Fortify with Brandy

[The Silver Fox]

Did some searching and found this link.
http://www.vinovation.com/Pearson.html

Not sure what a good final abv would be but I put in going from 13 to 20% as a start. Comes out to having to add 1/2 gallon of brandy. Seems like a lot.

Did some searching and found this link.
http://www.vinovation.com/Pearson.html

Not sure what a good final abv would be but I put in going from 13 to 20% as a start. Comes out to having to add 1/2 gallon of brandy. Seems like a lot.

A ratio of 4:1 is a good rule of thumb. Pearsons square also works well. I do not like percentages. I use the A,B,C,D,E, style of Pearsons square.
A-The fortifying product. A-Everclear 85%
B-The wine ABV % that I have B-Your wine, let's suppose 14%
C-The ABV I want to acheive. C- I want 20% ABV
D-The Oz of wine on hand. D-1 gallon, 128 oz
E-The amount of fortifying in oz to add. E-What I will add.
Example;
A-C=55
C-B=6
D 128 oz
So 6 x 128 = 768. 768 divided by 55 = 13.9 oz of Everclear to add.
It really is that simple to use Pearsons square.
If your fortifying product has a lower ABV, then yes, you will have to add more product
David

 

[ratflinger]

A ratio of 4:1 is a good rule of thumb. Pearsons square also works well. I do not like percentages. I use the A,B,C,D,E, style of Pearsons square.
A-The fortifying product. A-Everclear 85%
B-The wine ABV % that I have B-Your wine, let's suppose 14%
C-The ABV I want to acheive. C- I want 20% ABV
D-The Oz of wine on hand. D-1 gallon, 128 oz
E-The amount of fortifying in oz to add. E-What I will add.
Example;
A-C=55
C-B=6
D 128 oz
So 6 x 128 = 768. 768 divided by 55 = 13.9 oz of Everclear to add.
It really is that simple to use Pearsons square.
If your fortifying product has a lower ABV, then yes, you will have to add more product
David

Wonder if they figured that out in the last 12 years, hmm.

 

[sour_grapes]

A ratio of 4:1 is a good rule of thumb. Pearsons square also works well. I do not like percentages. I use the A,B,C,D,E, style of Pearsons square.
A-The fortifying product. A-Everclear 85%
B-The wine ABV % that I have B-Your wine, let's suppose 14%
C-The ABV I want to acheive. C- I want 20% ABV
D-The Oz of wine on hand. D-1 gallon, 128 oz
E-The amount of fortifying in oz to add. E-What I will add.
Example;
A-C=55
C-B=6
D 128 oz
So 6 x 128 = 768. 768 divided by 55 = 13.9 oz of Everclear to add.
It really is that simple to use Pearsons square.
If your fortifying product has a lower ABV, then yes, you will have to add more product
David

Welcome to WMT!

 

[winemanden]

Did some searching and found this link.
http://www.vinovation.com/Pearson.html

Not sure what a good final abv would be but I put in going from 13 to 20% as a start. Comes out to having to add 1/2 gallon of brandy. Seems like a lot.

If you're concerned about how much spirit you need to add, go for the highest ABV in your base wine. That way you won't need as much spirit!

 

[SteveM]

Good Morning All.
I have created a Spreadsheet that does a lot of different things and one of those things is I am trying to do is calculate the amount of Brandy needed for a specific batch of wine and I was hoping someone could confirm this calculation was correct.

So if I start with 5 Gallons of Wine at 12% ABV, would I add 124 oz of this 43% ABV Brandy to now give me a total of almost 6 Gallons (just shy of 2 oz) of Wine at 18% ABV?
I ask this because I was reading something and it made me think I needed to reduce the amount of Wine to 80.65% first and then add the 19.35% of Brandy to give me a Total of 5 Gallons of Wine at 18% ABV. If that is what this (the Pearson's Square) is doing, what calculation would need to be changed so I can just add the amount of Brandy needed without changing the Amount of Wine?

 

[Rocky]

I get closer to 154 oz. of Brandy.

Starting with 5 gallons of 12% wine,
Let X = amount (ounces) of Brandy to add and desired ABV at 18% of the fortified wine.
Then, .18(640 + X) = 75 + .43X (The total alcohol in the fortified wine equals the alcohol from the unfortified wine plus the alcohol in the Brandy)
Solving for X,
115.2 + .18X = 76.8 + .43X
38.4 = .25X
X = 153.6

 

[SteveM]

I get closer to 154 oz. of Brandy.

Starting with 5 gallons of 12% wine,
Let X = amount (ounces) of Brandy to add and desired ABV at 18% of the fortified wine.
Then, .18(640 + X) = 75 + .43X (The total alcohol in the fortified wine equals the alcohol from the unfortified wine plus the alcohol in the Brandy)
Solving for X,
115.2 + .18X = 76.8 + .43X
38.4 = .25X
X = 153.6

I am SOOOO lost now. LOL!!
Where did the numbers 75, 115.2 & 38.4 come from?
Please explain it like I am 5.

 

[Raptor99]

There is a great calculator here: https://fermcalc.com/FermCalcJS.html Choose Fortification and select the desired options.

 

[winemaker81]

I use Pearson's Square and got the exact value as @Rocky.

I actually earned a BS in Mathematics (long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away), but I can NEVER remember how to do Pearson's Square. So I implemented it in Excel.

The rows A, B, C, Wine are values I enter in the workbook.

D and E are simple subtraction.

A	43.0	ABV of spirit
B	12.0	ABV of wine
C	18.0	desired ABV
D	6.0	=C-B, the # parts of spirit
E	25.0	=A-C, the # parts of wine
Wine	640.0	Amount of wine you have
Spirit	153.600	Amount of spirit you need

Spirit is the formula: Wine / E * D

For your numbers:

640 [Wine] / 25 [E] * 6 [D] = 153.6

My workbook is units agnostic, e.g., if you enter gallons, it calculates gallon. If you enter ml, it calculates ml.

 

[SteveM]

There is a great calculator here: https://fermcalc.com/FermCalcJS.html Choose Fortification and select the desired options.

Thanks, but I wanted to create this calculation in a Spreadsheet so it can immediately use data I have already entered into the spreadsheet elsewhere.

From @Rocky 's response, I think I am close enough.

Thanks everyone.

 

[SteveM]

640 [Wine] / 25 [E] * 6 [D] = 153.6

Using your Example @winemaker81 I was able to get the same results. I was using the Percentages which was throwing things off.



Thank you!

 

[Rocky]

I am SOOOO lost now. LOL!!
Where did the numbers 75, 115.2 & 38.4 come from?
Please explain it like I am 5.

Sorry Steve, I went back to check my figures and here is the correct calculation.

If you have 5 gallons of wine at 12%, it contains 76.8 ounces of alcohol (5 x 128 ounces per gallon x .12). I showed 75 instead of 76.8 in error. You want to make a solution that is 18% alcohol so you have to add some unknown (X) amount of Brandy that is 43% alcohol. The total alcohol in the new solution will be the original amount in the 12% wine plus the alcohol contributed by the Brandy. The equation representing this would be:

.18(640 + X) = 76.8 + .43X

meaning the volume of the new solution will be 640 + X of which 18% (.18) is alcohol. The total alcohol comes from two sources, the original wine and part of the Brandy, which is represented by 76.8 (from the wine) and 43% of X, which is the alcohol from the Brandy.

Solving the above for X would be
.18(640) + X = 76.8 + .43X multiplying the left side of the equation by .18 gives
115.2 + .18X = 76.8 + .43X substracting 76.8 from both sides and .18X from both side give
38.4 = 25X dividing both sides by 25 gives
X = 153.6 the number of ounces of 43% (86 proof) Brandy to add.

 

[SteveM]

Thank you @Rocky that helped clear things up.