Raspberry Chocolate Port

[kglynch42]

Hi everyone,

I would like some advice on my plans to fortify a Raspberry wine I am making. It has already been fermented dry and I want to fortify it with Brandy and back sweeten with chocolate. Here are my plans:

1 Gal of Raspberry wine, fermented dry, potential of 11-12% Alcohol.
Add 8 oz sugar
add 2/3 cup cocoa powder
add 2 2/3 oz liquid chocolate extract
to get to 19% alcohol, I used the pearson square and calculated I need 48 oz of Brandy (I'll use E&J as suggested in this forum).

I'm questioning my calculation on the pearson square because 48 oz of brandy seems like a lot, especially for just 1 gallon of wine.

Any advice from experienced Port makers is appreciated!

 

[sour_grapes]

I concur with your calculation: if you assume 11% ABV for your base wine and you want 19%, you need 48 oz.

 

[richmke]

Brandy is 40% alcohol. Your wine is 11% alcohol. To get to 19%, you need roughly 1 part Brandy for every 2 parts of Raspberry. 48 oz is a little shy of 50% of 1 gallon, so sounds about right.

If you have not yet stabilized, you might want to add sugar and try to get it to ferment to 17%. They you won't have to add as much brandy.