ABV question

[gazzaseventy]

Evening all
I usually make my wine from kits,however i have done a strawberry ribena wine and hells teeth! was it sweet!.
I prefer a dry wine,so ive just done a fruit t bag wine using 1 litre of grape juice(only 1 litre coz the juice tasted sweet) and 600 grammes of sugar.I have a hydrometer which I dont normally use,but thought I'd drop it in and take the SG.It was 1064.If I leave this to ferment right out,what would be the max.ABV i could expect? Would anyone recommend topping DJ up with sugar solution to increase the AVB,if so would i still be able to achieve a dryish wine?,thanks in advance.

 

[ScottM]

If you have done a juice wine and it's ended up sweet the most likely cause is that it hasn't fermented out. This happens very easily when preservatives etc are involved.

1.064 to 0.995 (about as dry as a normal wine will go with such low sugar quantities) I make to be around 9.1%.

If you tell me the exact recipe I can give you it more accurately, but it won't be far off that :)

 

[gazzaseventy]

Cheers Scott,I used 20 infusion bags,1 litre of welches white grape,apple and pear(juice drink),600g sugar,yeast,nutrient,citric and tannin,topped up with water.

 

[ScottM]

Cheers Scott,I used 20 infusion bags,1 litre of welches white grape,apple and pear(juice drink),600g sugar,yeast,nutrient,citric and tannin,topped up with water.

At 4L I make that around 1.065 with a potential FG of 0.992 which will give 9.67%.

If you top it up to the full gallon, 4.5L, it'll drop to around 8.6%.

 

[gazzaseventy]

So will adding more sugar turn it from witch p**s to something a bit stronger whilst retaining a dryness if I let it ferment right out?

 

[ScottM]

So will adding more sugar turn it from witch p**s to something a bit stronger whilst retaining a dryness if I let it ferment right out?

Yeah, you could easily add another 300g without worrying. Sugar will always ferment right out so you don't need to worry about that

300g would see around 12.5%. I wouldn't go any higher than that with such little juice as there will be barely any flavour as it stands.

 

[gazzaseventy]

Thanks bud,appreciated.

 

[Leeds Chimp]

also can use
http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/

 

[oldbloke]

I always do my wines with 1kg total sugar (per gallon) - I look on the packs (or look up from a list for fresh fruits) what natural sugars I have, then add enough to get to 1kg.
After racking losses, I reckon to end up at a minimum of 12.5% and never more than 15%
Simple regime to follow, and "close enough for jazz" as they say.