SYRUP for flavoring???

[loumik]

Several times I have seen mentioned that syrup can be used to flavor or sweeten fruit wines. Are we talking about regular fruit flavored syrup such as Smuckers Strawberry like we can get at the local grocery store or a special type intended for wine making? I have a Apple and a Pomagranate-Blueberry bulk ageing at this time and if I decide they need more flavore I don't want to wait until the last minute to find out what I need for them. Would regular syrup work for this purpose?

LOUMIK

 

[djrockinsteve]

I would suggest inverting sugar and water to backsweeten. Better would be to invert sugar in the wine and reintroduce to the level you like. Another option would be to simmer down a juice to 1/2 volume and sweeten with that.

I would stay away from adding smuckers. You will definitely cloud your wine.

 

[deboard]

I have made my own syrups for backsweetening by heating juice and reducing it. That works well, but it generally adds at least one more racking since there are solids in the juice. Straining the juice through a coffee filter helps some, but you're still looking at more racking. But I like the results.

I've never used a store bought syrup, but if you decide to do so, take a look at the ingredient list on the back before you buy. Hopefully it's just fruit, sugar, water kind of stuff. But it may have Potassium Sorbate as a preservative. I'd avoid anything with artificial sweeteners or things like benzoates.

 

[Randoneur]

Brewer's Best makes many types of fruit flavoring.
4oz bottle are less than $5,

 

[Tom]

Brewer's Best makes many types of fruit flavoring.
4oz bottle are less than $5,

I dcont lik them. It leaves a bad taste. Mostly used in beer. Make a f pac instead

 

[loumik]

Loumik

Thanks for the inputs. I'm not sure what inverted sugar is but I do have a bottle of POM juice left over after mixing the ingredients to ferment and I can reduce that. I didn't think Smuckers looked like a very good idea but I had seen mention of useing syrup to flavor wine and wondered what type of syrup was being used. Thanks again.
LOUMIK

 

[Goodfella]

Sometimes people just use frozen concentrates. I used some on an Apple wine and was very pleased with the results.

Just dont over do it!!! You want wine, not juice.

 

[loumik]

I would use juice concentrate but I haven't been able to find any blueberry concentrate and I don't want to use grapejuice. Thanks for the input though.
LOUMIK

 

[Goodfella]

F-Pack and back sweeteming for sure with Blueberry wine!!!

 

[Arne]

Invert sugar:
Two parts sugar to one part water. Heat the water to almost boiling, add the sugar, and stir in. You can use a little more heat if you like, but the mixture will turn clear, and then is ready to stir into your wine. If heated too high it will cloud and if you mix it in then, more waiting for thing to clear.

 

[Runningwolf]

....ensure the simple syrup has cooled to room temp before mixing into your wine.

 

[1ChuckGauthier]

Ok, my dumb question for the day.......why should I let the simple syrup cool?

 

[jlcareyjr]

Ok, my dumb question for the day.......why should I let the simple syrup cool?

The boiling syrup may kill or stall your yeast production.

 

[winemaker81]

@jlcareyjr, welcome to WMT! I see this is your first post.

What do you make, and how long have you been part of the fraternity?

 

[Peggy Billingsley]

I dcont lik them. It leaves a bad taste. Mostly used in beer. Make a f pac instead

what is an f pac and how do you make it?

 

[Peggy Billingsley]

I would use juice concentrate but I haven't been able to find any blueberry concentrate and I don't want to use grapejuice. Thanks for the input though.
LOUMIK

Old Orchard has a blueberry pomegranite. 100% juice (of course it is mostly apple, but tastes like blueberry pomegranite) I have used it to backsweeten an apple wine to create a blueberry pomegranite flavor.

 

[Peggy Billingsley]

Invert sugar:
Two parts sugar to one part water. Heat the water to almost boiling, add the sugar, and stir in. You can use a little more heat if you like, but the mixture will turn clear, and then is ready to stir into your wine. If heated too high it will cloud and if you mix it in then, more waiting for thing to clear.

don't you need acid/lemon to make an invert sugar?

 

[mikewatkins727]

Yup, you do. 2 cups sugar, 1 cup water and 2 tsp lemon juice. Heat to a simmer (do not boil) for 30 minutes. This process hydrolyzes sucrose into glucose and fructose. It is suggested to not use this to backsweeten the wine since it encourage fermentation.

 

[Peggy Billingsley]

Yup, you do. 2 cups sugar, 1 cup water and 2 tsp lemon juice. Heat to a simmer (do not boil) for 30 minutes. This process hydrolyzes sucrose into glucose and fructose. It is suggested to not use this to backsweeten the wine since it encourage fermentation.

I had heard it would be good to use to backsweeten since the sugar was already broken down into fructose and glucose so the sweetness wouldn't change while aging. If you stabilize hopefully it wouldn't referment.

 

[winemaker81]

I had heard it would be good to use to backsweeten since the sugar was already broken down into fructose and glucose so the sweetness wouldn't change while aging. If you stabilize hopefully it wouldn't referment.

You are correct. If the wine has been stabilized, it will not ferment, regardless of what is added.