How much Wine Conditioner?

[winemaker81]

Bryan, the SGf is 0.990. With an SGi of 1.092, I make the ABV about 13.4%. I would like the ABV to be closer to 12%. If I can add either the flavor pack and/or sugar and get the SGf up to a tad over 1.000 I think I will be at 12% and at the level of sweetness I want.

You're focusing too much on numbers. Trust your tastebuds. Backsweeten with the F-Pack until you like what you have.

Pre- and during fermentation, numbers are useful. Post-fermentation? Numbers are meaningless. Hydrometers, pH meters, etc will never taste the wine. Trust your tastebuds.

Will you make mistakes? ABSOLUTELY. That's how we learn. But you'll make less than you expect.

Also, I have three carboys of T-R from another kit supplier and those kits did not have any flavor pack.

These are totally different wines. The similar names mean nothing.

You may have noted I'm good at discounting things.

BTW, I have no idea as to why I had been typing T-B when I meant T-R (Trebbiano-Riesling). Sorry for any confusion this has caused.

I've been married for 33+ years. I'm very good at handling varying shorthand. I didn't even pay attention to the variance in abbreviations; I knew what you meant and didn't even think about it.

 

[Rice_Guy]

I used the Global wine conditioner shown in your post back sweetening a Riesling batch. ... The resulting wine turned sweeter over time (~1 year), friends that have used it confirmed increased sweetness on their wines, and I almost screwed up

* I haven’t read any articles but this characteristic seems to exist no matter what sugar. In the wine club the advice is if making a wine for storage add a teaspoon extra acid. On my part I have noted that the TA decreased vs age when I pulled several old rhurbarb wines and reran them. (as a magazine project I expect to run a same wine several times vs years) My guess is that an acid molecule reacts with an alcohol molecule creating an esther which the TA test ignores, and the taste buds do not detect as acid flavor. This goes back to balance, if the total acidity drops the proper level of sweet for balance also should drop.
* decaf coffee does have a trace of caffeine. The process is washing the grounds with solvent similar to perking coffee. We have specifications for how much is left which aren’t zero, , , it would make the product too expensive, ppm processing is good enough.
* I would disagree, post fermentation total acidity numbers are useful. I use TA as a guideline for where the target sweetness balance will be. If we look at sales, 1.002 to 1.005 seems to be the US sweet spot for where consumers want a wine to be. We either need to leave enough TA or build enough TA in to have a fresh sensation,,, and repeat purchases. (note; soft tannin / astringent is a multiplier for acidic flavors)

 

[Rocky]

(A) You're focusing too much on numbers. Trust your tastebuds. Backsweeten with the F-Pack until you like what you have.

Pre- and during fermentation, numbers are useful. Post-fermentation? Numbers are meaningless. Hydrometers, pH meters, etc will never taste the wine. Trust your tastebuds.

(B) Will you make mistakes? ABSOLUTELY. That's how we learn. But you'll make less than you expect.


These are totally different wines. The similar names mean nothing.

You may have noted I'm good at discounting things.


I've been married for 33+ years. I'm very good at handling varying shorthand. I didn't even pay attention to the variance in abbreviations; I knew what you meant and didn't even think about it.

SEE NOTES IN BODY OF YOUR RESPONSE:
(A) Just looking for a starting point.
(B) I don't have time to make mistakes. At my age, I don't even buy green bananas!

 

[Mekpdue]

My take. If using Wine Conditioner to backsweeten, use additional Sorbate to stop a re-fermentation. I learned my lesson when adding a few ounces for 6 gallon juice batches. As a result, I now know how much wine conditioner to use for a ‘bubbly’ Chianti and a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon. All I wanted to do was backsweeten a little for added sweetness to counterbalance some acid. As a result, I have poured out all bottles into a fermenter, degassed, air locked for a couple of weeks, and rebottled. I don’t want to do that again.

The wine? This is now the stuff I’ll serve to house guests who have overstayed their welcome.

 

[Rocky]

Well, thank you for all your suggestions. Here is what I ended up doing.

I poured the flavor pack into a 4 cup measuring cup and it was 28 ounces (liquid). I racked the wine into a clean carboy and added 12 ounces of the flavoring, stirred it, tasted it and said, "Good enough!" The wine is a little darker than I would prefer, but c'est la vie! I put the remainder back into the flavor pack bag, pushed out as much air as possible and put it in the basement refrigerator.

The final SG was about 0.996 and the ABV was about 12.8%. End of mission!