How do I make sure my wine comes out dry and not sweet?

[Llamapup]

Hello All

I'm fermenting my first ever wine (California Connoisseur Savignon Blan). Its bubling nicely in the FV at about 20.3 degrees. The wine started at SG: 1.080.

What do I need to do to make sure the wine comes out dry and not sweet? Is it just a matter of making sure the SG gets to about 0.995?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

Llamapup

 

[ScottM]

Hello All

I'm fermenting my first ever wine (California Connoisseur Savignon Blan). Its bubling nicely in the FV at about 20.3 degrees. The wine started at SG: 1.080.

What do I need to do to make sure the wine comes out dry and not sweet? Is it just a matter of making sure the SG gets to about 0.995?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

Llamapup

You just let it ferment out to the level you are after bud. With a decent wine yeast, at a reasonable temp and left to its own devices it should ferment out to around 0.990 (dry).

If you want it a little sweeter you need to try and catch it at the level you want and stop the yeast with wine stabaliser and campden tablets.

0.990 = Dry
0.995 = Med Dry
1.000 = Med
1.005 = Med Sweet
1.010 = Sweet

Good luck :)

 

[Llamapup]

Hello All

I'm fermenting my first ever wine (California Connoisseur Savignon Blan). Its bubling nicely in the FV at about 20.3 degrees. The wine started at SG: 1.080.

What do I need to do to make sure the wine comes out dry and not sweet? Is it just a matter of making sure the SG gets to about 0.995?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

Llamapup

You just let it ferment out to the level you are after bud. With a decent wine yeast, at a reasonable temp and left to its own devices it should ferment out to around 0.990 (dry).

If you want it a little sweeter you need to try and catch it at the level you want and stop the yeast with wine stabaliser and campden tablets.

0.990 = Dry
0.995 = Med Dry
1.000 = Med
1.005 = Med Sweet
1.010 = Sweet

Good luck :)

Thanks that seems like good advice. The kit comes with a sachet of 4g of potassium metabisulpate which it says to add as part of the degassing stage. Does this do the same thin as campden tablets? There were no campden tablets in the kit.

Thanks

Llamapup

 

[ScottM]

Hello All

I'm fermenting my first ever wine (California Connoisseur Savignon Blan). Its bubling nicely in the FV at about 20.3 degrees. The wine started at SG: 1.080.

What do I need to do to make sure the wine comes out dry and not sweet? Is it just a matter of making sure the SG gets to about 0.995?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

Llamapup

You just let it ferment out to the level you are after bud. With a decent wine yeast, at a reasonable temp and left to its own devices it should ferment out to around 0.990 (dry).

If you want it a little sweeter you need to try and catch it at the level you want and stop the yeast with wine stabaliser and campden tablets.

0.990 = Dry
0.995 = Med Dry
1.000 = Med
1.005 = Med Sweet
1.010 = Sweet

Good luck :)

Thanks that seems like good advice. The kit comes with a sachet of 4g of potassium metabisulpate which it says to add as part of the degassing stage. Does this do the same thin as campden tablets? There were no campden tablets in the kit.

Thanks

Llamapup

Yup pretty much. Did the kit come with wine stabaliser (potassium sorbate)? Not sure if the metabisufite covers both or not.

 

[oldbloke]

Yes, potassium metabisulphite is exactly what's in a Campden tablet.
It mainly guards against oxidation, somewhat against rogue infection, and stuns but does not kill yeast.
If you don't want your wine dry, you need to use potassium sorbate in conjunction with it to stop the yeast properly.

 

[Llamapup]

Yes, potassium metabisulphite is exactly what's in a Campden tablet.
It mainly guards against oxidation, somewhat against rogue infection, and stuns but does not kill yeast.
If you don't want your wine dry, you need to use potassium sorbate in conjunction with it to stop the yeast properly.

Thanks for the reply

The kit comes with Potassium Metabisulphate which it suggests to add it at degassing stage and Potassium Sorbate which it says to add at clarifying stage.

Are you saying that if I do want dry wine than I should leave out the potassium sorbate?

Thanks


Llamapup

 

[fermentall]

Hi,if you want dry wine let it ferment fully until it (drops until it stops) has a reading of around 990.to make sweeter wine use fermentation stopper at sweetness level desired or let it ferment out fully & back sweeten by adding an artificial sweetener. :

 

[oldbloke]

Are you saying that if I do want dry wine than I should leave out the potassium sorbate?

Well, you don't /need/ it. But, never hurts to bung it in, saves that embarrasing "ooh I made raspberry champagne by accident, lucky the bottles didn't explode" moment.

 

[Llamapup]

Are you saying that if I do want dry wine than I should leave out the potassium sorbate?

Well, you don't /need/ it. But, never hurts to bung it in, saves that embarrasing "ooh I made raspberry champagne by accident, lucky the bottles didn't explode" moment.

Thanks for the replys.

Llamapup

 

[alanywiseman.]

Hi,if you want dry wine let it ferment fully until it (drops until it stops) has a reading of around 990.to make sweeter wine use fermentation stopper at sweetness level desired or let it ferment out fully & back sweeten by adding an artificial sweetener. :

If your wine has been stabalise with K sorbate and campden then I would back sweeten with normal sugar as some sweeteners have a artificial aftertaste.