WineXpert Upping Alcohol Content

[eduk8or]

Could some one give me step by step intructions for how to add sugar to up that alcohol content in a Green Apple Reisling by Island Mist? Thanks a bunch!!!

 

[Angell Wine]

I dump lbs of sugar into Plastic bucket with 2 gallons of water and stir like crazy. then add the juice and stir like crazy. Then bring it up to the 6 gallon level and stir like crazy. Some people bring some water up to boil and add the sugar until it's a syrup like, and then add to the juice.

 

[Wade E]

I believe Masta adds an additional 5 lbs of sugar.

 

[PeterZ]

eduk8or - The way to add sugar is to dissolve it in about half as much water on the stove, cool it and add it to the must before pitching the yeast. The big question is how much to add.

So how much to add? Here is what to do. First, you need to know what your initial sg is. You can pretty much infer this, as the IM kits say they atr targeted at 7% abv. According to my triple scale hygrometer's instruction sheet, this is a starting sg of 1.052. Let's say you want to target 11% abv (not a coincidence - I'm going to be doing this for my daughter in a couple of weeks). The sg for 11% abv is 1.081, so we need to increase sg by 0.029.

So how much sucrose (table sugar) will that require? A quick trip to the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (53rd Edition, 1972-1973) tells me that a 1wt% addition of sucrose to water will increase the sg by 0.0039. Further prerusal of the tables indicates that the must (mixed to the full 23 L volume) contains ~13% sucrose, and that we need ~20% sucrose. Another column tells me that the difference is 79.6g/L. We have 23 L, so we need to add 1831 g of sucrose.

1831 g of sucrose is a hair ovewr 4 lbs, so if you want 11% abv go to the store and buy a 4 lb bag of sugar. Dissolve it in 2 quarts of water on the stove and let it cool to about 120F. (Don't let it get too cool or the sugar will start to crystallize out.) Add this to the must that you have diluted to about 20 L and stir the heck out of it, because the sugar syrup you are adding will be as thick as syrup in Vermont in January. Then add water to the 23 L mark and confirm sg. If the sg is low, stir some more and test again.

DISCLAIMER: YOU JUST VOIDED THE WARTRANTY ON THE KIT. FOLLOW THIS PROCEDURE ON YOUR OWN. PETERZ OFFERS NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY. NOTHING IN THIS POST HAS ANY CONNECTION WITH GEOCORN OR ANY INCARNATION OF SAID PERSON OR PERSONS, OR BUSINESSES CONNECTED WITH SAID PERSON OR PERSONS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. YADA YADA YADA.

 

[david_québec]

the rule of thumb here...


1 pound of white sugar = 1% of more alcool.


you want a 13% mist.. add about 6 to 7 pound.


Be sure to have a yeast that can go up to this alcool level.
usually the EC-1118 can go to 18%.


Some poeple find the mist too sweet so the add half the pack of reserve before fermentation. this cranks up the alcool level around 10% and once it's finished the complete like the usuall instruction exept they only have 1/2 pack of sweet reserve to add making it less sweet and also very good.


butWARNING: Those advice will void your Warranty if you are not well experienced with those kits. you shouldn not listen to me if you dont want to risk nothing.

 

[PeterZ]

WOW!!! All of those replies came while I was writing mine.

 

[masta]

I believe Masta adds an additional 5 lbs of sugar.

Adding 5 lbs of sugar will bring the ABV to ~12.5% and adding 6 lbs will kick it up to ~13.5%


I dissolve the sugar in at least agallon of water and bring to a boil for 5 mins then cool and add to makeup below topping up with water to the full 23L/6 gals.

 

[chevyguy65]

Mrs Chevy and I started the green apple IM last week. We added 3lbs of sugar into a gal of water and boiled it 5 mins,then added it to the bucket after it cooled.topped off to 6gals and gave us a starting SG at 1.068. Hoping to get about 9.5ish abv.Which should be good for the hot ,humid summer weekends we have in wisconsin. Primary fementation is taking a couple of days longer than the instructions say but we learned to be patient from the first kit we did. Let us know what you decide to do.

 

[Wade E]

Yes, this is because they designed these instructions for a lower SG.
Raising the SG will take it longer to get down to the SG where it is
typical to rack.

 

[Coaster]

I add 5 or 6 pounds of sugar each time I do an IM. I just use a whisk and a gallon of water and put my kids to work

 

[Dean]

Also note that IMO, upping the alcohol level past about 11% makes most mist kits take unreasonably long to mellow, and I think totally kill the idea of a mist kit. I think around 9-10% is the sweet spot.

Or, make it as it is, and add vodka to your wine glass to kick it up. That's what I do most of the time.