Raspberry Wine

[Rice_Guy]

I like sweet therefore would say “excellent, won’t have to back sweeten this one” ,,, but then again might push it up to 1.015.
A few days isn’t much time,

 

[silverbullet07]

I was thinking the same but I would have liked the ABV to be a little higher but I can live with it what ever it ends up as.

 

[Scooter68]

Well your ABV is certainly in the acceptable/safe range at 10.76% so, I'd just rack to carboy if not already there or perhaps rack off the lees and give it a couple of days before adding any K-meta. As long as it's under airlock, a couple of days isn't going to hurt anything and if it drops a little more... CO2 off-gassing should protect the wine for several days to a week - especially if you can see any fine bubbles or a slow rise in the airlock. Otherwise - If you are happy with 10.76%ABV hit it with K-meta and start the aging. 1.010 shouldn't be really sweet I would expect - depending on personal preferences.

 

[silverbullet07]

Thanks. I have it in a carboy now Under airlock. I’ll rack agiaim in a few days when a lot of the Lee’s drop down. Then I’ll rack and add k-meta. the raspberry flavor is strong and It is very dark. It is a little bitter but when I add just a little simple syrup to a sample it was Pretty darn good. The TA was high so the little sweet helps I guess.

 

[Arne]

You might be aware it is getting to the time of year when things cool off a bit. Tends to slow the ferments down if it gets a little cooler in the winery. Now rack it off the lees and take most but not all the yeast out of the ferment. It can slow way down and look like it is stuck. Sometimes if you warm it up a bit it will take back off again. Sometimes it just takes time before it takes off again. Just so you know you might be in for a suprise down the road. THis is one time you can probably stabalize and be all right. Time will tell. Good luck with it, Arne.

 

[Scooter68]

I had a couple of batches that experienced a drop in SG over the aging process. No evidence of fermentation in the airlocks but the SG did drop about .010 over 8-9 months time. That was too much to be just a minor error in reading the Hydrometer so I just marched on and at the end stabilized with K-Meta and K-Sorbate, back-sweetened and bottled. At 1.010 you aren't looking at an overly sweet wine so as Arne said just roll with it.

 

[silverbullet07]

Thanks for the input. I am rolling forward.

 

[silverbullet07]

My Raspberry is getting to the stage to be bottled soon and I was doing a few bench trials back sweetening it. It seems to cut the tartness level to make it very nice, I have to add 20ml simple syrup to 100 ml wine. This takes the sg to 1.050. I purchased a couple Raspberry wines from two different vineyards and this seems to be in the range they were in. It seems to be the most pleasant range for us. If you remember when I made it, I used three qts of Concentrate for a little over 3 gals of finished wine. Next time I'll start with 4.5 gal for the 3 qts. Maybe the TA will not be so high.

 

[silverbullet07]

So doing some more research on how to handle my raspberry wine. I need to back sweeten it quite a bit to smooth out the tartness. Since I have to add so much volume my abv goes from 10% to 8%. So my thoughts are to add everclear 151 to the wine to bump up the abv from 10% to 15%. Then when I backsweeten the abv would round out about 12.5%.

My raspberry is really bold, dark and strong and I think it will handle the extra volume fine. I just want to make sure I can't taste the everclear. Never tried it before. I would have to add 30oz to 3 gals of wine. What are some thoughts on this?

 

[Scooter68]

Didn't read the posts in detail but is this a black or red raspberry wine. Red normally is not tart at all, black raspberry, that's just the nature of the berry. I would not try to cover it up too much. AND if you will age the wine at least 1 year the edge will be a lot less detectable.

As for everclear, most comments I've heard are that you should use vodka instead. I've used both and unless you are really using a lot of it, there should not be a great impact on the taste after all most at 190 proof you are not going to have much else other than alcohol to taste.

Not sure if you have seen this site: Winemaking Calculations
It provides a very easy to use online calculator to figure out how much to add to achieve a specific ABV. VERY easy to use.

Also, I'd stick to an ABV of 11% +/- .5% to keep the added everclear qty low.
Trying to raise the ABV much above that will start to smother the taste.

To backsweeten there are several options:
1) Standard "Simple Syrup" (SS) 2:1 sugar : water simple syrup (I normally microwave 1 cup for 3 mins, add the sugar, stir, and microwave for 1 min then a little more stirring
2) Heavy 3:1 sugar : water simple syrup (May require boiling the water a bit more and stirring, reheating the mix
3) Direct addition of sugar to the wine. Requires a lot more stirrin but the volume rise is a lot less. (My 2:1 simple syrup usually ends up raising the volume about 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 cups) So direct adding sugar would reduce the additional volume by 8 ounces.

In the end the only two things that matter are:

- Is the ABV at least 10% (To preserve the wine)
- Do YOU like the results - MOST important part.

 

[silverbullet07]

The red Raspberry was concentrate. I used 3 qts of raspberry to 4 gals of water in primary so it is quite strong in flavor. It did not ferment dry and stopped at 1.010. making 10% ABV. Right now it will make you pucker so it is quite tart.

It is real nice adding 20ml of simple syrup. to 100ml of wine. For simple syrup I use 1 cup water to 1 cup sugar 1:1 ratio, Usually if I go 1 cup water to 2 cups sugar it starts getting to thick and crystalized. I will try it again with 2:1 which would help. OR maybe pulling off wine and using it to dissolve the sugar.

I'll keep working on it. I went out and got the evergrain to try. Any I do have the calculation site to make my fortified alc additions.

 

[Scooter68]

Just for info - Typically when most folk on here folks talk about a simple syrup (SS) addition, they are referring to a 2 parts sugar to 1 part water. It is thick but I keep 12-16 oz in the fridge most of the time and it has only crystalized on me once in 5 years. A 3:1 is not hard to do, it just takes a bit more time, and reheating, and stirring.

Your 1:1 ration explains why it took 20ml to get the sweetness up enough. Take a bit more time and make that SS a 2:1 and you won't have near the watering down issue to contend with.

Most times after I re-heat the mix once all the sugar is in there, I stir it and let it sit for 5-10 mins and it nice and clear with no sugar on the bottom.

 

[silverbullet07]

Great. I just put together a 3:1 and going to give this a try. It seemed to come out good. Should I raise ABV with everclear first or add simple syrup first then adjust ABV from there to reach 12%

 

[Scooter68]

That's one I will let some one else tackle I think in scientific terms.

My personal approach would be to figure as you have done what you need to get the ABV where you want it. Then sweeten it up as needed. I suspect that a variation in the ABV is going to bother you much less than the change in sweetness from adding more alcohol. Losing 1 - 1.5% of the ABV is not a big deal as long as the ending ABV will be above 10% (Pretty much considered the lowest you want with a wine.)

So if you get the ABV to 13% and the back-sweetening lowers it to 11.5% no big deal.

 

[silverbullet07]

For my bench trials. I had 50ml of wine. I added 3ml of ever clear that takes it from 10% to 15%.
I then added 5 ml of my syrup and the taste is perfect.

can not taste any alcohol and flavor is great. This will have a finish 13.0 - 13.5 abv.

 

[Scooter68]

For my bench trials. I had 50ml of wine. I added 3ml of ever clear that takes it from 10% to 15%.
I then added 5 ml of my syrup and the taste is perfect.

can not taste any alcohol and flavor is great. This will have a finish 13.0 - 13.5 abv.

Sounds like a win all the way around!!!

 

[Rice_Guy]

Syrup by definition contains water. I tend to sweeten with weighed quantity of sugar. You also can mix sugar into a small portion of the wine.
In the scheme of things 8% alcohol will resist micro spoilage if you are clean and properly sulphites.
I put black raspberry at 1.010 to 1.015 with a must made of 100% juice/ no water,, TA is high from memory 1.0% to 1.1%

 

[silverbullet07]

This 3 gal batch will be split into two 1 1/2 gal batches. One will be a chocolate raspberry and the other plain raspberry. I made the simple syrup out of torani chocolate syrup and sugar For the chocolate raspberry. From the taste test it is pretty nice.

 

[RickD]

Typical raspberry is run at 4 pounds per gallon which gets the TA in line. ,,, some examples
Raspberry: red 2018 pH 3.04/ TA 2.26%/ gravity 1.037 . . . 2019 pH 3.19/ TA 2.18%/ gravity 1.035 . . . 2020 pH 3.46/ TA 2.26%/ gravity 1.034
raspberry: black 2018 pH 3.58/ TA 1.49%/ gravity 1.039 . . . 2019 pH 3.48/ TA 1.81%/ gravity 1.036 . . . 2020 pH 3.87/ TA 2.08%/ gravity 1.028

I can see running reconstituted straight juice but you may have to adjust the TA. I like high fruit and will push the TA up to 1 or even 1.25% and back sweeten to 1.015 to balance the finished wine, but then I grow em and i size the batch for which size carboy I am racking into.

I wish I had paid more attention to this thread before I pitched my red raspberry. I flinch sometimes when the technical discussions get so far over my head. I used six 12oz bags of frozen berries (4.5lbs), so I got lucky in that regard. I added 1/2 tsp acid blend. I was able to test pH prior to yeast (3.68) (unable to run TA - no NaOH). Final SG 1.098. Racked at 0.994 this morning. Do you guys think It will be OK?

 

[Rice_Guy]

TA translated “how much wholup does the acid do on the tongue?”. You have diluted to a normal range therefore it is OK. I grow berries so can run 100% juice (more impact) and I fix it by back sweetening after fermentation.
I like pH less than 3.5, high pH means it takes more meta to do the same job. You can’t read what it is and change this easily after it is fermented and still has CO2.
Gravity is high but OK simply translates to a bit more alcohol.

Yes it will be OK, wine is forgiving. As this ages I would assume meta has reacted and it is zero at every transfer.

of frozen berries (4.5lbs), so I got lucky in that regard. I added 1/2 tsp acid blend. I was able to test pH prior to yeast (3.68) (unable to run TA - no NaOH). Final SG 1.098. Racked at 0.994 this morning. Do you guys think It will be OK?

nice color