Tinned Fruit wines

[goldseal]

The SG of the must as a whole should be 1.080 ish, regardless of the ingredients.

I would do the following:

Dissolve the approximate amount of sugar in boiling water and allow to cool, in a jug (or two).

Drain the fruit cocktail juice/syrup into your fermenter. Rinse the fruit with water and add this to the fermenter.

If you are going to add grape juice, do it now.

Now add some of the dissolved sugar to the fermenter, mixing with plain water, bringing it up to the desired level, mixing thoroughly and checking SG regularly. The aim is to end up with the correct SG and the correct volume of must at the same time

There will be a small amount of sugar in the fruit, but not much - most will be in the syrup/juice, so the SG won't change much.

You can get a bit more scientific - an SG of 1.080 corresponds to 208 grammes per litre, so if you are OK at maths you can calculate the required sugar based on the sugar content of the tinned fruit (and the grape juice) - you must use your hydrometer to get to the required SG but this will get you pretty close.

I hope this helps.

[makum101]

Thanks Goldseal.
It helps but alas i think after your clear answer I may be starting over as I hoyed the tinned fruit in the dj and checked the SG of the sugar / water mix then added that to the dj. Ive just checked the overall mixed must and its at 1.070

I added a sachet of yeast for fruit and flower wines tonight too so i suppose its now too late to add more sugar??

A quick question regarding the yeast. it was an 8 gram sachet which I added in its entirety. However I then read the dosage and it said 8 Grams to 25 litres of wine

How much yeasty should I have put in?

[goldseal]

Not a problem.

Yeast - forget it, it doesn't really matter. You could have taken a couple of grammes from the 8g sachet for reasons of economy, but you'll be fine with the whole packet. The yeast will stop multiplying when they run out of oxygen anyway.

Sugar - 1.070 will yield a wine with around 1.3% less alcohol than one starting at 1.080.

1.080 is 208 grammes per litre of sugar, and 1.070 is 182.5 grammes per litre. If you have 4.5 litres of must, you could take some of the must and dissolve another 115g of sugar and add back to the main bulk - this should lift the sugar content by the required amount. Alternatively you could just let it ferment - I'm sure it'll be fine

[makum101]

Cheers for the info Goldseal. You have calmed my fears somewhat. I dont mind it a bit weaker for my first attempt. I'll just let it be now I know its not a total loss.

Erm, I did one more blunder.... I just chucked the yeast in in powdered form. Since then I've read that maybe I should have activated it first by mixing it with some warm water.

Oh Well time will tell.

[goldseal]

Erm, I did one more blunder.... I just chucked the yeast in in powdered form. Since then I've read that maybe I should have activated it first by mixing it with some warm water.

Oh Well time will tell.

It'll be fine - rehydrating it in warm water is the preferred way, but with 8 g of yeast in a gallon, enough will survive (unless you NOW tell us that you have added a packet of Surf instead of a packet of yeast ).

Relax

[wisp]

[makum101]

Its been clearing for a week and its still a bit cloudy. How long should it take? (i chucked in some beer and wine Finings).

[David]

1.080 is 208 grammes per litre of sugar, and 1.070 is 182.5 grammes per litre. If you have 4.5 litres of must, you could take some of the must and dissolve another 115g of sugar and add back to the main bulk - this should lift the sugar content by the required amount.

Sorry about being so picky here (with these small quants) but if adding sugar you need to add approx a further 1/16th to allow for sugar bulking, so actually approx 122g required.

As I said, not much of a difference here, but if someone followed the same principle with much larger additions they would be much further adrift.

[makum101]

Wine still wont clear.
After "Beer and Wine" finings failed I got some Kwick klear (part a & b pack). This stuff works a treat when I make a sugar/water wash, but alas still no joy in me fruit cocktail wine.

[elleks]

Did you rack it off before you added the finings? Otherwise the cloudiness might be yeast and fruit sediment.

[lockwood1956]

This stuff works a treat when I make a sugar/water wash, but alas still no joy in me fruit cocktail wine.

If you are adding sugar the wine hasn't finished fermenting!

wine wont clear if its still fermenting, if it contains pectin, or starch or if it isn't degassed.

[ukric]

but if adding sugar you need to add approx a further 1/16th to allow for sugar bulking, adrift.

What's sugar bulking?

[David]

What's sugar bulking?

It's the increase in the volume of the must due to adding sugar.

Which means that you can't simply subtract one 'sugar in the gall' amount from another 'sugar in the gall' amount from another as a means of increasing SG, because it doesn't work that way.

[ukric]

ah right, ok.

[Terry]

Is pectolase the same as pectic enzyme?????