Fermenting Long?

[dracunculus]

I know that some people ferment wines "short", i.e. with less water than you'd normally use; however I was wondering if you could ferment "long"?

What I was after was a dry red wine with plenty of body but around a 6% to 8% alcohol as I'm trying to cut back a bit on the booze :)

Any ideas?

 

[graysalchemy]

Adding more water will just reduce the body.

One way i have seen for beer is to brew it then boil of some of the alcohol, but how much alcohol will be lost would be any ones guess. Mind you you could boil half the volume then add it back to the rest so you will have half the alcohol. Might be worth a try with a bottle of wine. If i was boiling off the alcohol i would use a low heat just enough for the alcohol to be driven off. :thumb:

 

[Moley]

If you use any of kit wines at the lower end of the market they will require the addition of sugar, so you can brew short to improve body whilst reducing alcohol content by cutting down on the sugar.

 

[graysalchemy]

Forgot that you had to add sugar Moley :lol: :lol:

 

[Moley]

Depends on the kits, with the Beaverdales, CalCons and upwards you get a bag of grape concentrate with glucose/fructose syrup already added and no extra sugar required.

 

[graysalchemy]

Yup I have been doing Beaverdales

 

[dracunculus]

Thanks gys.

I've mainlty been making the Beaverdale end of the market but I'll give one of the cheapies a go fermented short and enough surgar to get the desired alcohol. I'll report back :)