Confusing book?

[liampenn]

I recently brought an old old homebrew book called: 'Gail Duff & Vic Morris Home Made Wines & Drinks 1985'.
After flicking through the book I read I got to the standard wine making procedures (1 to 25 in steps).
But one of the steps didn't quite make much sense to me?:

"20. Fit the fermentation lock and leave for 2 weeks.
20. Rack.
21. Taste the wine. Generally speaking, the drier it is at this point the lower the alcoholic content. If the wine is on the dry side, add a further third of the sugar syrup."

I really don't understand this (the highlighted red). Surely a dry wine would mean all the sugars have been eaten up and its strong?
Maybe Its just me me? I just cant make sense of it?

Can anyone help me on this?
(I can provide more of the steps if needed?)
Thanks allot Liam

 

[PD]

Seems like they got that wrong....

Drier = stronger

 

[liampenn]

Thats exactly my thoughts! :lol:

 

[oldbloke]

What they're saying is, if it got all the way to dry that quickly, you clearly didn't put enough sugar in, so it will be puny.

Was this written before the invention of hydrometers, or what?

 

[oldbloke]

Seems like they got that wrong....

Drier = stronger

Ah, no: dry=all sugar gone. It says nothing about strength until you combine it with knowledge of how much sugar you started with.

 

[PD]

yea ok you know what I meant...

 

[oldbloke]

Yeh, not sure the authors of the book knew what they meant though

 

[narmour]

I think the key words here are "at this point"

Suggests to me that it shouldn't be dry at this particular point of the brewing, if it is then you haven't added enough sugar.

 

[alanywiseman.]

Going on CJ berrys book it seems that yeast was used to the point that it poisoned itself from the alcohol in the brew so if you added the right amount of sugar at the start then you do not need to back sweeten.

the yeasts present today are a LOT better than in the 80s and can reach a higher ABV.

 

[graysalchemy]

Perhaps no total amount of sugar is given and you just keep on adding sugar until fermentation has stopped and it is a little sweet ie the yeast is spent and that is as much alcohol as you are going to get.

We have advanced since then we have hydrometers and we can predict how much sugar is needed

We also don't have Mullets or listen to Kajagoogoo. :lol: :lol: (if you are too young to remember the 80's ask your parents :grin: )

 

[fbsf]

We also don't have Mullets or listen to Kajagoogoo.

Speak for yourse... Actually, I'm at the stage where I'd love to be able to grow enough hair on top to grow a mullet!

:lol:

 

[graysalchemy]

Listen to Big Country yesterday that was my guilty pleasure from the 80's :lol: :lol:

 

[oldbloke]

I just put Gimme Shelter on but it ain't the same in daylight, straight, with an 8yr old playing on the Wii in the background.

 

[tonyhibbett]

The principle of adding small amounts of extra sugar works fine for a strong sweet wine like port which I recently attempted. The plan was to get the alcohol level as high as possible. Using Youngs active dried yeast, it only got to 14% when fermentation stopped, although there was still enough sugar to get to the target of 16%, so this particular yeast is really no better than in the days of yore. It will take the best part of a bottle of brandy to bringthis gallon up to the desired port strength of 20%, so not terribly economic.

 

[liampenn]

Thanks for clearing that up guys!
:lol: