Cal. Conneisseur White Zinfandel kit help!!

[Gethin79]

I am coming towards the end of making a 30 bottle kit, and over the past couple of days have been stirring the wine to degass. The instructions say to stir at least 6-8 times over a 2 day period, which I have done. Every time after stirring the airlock bubbles for a minute or 2, which I assume is the residual CO2 releasing. However, 3 days in I am still stirring and the airlock still bubbles? Does this mean it is still definitely not degassed sufficiently? Would hate to go wrong so close to the end!

Also, if degassed I now need to back sweeten. It finished at 0.994, but my other half prefers sweeter wines. I have 2 x 50ml bottles of Young's wine sweetener, which states to use 5ml per bottle of finished wine. The trouble is I don't know how far this will sweeten it! If this doesn't sweeten enough, am I OK to also add sugar (boiled and dissolved in water)?

Sorry if these seem very basic questions...just don't want to end up going wrong!! Wish I'd started with the 6 bottle kit now, but you live and learn!!

Thanks in advance!

 

[krazypara3165]

Firstly, make sure its finished fermenting. You will find it usually takes longer than the instructions say. I tend to find two weeks. Check the gravity, under 1000 or the same reading for three days is usually fine. A cheating way is to make a drill de gasser (there is tutorials on youtube for diy one with a coathanger)

 

[Gethin79]

Thanks for the reply.

Definitely has finished fermenting. Has stayed at 0.994 for the past 4 or 5 days.

I bit the bullet and added the wine sweetener (100 ml). The other half and I sat there for ages trying to decide if it was sweet enough or not, but when the wine isn't ready I find it hard to decide. To stay on the side of caution I left it at that, with the theory that once it's cleared if it is not sweet enough I can add more sugar. Easier to add than take away!

Also, I noticed when adding the sweetener, it made no difference to the hydrometer reading? Is this right? When adding sugar to some WOW's I have made, a small amount of sugar made quite a big difference fairly quickly on the hydrometer.

 

[krazypara3165]

you seem to be on the right tracks. not to sure about hydrometers with sweeteners. hopefully someone more experienced can chime in with an answer

 

[Moley]

If you add sugar to a wine then your gravity reading will change, but if you haven't stabilised that wine it will start fermenting again.

It takes 14g of sugar to sweeten 1 litre of wine by 5 gravity points, for example from your medium-dry 0.994 to a medium 0.999

Artificial sweeteners are non-fermentable and won't affect your gravity reading. I can't comment on dosage because I have never used them, but you are doing right in erring on the side of caution, your wine will start to taste sweeter as it matures and you can always add more at the time of serving if it still isn't sweet enough for your tastes.

 

[Gethin79]

Many thanks for your help. That fills me with a bit more confidence! :

I have stabilised the wine, so re-fermentation wont be an issue...just hoping I've degassed it enough now for the finings to be effective. I suppose only time will tell on this one!!

I don't think I will use the sweeteners in future, as it seems to give less control over the sweetening process!! :?

Thanks once again!

:

Edit: Just re-read what I wrote...re-fermentation won't be an issue anyway, will it...I've used sweetener :lol: