Few questions for a newbie

[Dave The Rave]

Im brewing my first wine at the moment its a youngs zinfadel blush rose wine. I understand the instructions the questions i have are. If i taste the wine when complete and its not to my taste how would i sweeten it up abit? Secondly im doing a pear cider also the same goes for this, all answers greatly accepted

 

[RobWalker]

First, it won't be good for a few months, so don't judge the taste 100% when it's fermented. That said if it's too dry for you, you can kill it with Potassium Sorbate and Campden (both essentials in winemaking,) wait 24hrs and add as much sugar as you like. Alternatively you can use a tabletop aspartame sweetener, it won't ferment - but only use it for light sweetening, if you wanna go from dry to sweet then you will notice the chemical taste.

Only other thing to keep in mind is if you do choose to kill it, carbonation through sugar will be impossible for both.

If you keg your cider you can kill it with potassium sorbate and campden, again, and force carbonate with co2. Otherwise, my favourite method of sweetening is to pour appleade into the glass. Underappreciated way to sweeten imo!

 

[Dave The Rave]

Im planning on bottling it all up. So from the date its finished how long until it is ready to drink then please i know the kit says 14 days and i know beat to leave to mature so would an added two weeks be enough?

 

[oldbloke]

The longer you can leave it the better.
I don't do kits, but with my country wines I find that some are drinkable immediately but tend to have a few rough edges, some need time to be drinkable at all.
After a month, all are drinkable and some are getting nice. After 3 months, they're all good.
I suggest you have a taste off the syphon when you bottle, and drink a bottle once every N weeks, taking notes if you can be arsed.
This way you'll develop a feel for how aging affects wine and how to guess from its young flavour what a wine will eventually turn out like.
For the first few kits you do you may as well stick to the instructions, until you've developed this feel and can experiment with more confidence in what you're doing.

 

[ArmChair]

Dave, if you give it to me too look after, i will make sure its nice when you get it back (in 6 months time) :rofl: