New here

[Ratzilla]

Hello, every one. I recently started making wine for the first time, I knew it had to be easier than using a 100 dollar wine kit so I looked it up and was a little surprised at how easy it is to make wine. The first two batches, I just bought 2 different kinds of Welches grape juice added a tablespoon of sugar in one and about 5 in the other. I enjoy making it all myself, i like to blend up fruits and add sugar and then add yeast after its ready, i still use one of the grape juice bottles but a bigger glass bottle would be nice.
I was also wondering if heating up the sugar a little but to make it dissolve in water then adding the sugar water to my bottle helps or not, not sure if the yeast converts it faster or slower if the sugar is dissolved in water, but i generally keep it at room temp, I do have a little lamp that gives off hear aimed at the bottle thats fermenting right now, should be a day or two left. I love how I can get creative with wine making, I can see myself using more than grapes in the future.

 

[heatherd]

Welcome to the hobby and the forum!

 

[Ratzilla]

Welcome to the hobby and the forum!

Thank you Looks like quite the list there haha.

 

[vernsgal]

Hi Ratzilla.Welcome to the forum!

 

[bkisel]

Welcome to WMT!

About the sugar stuff... What you're getting at is what is called "simple syrup" but the process for making is just the opposite as you'd heat the water and dissolve the sugar into the hot water.

"Simple syrup is made by boiling 2 cups sugar in one cup water. Slowly stir cooled simple syrup mixture into you wine and take a hydrometer reading. Add a little at a time and test or taste. Be sure NOT to sweeten too much."

 

[Noontime]

The yeast will eat through the sugar regardless of what you do, but there are benefits to having the sugar completely integrated. If you're measuring SG with a hydrometer (which hopefully you are) and you dump and mix sugar into your must, you're not going to get an accurate original SG reading. So using simple syrup will help in knowing how much alcohol your wine has.

Make sure you're not warming the wine too much, since many of the flavor and aromatic compounds are volatile and can blow off easily, and yeast get stressed when they're too warm (depends on the yeast strain obviously).

Being creative is one of the best things about making your own. I love vinifera grape wines and all the complexity that comes with them, but I also love being able to make a roasted butternut squash wine, or a root beer wine, or our next experiment...a S'mores port. Have fun!