what is the standard starting gravity for white wine?

[murphyaii]

I usually do kit wines.
After i add the wine juice to the fermenter and water and stir,
i do a hydrometer reading which usually starts at 1.080
this usually drops to 0.992
I heard it should be slightly higher,
any ideas?

 

[JohnT]

The standard is this.. There is not standard....

 

[salcoco]

I believe your instructions give you a range as long as you ae in the range you are okay. there are times with a kit that the juice and water will stratify enough so that the sg reading is low. poper stirring to insure a good mixture will five you the right numbers.

 

[Rocky]

I usually do kit wines.
After i add the wine juice to the fermenter and water and stir,
i do a hydrometer reading which usually starts at 1.080
this usually drops to 0.992
I heard it should be slightly higher,
any ideas?

This scenario would give you an ABV of about 11.5%, not bad for a white wine depending on the variety. If you want to kick it up a little, you could chaptalize with simple syrup (one part water to one part sugar fully dissolved over medium heat, do not boil). Working the formula backward, if you wanted, say, 12% you would have to get the initial SG up to 1.084.

 

[murphyaii]

i did add some hot water and demera sugar dissolved.
about half a kilogram.
is that what simple syrup is?

 

[murphyaii]

i actually did boil the water beforehand and added the sugar and let it cool a bit before adding it to the mix.
is that ok?

 

[cpfan]

I usually do kit wines.
After i add the wine juice to the fermenter and water and stir,
i do a hydrometer reading which usually starts at 1.080
this usually drops to 0.992
I heard it should be slightly higher,
any ideas?

As already stated there is no set standard. I just flipped through some carboy tags looking at white wine starting sg. The lowest I saw was 1.082. Others ranged from 1.086 to 1.092.

Steve

 

[Rocky]

Murph, I would make my simple syrup as a more controlled mixture than just adding "some" water and "about" and half kilo of sugar. This makes chaptalization more controlled and easier to hit a target SG. In your case, I doubt if you have done any harm to the wine. I have never boiled the water and then added the sugar. My method is to mix the sugar and water off the heat and then warm it to completely dissolve the sugar. The idea is not to burn the sugar which could affect the taste of the wine. If you boiled water and then added the sugar, you are probably okay. The important step is to dissolve all of the sugar and to have a syrup that is a clear solution.