How to sweeten and cut the alcohol content?

[Redbird1]

I'd say that one would be dancing with the devil if they were not paying attention to detail. Check and double check your priming sugar addition and do a quick scan of your bottles before use. I've yet to make a sparkling wine, but have safely made hundreds of bottles of beer with no issues. That said, if I ever do make my own soda, I'd probably keg it.

I am slowly acquiring a champagne bottle collection and have designs to try it at some point, although the process to make a sweet champagne does indeed look very involved. I'll save that for when things are a little less hectic around these parts. Dry champagne looks essentially the same as beer bottling though. If I had thought enough about it, I would have pulled off a gallon of my rose before adding the fpac and tried it out.

 

[BernardSmith]

Ok, I have some more questions. How do you know when to bottle the wine? How clear will strawberry wine get?

Really , you should not think about bottling a wine until it is so clear that you can read a newspaper when placed at the other side of the carboy. Wines should be as clear as glass. Of course, some wines are too dark, too red, to read through but those wines are still bright and clear. If you shone a laser light through the carboy the light coming through the other side would still be as focused and concentrated as the light was when it entered the carboy - there being no particles suspended in the liquid to scatter the light.


One cause of particles making your wine less than clear are the yeast cells and fruit particulates suspended in the liquid and one cause of those particulates being suspended is the CO2 that is still in the wine. Over time , or through mechanical processes (whipping the O2 out, pulling a vacuum through the wine) the CO2 will leave the wine and all the particles will fall out and drop to the bottom leaving your wine bright and clear.

 

[LukeM]

Alright, I bottled the wine about 2 weeks ago now (it was nice and clear/slight haze). I am not a wine drinker, never really liked the store bought stuff and the people that make it that I have tried is too bitter and strong. I added some juice to lower the alcohol content (it would actually light on fire it was so high). It took a lot of testing to get it to where we wanted it. I actually like this stuff; it is a smooth yet slight bite to it! I have to guess (after the estimate of 40% alcohol to ignite on fire) with how much juice I used to "cut" the alcohol down I am sitting around 20% alcohol content. I don’t know what I did wrong to get an alcohol content to where it is so hot it will physically burn but I really like how this batch turned out! The yeast I used was a 71B and was only supposed to get up to 14%. The people whom we have shared some with are asking me for more and have liked it also. I started out with 42 bottles and we are down to 25 remaining. My wife really likes this stuff and has asked me to triple the batch next year.

 

[Scooter68]

Very Unlikely you reached anywhere near even 20% ABV with that yeast. And 40% would have required the addition of alcohol. If your wine was very thin (Low quantity of fruit per gallon) that could contribute to the feel of a high alcohol content.

 

[LukeM]

Very Unlikely you reached anywhere near even 20% ABV with that yeast. And 40% would have required the addition of alcohol. If your wine was very thin (Low quantity of fruit per gallon) that could contribute to the feel of a high alcohol content.

I am wondering if I didn’t kill off the wild yeast though. I added potassium metabisulfite thinking that was what was needed to kill the natural yeast but found that it is for the preservation of the wine. What I do know is that the wine, when it stopped percolating through the water trap, (tasting it) it was extremely sharp and I was able to ignite it on fire. This was leading me to the conclusion that the alcohol content was at or higher than 40%. The wife wanted me to add more sugar than what was called for, as she wanted a sweeter wine.

 

[Scooter68]

Hmmm... Sounds like what you are describing is something that we don't discuss on this site. The "D" word.

 

[LukeM]

I am confused about that, what is the "D" word?

 

[Scooter68]

If I says it the revenuers will start monitoring us.



The word is distilling. The subject is not one permitted on this board. IF that is what you are doing in any form - we can't give you any assistance.

 

[LukeM]

No, it was not distilled. I made the wine with about 23lbs fresh super sweet and juicy strawberries that the wife and I picked from a farm. I added sugar and water (don't remember the exact amount of sugar off hand but it was 3 gal water and I think around 15lb sugar) and used a paint stir rod with drill to "mash up" the strawberries. After it started the fermentation process for about 5-7 days, I removed the pulp from the top. At this time it wasn't real sweet anymore and the wife wanted more sugar in it. I then placed it from the bucket to the glass carboy and it bubbled hard in there for a while. We tasted it when we would rack it and it only seemed to get more potent as time went on. Then when it cleared I went to taste it and found it to be undrinkable. I pulled some out and went to it with a lighter and it did a small swoosh of flame. We then added some juice to cut it to taste. I started with approx 5 gal and added 4 gal of juice to taste. We do not like strong alcoholic drinks but do like the sweeter ones. I like the way this one turned out. There was no distillation done to this. The chemicals added were the potassium metabisulfite, yeast nutrient (may have added that one twice also), acid blend, and tannin (I think one more but can't think of what it is called off hand).