sugar for a while, or can it do all its flavour melding in the bottle?

 

[pillswoj]

I always leave them in the carboy for a while after stabilizing / sweetening just to make sure fermentation does not restart, 2-3 weeks typically

 

[Sue]

Granted I'm very new to this, but I stirred 2 cups sugar in to 2 cups of inexpensive Pinot Grigio until it was clear, and used that to sweeten some sour cherry and concord grape and a blend of these. For a batch of DB, I added the sugar for all 5 gallons (3.75 cups) into a bottle of another white with a similar taste profile to the fruit I used in the DB (ie. a wine with tropical notes for a pineapple/banana/strawberry/mango batch). Both times the wine stayed super clear. We found that adding the sugar brought the fruit flavour forward and made it much more drinkable (even before aging!). Now just trying to figure out timing from back sweetening to bottling- should it sit in carboy with the sugar for a while, or can it do all its flavour melding in the bottle?

I never thought about adding sugar to a similar wine....will definitely give that a try. As far as time waiting to bottle....I like to leave mine sit for a week or more just to be sure nothing is going to start up again. Thanks for the advice on sweetening.

 

[sugar]

I never thought about adding sugar to a similar wine....will definitely give that a try. As far as time waiting to bottle....I like to leave mine sit for a week or more just to be sure nothing is going to start up again. Thanks for the advice on sweetening.

 

[sugar]

Sue,
I'm making a pineapple and strawberry fruit wine.
How did yours work?
Mine is heavy with tannin, I hope it works out for a aging cure.
How sweet did you get it?
Mine was about to be bottled, but.,reading this conversation I don't know.
Thanks for any help you can give.

 

[Sue]

Sue,
I'm making a pineapple and strawberry fruit wine.
How did yours work?
Mine is heavy with tannin, I hope it works out for a aging cure.
How sweet did you get it?
Mine was about to be bottled, but.,reading this conversation I don't know.
Thanks for any help you can give.

Mine seemed really good at first but then after backsweetening with frozen pineapple juice concentrate it got a really funny smell to it....hard to describe. I let it sit couple more weeks and bottled it. Tried it at that point and the smell wasn't good but the taste wasn't horrible. I was going to just dump it out, but opened a bottle the other day and the smell had died down and the taste was "ok"....not great by any means. Going to let age do its magic and keep my fingers crossed. I feel like my tannin was high to....time will tell. Good Luck!

 

[sugar]

I noticed the same..pineapple sure dominates at first but I hept mine in the carboy another month and it mellowed out some. Tasted better. Don't know if I'll use that flavor again... maybe very little for background. The color was beautiful though.

 

[sugar]

[ATTACtH=full]50240[/ATTACH] This is my Strawberry and Pineapple wine abv13.5 %