Sugar Formula

Adding Sugar to Must

A. How to Measure

• Brix (balling scale on hydrometer)
• Relationship of brix to alcohol (brix X 0.59 = % alcohol)
• 22 brix X .59 = 11.98% alcohol
• Make sure all sugars are dissolved before checking

B. Formulas for Adding

• Small changes; ¼ cup added to a gallon = 1 ¼ brix
• Brix changes:  (when adding water to juice)  2 ¼ lb.(4 ½ cups) to one gallon of water is about 22 brix
• Especially important not to exceed 18 brix when starting juice for champagne.

C. Later Checks on Sugar

• After fermentation:  if done, hydrometer will read a negative brix
• Dextrose/Clinitest for residual sugar.  (0-1% dry, 1-3% semi-dry, 3-6% sweet, and over 6% is dessert)

D. Miscellaneous Notes

• Be careful hydrometer doesn’t touch sides or bottom of test container
• Be sure all sugar is dissolved before checking
• Be sure no bubbles stick to hydrometer (causes hydrometer to float higher than it should giving a false reading).

It is the sugar the produces alcohol when fermenting and so by knowing the actual amounts that you start with, you can control how much alcohol you may want in the wine.  Also, too much sugar can give you a very extremely sweet drink that may not be pleasant to the taste.

The basic range for alcohol is 9 – 13% in a balanced wine.  Below 9% usually gives you a flat taste.  Above 13% will give a hot taste.

Formula for Adding Sugar to the Must

Target is 22 Brix in the must for starting a wine. 

22 brix minus brix of must = ____  divided by 1.25 =  _____  times  .25 = amount of sugar in cups needed for one gallon of must.

EXAMPLE FOR MAKING 5 GALLONS:

22 – 15 = 7 divided by1.25 = 5.6 x .25 = 1.4 cups of sugar per gallon.

1.4 x 3 gallons must = 4.2 cups

2 gallons of water = 9.0 cups (4 ½ c. sugar per gallon of water added to must).

13.2 cups of sugar total

Acid Formula

Acid and Winemaking

A. Acid types

1. Tartaric – one of the major acids in ripe grapes, typically 70% - 90% of total acid (best acid for wine structure).
2. Malic – minor acid in ripe grapes, 10 – 30% of total acid; more if not ripe (very tart acid.  Add to reds if malo-lactic fermentation is desired).
3. Lactic  - formed with the innoculation of a bacteria to transform malic acid into lactic acid, which gives a softer, fuller mouth feel, usually accompanied by a buttery flavor and a loss of fruitiness (often used in chardonnay and some reds)
4. Citric – one of the acids found in grapes, in small quantities which gives a fresh citrus character to the wine.  If too much is used, the wine becomes acetic.

B. Addition of Acid

Before fermentation use acid blend, which is a blend of 40% tartaric, 40% malic and 20% citric acid.  Do not use citric acid by itself before fermentation.

After fermentation and stabilization – citric acid can be added before bottling, if needed.  Tartaric acid may crystallize and malic acid may go through malo-lactic fermentation unintentionally).

C.  Values

Dry Red: 0.6 to 0.7% acid

Dry white: 0.65 to 0.75% acid

Semi-dry red/white: 0.75 to 0.85% acid

Sweet red/white: 0.85% to 0.90% acid

It is very easy to add acid but very difficult to remove.  Be careful when adding.  You may want to adjust your acid in the juice to the lower end of the value and adjust upward after fermentation. 

One teaspoon of acid blend will raise the acid level by .15 grams per gallon

 

Formula for Adding Acid

Acid Level Desired minus Acid Level of Must = ___ divided by .15 = number of teaspoons of acid blend required per gallon.

Example:

(Desired level) .7 minus (must level) .42 = .28 divided by .15 = 1.86 teaspoons of acid blend to add per gallon.

For 5 gallons of must multiply 1.86 x 5 = 9.33 teaspoons of acid blend.

Stuck Fermentation Formula

First of all, check your acid level. It should be between 7 - 9%. If not, add some acid blend to get it up to where it should be.

If the acid level and sugar levels are in the range needed, then you have a stuck fermentation. (I hate when this happens). Here's what to do.

EC-1118 yeast (Lalvin) is best yeast to use for this purpose but if you don’t have it, use what you have. Yeast growth will be inhibited if the sulfite level is too high. Hopefully, you haven't overdosed on Potassiam Metabisulfite.

Prepare a Yeast Starter:

1. Bring to a boil and let cool to room temperature:      
   1 cup orange juice (fresh or prepared frozen) & 2 T. sugar
2. Add ½ teaspoon Super Ferment (yeast nutrient)
3. Rehydrate the yeast in 1/4 c. warm water by sprinkling the yeast on top and let set 15 min. (no longer).  Stir to dissolve.
4. Put the orange juice and rehydrated yeast into a sterilized glass pint jar and stir to mix.  Cover loosely with a cloth.  Stir it occasionally.  The starter should be ready in 12 to 48 hours depending on the type of yeast used.
5. Use a 1 or 2 gallon primary type container (small crock or clean food grade plastic tub).  Combine the yeast starter with 1 quart of the stuck wine.  Stir vigorously twice daily until the specific gravity reaches 1.010, then add 1 more quart of wine.   Continue to stir twice daily.  When SPG returns to 1.010, add ½ gallon of wine.  If you have a container large enough, just keep adding more stuck wine. 

The directions I have for this say to use up to 4 gallons of the stuck wine, but I have stopped at 1½ gallons and had success. Use your judgement by how large a container you have to keep the starter going and using a cloth cover.  Once the starter is really working (you’ll be able to tell), then I add it back into the carboy of stuck wine and continue to ferment dry (use an airlock once it is back in the carboy).