How would you accomplish this formula?

[joeyfmx]

Ok, I had a nice moscato a bit on the sweet side but good. Its stated on the bottle the brix at harvest is 29.2 , finished alcohol was 12.5% with 12.0 brix residual. I am wondering, normally an sg like this would be high alcohol, the winemaker must have stopped fermentation when the sg was around 1.048 ish, Im wanting to make a sweeter wine around 10-12% alcohol (I know you can backsweeten but this wine was not so no back sweetening) but im wondering how you would recommend doing this, cold stabilizing, or sorbate and so2?

 

[Rocky]

They could have diluted the juice with water to 22.5 brix, fermented to dry, sorbated and then back sweetened.

 

[Tom]

I doubt they stopped it. Its almost impossible to do that without alot of equipment.

 

[SpoiledRotten]

I'm wondering if you have a store bought wine that you favor, can you pour some in a tube, take an SG reading of that and shoot for that number in your homemade wines?

 

[midwestwine]

Commercial wineries freeze the must to stop fermentation. They have chillers built in to the primary fermenter to freeze it when they hit the target sg. Here a way you can do it at home.
http://www.ehow.com/how_8633420_chill-stop-fermentation.html

 

[robie]

Commercial wineries freeze the must to stop fermentation. They have chillers built in to the primary fermenter to freeze it when they hit the target sg. Here a way you can do it at home.
http://www.ehow.com/how_8633420_chill-stop-fermentation.html

After doing this, they most likely will still have to micro filter the wine to remove all the yeast. I don't know that for certain, but otherwise, just one of those yeasties left alive can start the fermentation over again. There was no mention of also adding sorbate, but that might help.

I spoke with a commercial winemaker in Paso Robles who, when the residual sugar level is where he wants it, uses brandy to kill the yeast instantly. But that adds to the alcohol level and still requires micro filtering.

 

[Wade E]

Yes, after they cold crash the wine they immediately sterile filter the wine to remove any yeast from the wine. This is done by usin a very fine Absolute .45 micron or less filter and these filters are pricey as in usually around $85 to start with or more.

 

[joeyfmx]

Re

Thank you all for the info, it seems like a cold stabilize and sterile filter would do the trick, and for a home vintner and winemaker, I guess that means a late harvest grape to start with (high brix), fermenting to desired sg, a fridge for a few weeks and then a sterile filtration.