tart, tart

[Tiny]

I make nearly all my wine from frozen concentrate, grape, cranberry. appleand it is always very tart. I use some different recipes, buy the results are the same. Any ideas as to why?

 

[masta]

Welcome Tiny,


Do you sweeten your wines? Do you add any acid blend in the makeup?

 

[Tiny]

Yes, I take the SG up to 1.090 which requires about 2 cups of sugar. I have a acid test and pui acid blend to get acid level at about 5.5. I usually don't make but 1 gal. but if I make more it is the same problem.Edited by: Tiny

 

[pkcook]

I've noticed the same thing with fruit wines, most ferment outdry and tart. I back-sweeten to taste to compensate for the tartness and that balances the wine to my liking. I'm not sure what you can do to eliminate the tartness, especially if you are not adding any acid blend. My grape wines never seem to have the sharpness as the fruit wines do, even the gallon I made from table grapes didn't have the tartness. I'm not good with acid tests so I can't be any help with that side.

 

[scotty]

I just added some more frozen(thawed) juice to adjust my batch. It seems to work better than just adding sugar for me. Also, I may try 2 cans of frozen juice per gallon on my next batch from frozen concentrare. Im in orocess of re arranging the inside of my mobile home to make a room just for wine making. Then i will finally start my 6 gallon kit.
I will also treat my frozen juice(welches) with pectic enzyme before doing anything else to it. I have no idea what effect reducing the pectin before pitching will have on the result.Edited by: scotty

 

[Tiny]

I always put 2 X 12oz cans of frozen welches100% grape juice. Or 2 of any kind to make my gal. I add pectic enzyme and finish with P.S. I have added more juice at the end to sweeten, but seems to sour if not keep cold.

 

[scotty]

i'm too inexperienced to add anything else to this post. i am wondering if adding the sugar did give it a sweet tase in any way. i know that when fermenttion is complete i don't enjoy the dry wine taste and am still experimenting wit sugar to get it just off dry .

 

[Wade E]

Scott, as someone who really doesnt like a dry wine I have experimented
with sugar and adding juice after ferm. and I 've found that simmering
down a juice of similiar taste down on a stove to reduce it in size so
as not to dilute the wine or alchohol content too much works great. I
still have not tried the wine conditioner though. If anyone has tried
this, let me know how it worked.

 

[scotty]

Scott, as someone who really doesnt like a dry wine I have experimented with sugar and adding juice after ferm. and I 've found that simmering down a juice of similiar taste down on a stove to reduce it in size so as not to dilute the wine or alchohol content too much works great. I still have not tried the wine conditioner though. If anyone has tried this, let me know how it worked.

i have 2 bottles of wine conditioner. ill try one next time i need to adjust. thanks for he thought--im reading the instruction fo my vitners kit--ill start it soon.

 

[Wade E]

Tell me how the conditioner does. Good luck with the kit!

 

[Curt]

I think you guys will wind up with a better end result if you go for 3 cans per gallon of the concentrates in the one gallon batches. If you look at the directions on the side of the can it says to add 3 cans of water to the 11.5 oz can of concentrate. That only adds up to 46 oz at the correct concentration not 64. There are 128 oz in a gallon so the 3 cans will be just a tad too thick, but not too much. They would reconstitute to 138 oz. That way you also have less sugar to add. The wine conditioner works very well and will be a sorbate addition too as that's what's in there, invert sugar and sorbate. Use at least 2 oz per gallon and you will be good to go.

 

[scotty]

that may be the solution====just more concentrate

 

[Tiny]

So to sum up, are we saying that high acid makes tartness or not enough concentrate?

 

[scotty]

i was asuming that the tartness was just the wine being too dry for my taste

 

[pkcook]

Tiny,


I agree with Curt in adding more concentrate. I made a white grape/peach wine from bottled juice last year. I thought it was a bit lacking in peach flavor at bottling. I made 6 gallons using the same recipe and added 6 cans of white grape/peach concentrate to the primary then added enough sugar to bring the SG to 1.090. The difference in the extra concentrate was incredible! I saved one bottle from the first batch (1 gal) and compared it to a bottle from the second batch (6 gal). WOW! what a difference!


As to the tartness, adding more concentrate will not lesson the tartness. If anything you will get more tartness due to more acid in the concentrate being added to the wine.