Tasting primary fermentation wine

[BernardSmith]

Thank you Bernard Smith for that information!

I added another pound of sugar with 16oz of water to it. I checked the SG and it's at 1.030, I am going to hold off on the transfer to the carboy at this time and check on it over the next couple of days.

And while I am on my soap box... Adding more water dilutes the fruit juice. If the flavor from the fruit is not critical then OK but if you are really looking for strawberry flavor - and strawberries are very light on flavor - adding water makes any flavor they have less pronounced... Just sayin'...

 

[LukeM]

Well ****! Could you give me some recomendations on what to do to correct my moronic actions of making "rocket fuel"?

 

[Smok1]

Probly wont taste like rocket fuel with 71b. Tolerance is only 14% abv and it will die. So depending on your starting sg it may be fine or it might have alot of residual sugar left in it. Whats the sg at now?

 

[LukeM]

Probly wont taste like rocket fuel with 71b. Tolerance is only 14% abv and it will die. So depending on your starting sg it may be fine or it might have alot of residual sugar left in it. Whats the sg at now?

It's still holding at about 1.030. I started thinking that too, if the yeast only can live in it to 14% then it should be okay. I might end up having a super sweet dessert wine, which I'm pretty sure the wife would be happy with lol.

 

[Scooter68]

Yes, after. It was about 1.010-1.015ish when I added it. My wife wants a sweeter wine rather than a dryer wine. I figured from what all of you were saying that if the sugar content is higher then it will be sweeter when the yeast reaches the potential of 14% whereas if the sugar content is used up before the yeast stalls then it will be a dryer wine (hopefully I understood all this correctly lol).

You are assuming that the yeast you put in the wine is the only yeast present, while that's likely to be true, it's also riskier than letting the batch ferment all the way dry and then doing as recommended, adding K-Meta and Potassium Sorbate. THEN backsweetening to taste. Keep in mind that when you backsweeten you are working with an immature wine. (Think those cheese commercials with the Smart-A cheese that wasn't ready for market) Your immature wine will be much sharper at 3-8 months than it will be after a full year or more. So you really don't want to over due the backsweetening. Stop just short of perfect and after aging another 6-12 months it should be spot on.