Is what I made still salvagable?

[Blitzburg]

Hi, I'm Travis, and I'm brand new to this, so please take it easy on me lol. I don't even know if this question can be answered but at least I have some specifics for you. So here it goes....

Recently at work, I had started working with a new guy. I'm an electrician and I'm new to the field so they were trying to find someone for me to partner up with. Anyways, after working together for a couple of weeks, he had started talking about how he makes his own wine, and that intrigued me. I love wine that is both sweet and tart, usually an Italian rose' like Rosatello Sparkling Rose'. So he talked me into trying it, and we just so happened to be working at a place where there were a few empty carboys so i took one home with me. This guys kinda just slaps things together, which is one reason he is a former coworker. So here's what I ended up with

10 pounds of pureed nectarines (I'm almost certain blending them up was a mistake) that had a great sweet/tart to them
8 pounds of sugar
Approximately 3 and 1/2 gallons of distilled water
2 packs of Fleischmann's active dry yeast (again, I'm sure that was a mistake too)

It bubbled a lot for about 3 weeks and then slowed down to nothing by 4 weeks. Then I strained it and tasted it. Tasted like nothing but alcohol. I then added approximately 4-5 cups of sugar and about a half cup of lemon juice and put it back in the carboy.

It's been 6 weeks now, and as we're speaking I'm tasting it again. It definitely has a good nectarine flavor which is great!!! It honestly tastes sweet enough for my liking. And it needs just a little more tart but almost perfect. But with all that being said, the alcohol is so overpowering, if you could imagine Listerine making a peach mouthwash, then that's what I have lol.

So here's the question. Is there anything I can do to calm this alcohol flavor down? Or should I dump it out, and find a recipe on here where I can actually follow steps, and do it right?

Sorry for the long-winded question

Thanks,
Travis

 

[Scooter68]

DON'T ADD MORE SUGAR !! How many gallons did you start out with? With the amount of sugar used - You are lucky that it isn't super sweet - Bread yeast normally won't ferment beyond 7-8 %.
DON'T Toss it out!

You need a couple of basic supplies to get things under control. Find a local Brew Supplier (hopefully there is one nearby) Get some Potassium-Metabisulfite (K-Meta) and Potassium Sorbate. The K-meta dosage is 1/4 tsp per 6 gallons so go easy with that
Potassium Sorbate (keep it in the fridge when no using) is normally dosed at 1/2 tsp per gallon.
After you have treated the wine with those to additives you should be able to keep further fermentation from occurring.
As to the existing alcohol level there isn't a lot to do with that without some serious fiddling around.

A couple of options for you would be:
Consider what you have as a "Dessert Wine" A sweet potent wine meant to be consumed in small amounts ( well by most folks )
OR
You could start another batch using a true wine yeast and shoot for a low ABV - then blend the two once fermentation is completed on the new batch.

Making a couple of assumptions here -
1) You have this wine under an airlock of some sort to avoid bacteria or bugs from getting into it.
2) You want try this again and have or willing to get a couple of basic pieces of hardware (Hydrometer should be the first thing) and some supplies.
3) You have some patience - A new wine is always sharp and hard on the palate even with a lower alcohol level. After aging at least 6 months a wine starts lose some of that sharp edgy bite and even the alcohol seems to moderate a bit (It doesn't but it seems that way)

 

[hitchiker]

helo scooter

 

[Jal5]

Good advice from scooter I think.
Blitzburg if you live near Pgh there are several places in town to get those supplies.
Joe

 

[Arne]

You can usually let the wine sit and the alcohol flavor should calm down some. Letting wine age does (usually) wonderful things to it. Probably won't be letting it sit for 2 weeks, most likely for a few months. Make wine and one thing you will eventually learn is have patience. Arne.

 

[Blitzburg]

Thanks I appreciate all of the responses. It started out with about 4 and a half gallons total. I have tasted plenty of homemade wine before and I know it has an alcohol taste that hasn't "calmed" down yet, but this is rough. Also, it's not that I don't care about flavor, but I drink to get drunk lol . So if I love a dessert wine, I'll drink it all the way. That being said, I think I'm gonna throw this out and maybe try Danger Dave's dragon blood since it seems like a quicker process than most

 

[salcoco]

https://winemaking.jackkeller.net/index.asp try this web site for instructions and recipes

 

[Scooter68]

You said Sweet & Tart - How tart ? I've made a Tart Cherry wine that has an ABV of around 14.5% to 15%. (You can drop that down to 12 or 13 and still be excellent - It is sweet but tart cherries .... well you either love it or hate it. The sweetness and tart covers the higher ABV but of course if you make it yourself you determine how high that number goes.
Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate can be purchased on the internet. ( I use a mix of 3 bottles tart to 1 bottle sweet cherry - that should make 4 gallons of juice but I make 3 gallons of wine with it to make sure the flavor is strong.

If you are interested I can post the recipe I use on here.

It's not a cheap drink but you should be able to drink it as soon as it clears which should take no more than 2-3 months. It would have a bit of an edge but the tartness hides it. IF you can wait it out - it's really good at about 12-18 months.

Below is a link to an amazon seller offer (On bottle will make 1 gallon of standard strength juice.)

https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Montmo...9Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

The Sweet Cherry Juice:
https://www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Heal...e+Concentrate&qid=1567879919&s=grocery&sr=1-4

 

[Vaudun]

You said Sweet & Tart - How tart ? I've made a Tart Cherry wine...

If you are interested I can post the recipe I use on here.

Hello @Scooter68. I am definitely interested. It sounds delicious.