Can you back sweeten in the bottle?

[Hyembroo]

Just bottled my first wine kit...wilko rose. Fermented from 1.070 down to 0.990 and it's really dry, can taste alcohol and little else! My wife does like it quite dry but with it having virtually no fruity/sweet taste I reckon I should've back sweetened a touch before bottling. However, it's too late for that now! The bottles have space between shoulder and cork. Was contemplating adding a bit of grape juice to bottles or just waiting to see if it gets any better with aging. Not sure as it's the first wine I've done. Any advice greatly appreciated!

 

[GotOneBrewin]

I have only done a two Wilko reds as the starter kits were on offer, £5 with a demi john and the DJs were £8 on their own! Came out ok but I wouldn't bother with it again. It didn't get fizzy but they do hiss a little when I take the tops off, so I reckon any sugary additions would make for even drier sparkling rose.

I have recently made ginger beer and the recipes call for artificial sweetener to taste and sugar for carbonation. One Canderel in a 330ml bottle was just right, so you could maybe drop 2 in a wine bottle

 

[Chippy_Tea]

when i first started making my own juice wines i was not keen on how dry they were so started adding a little sugar to the bottle and shaking it before drinking which worked then i moved on to stopping them between .1000 and .995 which also worked.

 

[GotOneBrewin]

when i first started making my own juice wines i was not keen on how dry they were so started adding a little sugar to the bottle and shaking it before drinking which worked then i moved on to stopping them between .1000 and .995 which also worked.

How did you stop them?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I used wine stabiliser i know it doesn't kill all the yeast and that's why i only added the sugar just before drinking, i know it doesn't kill all the yeast but by .995 i never had any problems after bottling, to be honest after awhile i got a bit lazy and just let them ferment below .995 and got used to the taste.

 

[Drunkula]

Potassium sorbate and campden tablets.
https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-wine-stabiliser-30g/p/0022657
https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-campden-tablets-100pk/p/0168394

Search for "stabilise wine" on google and you'll find plenty.

https://homebrewanswers.com/back-sweeten-wine/

 

[GotOneBrewin]

Ahh, I think there might have been a little sachet of this in the kit I used hence it not getting that dry.
I've got 7 bottles which have been in the cellar for about 9 months (insert walking down cellar stairs emoji here)
It's actually got much better, none of the harshness of the cheapest supermarket wines but lacking something the £4.50 supermarket wines have.
I wouldn't bother making any again as if not on offer would be about £2 to make a bottle of something worth maybe £3.50, compared to my beers where I can make 40 bottles for the price of 9 bottles of supermarket ale and drink 6 weeks later.

 

[GotOneBrewin]

Potassium sorbate and campden tablets.
https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-wine-stabiliser-30g/p/0022657
https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-campden-tablets-100pk/p/0168394

Search for "stabilise wine" on google and you'll find plenty.

https://homebrewanswers.com/back-sweeten-wine/

Could those be used on something like a sweet stout?

 

[Drunkula]

Could those be used on something like a sweet stout?

The problem would be adding more carbonation. If you were kegging you could force carbonate afterwards but if you stopped the fermentation then you'd have the residual carbonation in it, about .85 volumes. Style guides for stout have 1.7 to 2.3 volumes of co2 in it so it would be considerably under.

Sweet stouts can be made by adding unfermentable sugars like lactose or crystal malt, mashing high to create a less fermentable wort and using a yeast that leaves more sugar.

 

[Hyembroo]

How did you stop them?

Cheers both, think I'll leave them for a couple of months then experiment with a couple of bottles before drinking if it's still ropey. Got 28 bottles so plenty for trial and error! :-s