Big Oops

[dangr]

Hey all, I'm glad I found this board, been reading a few threads, seems like a great bunch.

I just started my first batch tonight. I'm following a Cali. Connoisseur Pinot Noir kit instructions, with one major/minor goof.

The initial S.G. target was suppose to be 1.080-1.095 ... but mine is 1.068.

This happened because I can't read a hydrometer yet, lol... i thought I was suppose to add 6 gallons of water instead of a "sufficient" amount of water to get the total to 6 gallons... fortunately, I realized this before I poured in a whole 6 gallons... prob poured in a good 4.5 gallons.

Question is... is this a massive goof up? I guess my first batch won't be nearly as alcoholic as it should have been... will this fall below 10%?

Thanks in advance!

 

[m_lapaglia]

Hey all, I'm glad I found this board, been reading a few threads, seems like a great bunch.

I just started my first batch tonight. I'm following a Cali. Connoisseur Pinot Noir kit instructions, with one major/minor goof.

The initial S.G. target was suppose to be 1.080-1.095 ... but mine is 1.068.

This happened because I can't read a hydrometer yet, lol... i thought I was suppose to add 6 gallons of water instead of a "sufficient" amount of water to get the total to 6 gallons... fortunately, I realized this before I poured in a whole 6 gallons... prob poured in a good 4.5 gallons.

Question is... is this a massive goof up? I guess my first batch won't be nearly as alcoholic as it should have been... will this fall below 10%?

Thanks in advance!

Well you will wind up somewhere between 9.23% ABV and 10.60% ABV depending on where your fermentation stops.

take your OG (the starting Specific gravity) - your FG (ending Specific gravity) and divide it by 7.36 then multiply that by 1000 ((OG-FG)/7.36)*1000 = your probable Alcohol By Volume as a percentage.

((1.068-1.000)/7.36)*1000 = 9.23%
But chances are you will ferment to dryness which is 0.990 or lower. Just input the right numbers and you can tell your probable ABV. Many Hydrometers will let you read it on the scale.


(I'm new here but math I know )

 

[yaeyama]

Can't he just dump some apple juice or grape juice and up the SG with additional sugar? He's only just started his batch, after all...

 

[dangr]

thanks for the math, haha.


should i let it ferment longer? does that help?

 

[Wine Maker]

If the primary just started you can add sugar to bring the SG up enough to get the alcohol up. Unfortunately, I use the brix scale instead of specific gravity so I don't know what the conversion would be. For each 1 degree increase in brix you would add 1.5 ounces sugar per gallon. If my initial brix was 21 and I wanted to bring it up to 24 then 4.5 oz of sugar per gallon would be needed (24-21=3 x 1.5 = 4.5 x number of gallons). Take a quart of the juice, add the sugar and warm it in a pot to dissolve all of the sugar. You can use regular sugar.

To calculate the alcohol for brix take the initial reading minus the ending reading and multiply by .59. In the above example assuming I fermented to 0 my alc would be around 14% (24-0=24 x .59 = 14.16%).

The problem you may likely have is that by adding so much water your wine will be diluted both in alcohol (as you mentioned) and in color and flavor. Not much you can do about it now. Chalk it up to experience and keep good notes so you don't repeat it next time. Fermenting longer won't help.

 

[m_lapaglia]

If the primary just started you can add sugar to bring the SG up enough to get the alcohol up. Unfortunately, I use the brix scale instead of specific gravity so I don't know what the conversion would be. For each 1 degree increase in brix you would add 1.5 ounces sugar per gallon. If my initial brix was 21 and I wanted to bring it up to 24 then 4.5 oz of sugar per gallon would be needed (24-21=3 x 1.5 = 4.5 x number of gallons). Take a quart of the juice, add the sugar and warm it in a pot to dissolve all of the sugar. You can use regular sugar.

To calculate the alcohol for brix take the initial reading minus the ending reading and multiply by .59. In the above example assuming I fermented to 0 my alc would be around 14% (24-0=24 x .59 = 14.16%).

The problem you may likely have is that by adding so much water your wine will be diluted both in alcohol (as you mentioned) and in color and flavor. Not much you can do about it now. Chalk it up to experience and keep good notes so you don't repeat it next time. Fermenting longer won't help.

SG/Brix chart.

Specific		
Gravity	Brix	Potential	  Oz's of Cane 
		Alcohol	  Sugar Per Gal
1.000	  0	0.00%	    0
1.004	  1	0.60%	    1.4
1.008	  2	1.10%	    2.8
1.012	  3	1.70%	    4.3
1.016	  4	2.20%	    5.7
1.019	  5	2.60%	    6.8
1.023	  6	3.20%	    8.2
1.027	  7	3.70%	    9.6
1.031	  8	4.30%	    11
1.035	  9	4.80%	    12.4
1.039	 10	5.40%	    13.9
1.043	 11	5.90%	    15.3
1.047	 12	6.50%	    16.7
1.050	 13	6.90%	    17.8
1.054	 14	7.40%	    19.2
1.058	 15	8.00%	    20.6
1.062	 16	8.60%	    22
1.066	 17	9.10%	    23.5
1.070	 18	9.70%	    24.9
1.074	 19	10.20%	    26.3
1.078	 20	10.80%	    27.7
1.081	 21	11.20%	    28.8
1.085	 22	11.70%	    30.2
1.089	 23	12.30%	    31.6
1.093	 24	12.80%	    33.1

How this chart helps. I'd cite where I got it from but I honestly do not remember.