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.

 

[Mekpdue]

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.

Rocky/Bryan/Steve, I should have paid more attention to math (Algebraic variables) in High School. And college. Thankfully I am an IT Project Manager and math skills are more basic . Great explanation, Rocky. I now need another beverage (are there 4 or 5 glasses per bottle? or just 1)?

Seriously, it is really interesting to find how adding in higher alcohol affects the final ABV (or solving for a specific abv) when using Pearson's square and limiting guessing.

 

[winemaker81]

Rocky/Bryan/Steve, I should have paid more attention to math (Algebraic variables) in High School. And college. Thankfully I am an IT Project Manager and math skills are more basic . Great explanation, Rocky. I now need another beverage (are there 4 or 5 glasses per bottle? or just 1)?

Seriously, it is really interesting to find how adding in higher alcohol affects the final ABV (or solving for a specific abv) when using Pearson's square and limiting guessing.

Being a project manager gives you a solid reason to drink!

I originally calculated the mix using a proportion, but I was sure my math was not quite correct. This was a few years back.

Paul (@sour_grapes ) mentioned Pearson's Square in an unrelated thread. I hadn't used it in many moons, so I had to look it up. Yup, that was it!

 

[BigDaveK]

Silly but serious question - I consistently get around 20% with my step fed dessert wines and it only costs me 1.5 lbs or so of extra sugar. What does brandy or other spirit bring to the party?

 

[winemaker81]

Silly but serious question - I consistently get around 20% with my step fed dessert wines and it only costs me 1.5 lbs or so of extra sugar. What does brandy or other spirit bring to the party?

Good question. My answer is reduced effort and risk.

And it's an option for part of a batch. My last effort used finished, barrel aged wine, a fraction of the overall batch, to make something closer to real Port. I have a use for a gallon of Port, but not 15 gallons.

 

[Ohio Bob]

Brandy will impart the brandy flavor to the wine, now dessert port. If you use Everclear, it has no flavor, and will not change the flavor of your port.

So another question, if you are able to get 20% out of your yeast, then I assume it’s fermented bone dry, or is it just a tad back sweetened? How do you control the final end point of ABV? How do you know it won’t ferment once it’s bottled?

Traditional port was made by halting the ferment at about 6% residual sugar, by adding spirits. Thus it retained some sweetness. Makes me think I should experiment my port process. I ferment dry, then top off with Everclear to 20% ABV, so it does not have any residual sweetness.

 

[ratflinger]

Brandy will impart the brandy flavor to the wine, now dessert port. If you use Everclear, it has no flavor, and will not change the flavor of your port.

So another question, if you are able to get 20% out of your yeast, then I assume it’s fermented bone dry, or is it just a tad back sweetened? How do you control the final end point of ABV? How do you know it won’t ferment once it’s bottled?

Traditional port was made by halting the ferment at about 6% residual sugar, by adding spirits. Thus it retained some sweetness. Makes me think I should experiment my port process. I ferment dry, then top off with Everclear to 20% ABV, so it does not have any residual sweetness.

This what I do, but I'll usually back sweeten with a little simple syrup of wine conditioner. Some sorbate should prevent fermenting in the bottle.

 

[BigDaveK]

So another question, if you are able to get 20% out of your yeast, then I assume it’s fermented bone dry, or is it just a tad back sweetened? How do you control the final end point of ABV? How do you know it won’t ferment once it’s bottled?

No, it's not bone dry. When I'm doing a dessert wine or port I up the fruit and start a bit high at 1.095ish, three feedings after that. If I'm lucky it finally dies around 1.020 or so. Most of the residual sugar is fructose and I really like that flavor. But it still doesn't taste very sweet. I'll back sweeten to 1.030ish or a bit more sometimes. If I'm lucky it will taste like a very fruity mildy sweet beverage and the alcohol is barely noticeable...until you stand up. Wow!

I was drinking a pear dessert yesterday. Had I added glycerine at bottling you could easily mistake it for a pear liqueur. Really good, all pear no water.