Thread for questions and discussion on new winemaker series

[goldseal]

I always find sugar calculations (and therefore alcohol content) much easier if the maths is done as grammes per litre of sugar.

This comes in handy:

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/downloads/calculator.htm

- pop the SG reading into the 'Sugar/Alcohol' box, make sure 'Specific Gravity' is selected, change the r/h dropdown to 'Sugar in Metric Liter' and click 'submit'.

For an SG of 1.080 you'll see 206g per litre.

So, for your situation, you want to produce a wine which would have started at 1.080 if you had added everything together, but in fact you are going to add a litre of juice (which contains sugar) late in the fermentation.

Right ....

1.080 is 206g/l of sugar. In a full DJ (say 4.7l) you'll have 968g.

I don't know how much sugar is in the Aldi tropical, but let's assume 150g in a litre. You probably know this (and apologies if you do) but it should be written somewhere on the side of the carton (if it's from Aldi, it might be a bit cryptic). That means you need 818g in your starting must. It will be a litre short, so that's 818g in 3.7l.

That's 221g/l.

The aforementioned calculator doesn't perform the calculation in reverse, so it is a matter of trial and error, changing the SG until you see the g/l you require.

In this case, the figure is 1.084.

So, IF the Aldi juice has 150g of sugar in it, you'll need to make your must up to 3.7l and an SG of 1.084. You already know you'd need 818g of sugar, some of which will be in the two litres of juice you are going to add at the start, so you know how much sugar to make up into sugar syrup.

Obviously, adjust these figures for the actual grammes per litre value of the Aldi juice.

Do the calculation TWICE, just to make sure you have sensible figures . When you actually make up the must, don't dump all the sugar in at once: check your SG just before you add it all, just to make sure you are somewhere near the right SG.

The easiest way of getting 3.7l of must is to fill your DJ with water, then pour 1l back out into a calibrated jug, and mark the new water level on the side of the DJ. If you don't have a jug but you do have accurate kitchen scales (they need to be accurate), pour 1kg of water instead.

The technique does normally give more flavour. If all the juice is added at the start, the vigorous fermentation blows off many of the flavours out of the airlock. If you wait until the fermentation is not so vigorous, more of those flavours stay in the DJ rather than being blown out.

I would add the final litre of juice at around 1.010 to 1.000. It doesn't have to be precise, just somewhere around that range. Pour it in gently, a little at a time, GENTLY stirring to disperse it.

I hope this helps

[gsmunn]

Just out of interest, with wine 2, would you recommended drinking it chilled or a5 room temperature? Just asking because it seems more a rose than a red. Lol

Cheers

[goldseal]

In my opinion, Wine No.2 is a rosé. I find it most pleasant chilled - not fridge temperature, but cool. That's just my taste though.

[malcmackenzie]

I always find sugar calculations (and therefore alcohol content) much easier if the maths is done as grammes per litre of sugar.

This comes in handy:

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/downloads/calculator.htm

- pop the SG reading into the 'Sugar/Alcohol' box, make sure 'Specific Gravity' is selected, change the r/h dropdown to 'Sugar in Metric Liter' and click 'submit'.

For an SG of 1.080 you'll see 206g per litre.

So, for your situation, you want to produce a wine which would have started at 1.080 if you had added everything together, but in fact you are going to add a litre of juice (which contains sugar) late in the fermentation.

Right ....

1.080 is 206g/l of sugar. In a full DJ (say 4.7l) you'll have 968g.

I don't know how much sugar is in the Aldi tropical, but let's assume 150g in a litre. You probably know this (and apologies if you do) but it should be written somewhere on the side of the carton (if it's from Aldi, it might be a bit cryptic). That means you need 818g in your starting must. It will be a litre short, so that's 818g in 3.7l.

That's 221g/l.

The aforementioned calculator doesn't perform the calculation in reverse, so it is a matter of trial and error, changing the SG until you see the g/l you require.

In this case, the figure is 1.084.

So, IF the Aldi juice has 150g of sugar in it, you'll need to make your must up to 3.7l and an SG of 1.084. You already know you'd need 818g of sugar, some of which will be in the two litres of juice you are going to add at the start, so you know how much sugar to make up into sugar syrup.

Obviously, adjust these figures for the actual grammes per litre value of the Aldi juice.

Do the calculation TWICE, just to make sure you have sensible figures . When you actually make up the must, don't dump all the sugar in at once: check your SG just before you add it all, just to make sure you are somewhere near the right SG.

The easiest way of getting 3.7l of must is to fill your DJ with water, then pour 1l back out into a calibrated jug, and mark the new water level on the side of the DJ. If you don't have a jug but you do have accurate kitchen scales (they need to be accurate), pour 1kg of water instead.

The technique does normally give more flavour. If all the juice is added at the start, the vigorous fermentation blows off many of the flavours out of the airlock. If you wait until the fermentation is not so vigorous, more of those flavours stay in the DJ rather than being blown out.

I would add the final litre of juice at around 1.010 to 1.000. It doesn't have to be precise, just somewhere around that range. Pour it in gently, a little at a time, GENTLY stirring to disperse it.

I hope this helps

Out of ininterest with these cals to add so much sugar to a litre of water to top up.

I have noticed the sugar when added adds volume. So the question is when it says add say 200gms sugar to amke a litre of water. do you add 200gms to 1 litre and get more than i litre or would yu add the 200gms to a measuring jug then top up to 1 litre so getting 1 litre in total with the sugar disolved into it.

Which way is correct?

[goldseal]

Everything is grammes per litre. In other words, grammes in a litre of liquid.

[lockwood1956]

In my opinion, Wine No.2 is a rosé. I find it most pleasant chilled - not fridge temperature, but cool. That's just my taste though.

Yup me too, cellar temp, not fridge temp, so around 10 -11 degrees

[lockwood1956]

I have noticed the sugar when added adds volume. So the question is when it says add say 200gms sugar to amke a litre of water. do you add 200gms to 1 litre and get more than i litre or would yu add the 200gms to a measuring jug then top up to 1 litre so getting 1 litre in total with the sugar disolved into it.

Which way is correct?

The latter will give you 200 g/l

if you add 200g sugar to a litre it will as you rightly noted increse in volume diluting the sugar content

[Leon]

I always find sugar calculations (and therefore alcohol content) much easier if the maths is done as grammes per litre of sugar.

This comes in handy:

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/downloads/calculator.htm

- pop the SG reading into the 'Sugar/Alcohol' box, make sure 'Specific Gravity' is selected, change the r/h dropdown to 'Sugar in Metric Liter' and click 'submit'.

For an SG of 1.080 you'll see 206g per litre.

So, for your situation, you want to produce a wine which would have started at 1.080 if you had added everything together, but in fact you are going to add a litre of juice (which contains sugar) late in the fermentation.

Right ....

1.080 is 206g/l of sugar. In a full DJ (say 4.7l) you'll have 968g.

I don't know how much sugar is in the Aldi tropical, but let's assume 150g in a litre. You probably know this (and apologies if you do) but it should be written somewhere on the side of the carton (if it's from Aldi, it might be a bit cryptic). That means you need 818g in your starting must. It will be a litre short, so that's 818g in 3.7l.

That's 221g/l.

The aforementioned calculator doesn't perform the calculation in reverse, so it is a matter of trial and error, changing the SG until you see the g/l you require.

In this case, the figure is 1.084.

So, IF the Aldi juice has 150g of sugar in it, you'll need to make your must up to 3.7l and an SG of 1.084. You already know you'd need 818g of sugar, some of which will be in the two litres of juice you are going to add at the start, so you know how much sugar to make up into sugar syrup.

Obviously, adjust these figures for the actual grammes per litre value of the Aldi juice.

Do the calculation TWICE, just to make sure you have sensible figures . When you actually make up the must, don't dump all the sugar in at once: check your SG just before you add it all, just to make sure you are somewhere near the right SG.

The easiest way of getting 3.7l of must is to fill your DJ with water, then pour 1l back out into a calibrated jug, and mark the new water level on the side of the DJ. If you don't have a jug but you do have accurate kitchen scales (they need to be accurate), pour 1kg of water instead.

The technique does normally give more flavour. If all the juice is added at the start, the vigorous fermentation blows off many of the flavours out of the airlock. If you wait until the fermentation is not so vigorous, more of those flavours stay in the DJ rather than being blown out.

I would add the final litre of juice at around 1.010 to 1.000. It doesn't have to be precise, just somewhere around that range. Pour it in gently, a little at a time, GENTLY stirring to disperse it.

I hope this helps

That is it, I am going to have to search out my old maths teacher, shake him by the hand and say "Sir, you were right, one day I did regret not paying attention in your class."

Having said that, I don't think my maths teacher ever gave me such a headache inducing puzzle as that. All that 'If Two trains travel from Paddington to infinity, one at the speed of a sneeze and the other at the speed of bad intentions, what time will my processed cabbage soup be ready?' They were a doddle. But I fished out my stub of a pencil, put on my concentration face and I did it, I understood, go me!

I just want to thank you for taking the time to explain it all to me, it was very instructive, its just taking that step from following the WAH recipies to understanding the mechanics.

So acid, what's all that abooot then?

[Leon]

I always find sugar calculations (and therefore alcohol content) much easier if the maths is done as grammes per litre of sugar.

This comes in handy:

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/downloads/calculator.htm

- pop the SG reading into the 'Sugar/Alcohol' box, make sure 'Specific Gravity' is selected, change the r/h dropdown to 'Sugar in Metric Liter' and click 'submit'.

For an SG of 1.080 you'll see 206g per litre.

So, for your situation, you want to produce a wine which would have started at 1.080 if you had added everything together, but in fact you are going to add a litre of juice (which contains sugar) late in the fermentation.

Right ....

1.080 is 206g/l of sugar. In a full DJ (say 4.7l) you'll have 968g.

I don't know how much sugar is in the Aldi tropical, but let's assume 150g in a litre. You probably know this (and apologies if you do) but it should be written somewhere on the side of the carton (if it's from Aldi, it might be a bit cryptic). That means you need 818g in your starting must. It will be a litre short, so that's 818g in 3.7l.

That's 221g/l.

The aforementioned calculator doesn't perform the calculation in reverse, so it is a matter of trial and error, changing the SG until you see the g/l you require.

In this case, the figure is 1.084.

So, IF the Aldi juice has 150g of sugar in it, you'll need to make your must up to 3.7l and an SG of 1.084. You already know you'd need 818g of sugar, some of which will be in the two litres of juice you are going to add at the start, so you know how much sugar to make up into sugar syrup.

Obviously, adjust these figures for the actual grammes per litre value of the Aldi juice.

Do the calculation TWICE, just to make sure you have sensible figures . When you actually make up the must, don't dump all the sugar in at once: check your SG just before you add it all, just to make sure you are somewhere near the right SG.

The easiest way of getting 3.7l of must is to fill your DJ with water, then pour 1l back out into a calibrated jug, and mark the new water level on the side of the DJ. If you don't have a jug but you do have accurate kitchen scales (they need to be accurate), pour 1kg of water instead.

The technique does normally give more flavour. If all the juice is added at the start, the vigorous fermentation blows off many of the flavours out of the airlock. If you wait until the fermentation is not so vigorous, more of those flavours stay in the DJ rather than being blown out.

I would add the final litre of juice at around 1.010 to 1.000. It doesn't have to be precise, just somewhere around that range. Pour it in gently, a little at a time, GENTLY stirring to disperse it.

I hope this helps

No it's no good, seems my self-back patting and jubilation were a tiny bit premature. I just need to clarify one thing before going back to shaking my own hand and singing 'For I'm a jolly good fellow'.

If I follow the above guide, when I'm working out the abv, I calculate it from 1080 to the finishing SG because we've spent all this time working out that is what the SG of the must would have been if all the ingredients had been added at the same time. We do not add the initial drop from 1084 (the SG of the 3.7 litres) down to, say, 1000, then the subsequent drop when the SG goes up as I add the next litre of juice and ferments down.

Please please tell me I have understood this correct, otherwise I'm taking up potato printing as my new hobby.

[lockwood1956]

If I follow the above guide, when I'm working out the abv, I calculate it from 1080 to the finishing SG because we've spent all this time working out that is what the SG of the must would have been if all the ingredients had been added at the same time. We do not add the initial drop from 1084 (the SG of the 3.7 litres) down to, say, 1000, then the subsequent drop when the SG goes up as I add the next litre of juice and ferments down.

I like to take the first SG drop and add to it the SG drop that occurs after I have added the extra stuff.......

however both methods will give you an approximation of the alcohol content of your wine, we aren't able to be really accurate as we dont have the kit for that. I suspect both methods will give you similar results.

So hold off on the purchase of the potatoes

regards
bob

[Leon]

Cheers Bob,

With my renewed vigour, any potatoes I do buy will be fermented.

Thanks again.

[goldseal]

Bob is right, both methods should give the same approximate result.

However (and I can hear you sighing from here ) ....

If you calculate the alcohol from each SG drop and add them together, you need to adjust the first alcohol figure because you have significantly increased the volume of the wine by adding another litre of liquid.

In our 1.080 / 4.7 litre DJ / 3.7 litre must example:

We start at 1.084 in 3.7 litres.

We ferment to, say 1.000.

It now contains approximately 11.4% alcohol.

We now add another litre of juice.

The alcohol has been diluted. We can calculate the new percentage as 10.9 / 4.7 x 3.7, which is around 9%.

Now measure the SG again. Measure it once more when fermentation is complete, calculate another alcohol figure from that SG drop, add this to the 9 figure, and there's your approximate alcohol content.

[Leon]

Sssiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh.......

[Bodubbley]

Hello again! Was wondering if you guys have any top tips to getting labels off wine bottles? I have a few which are stacking up and was planning on using them for my home brew (once properly sanitised of course). Any tips you can recommend?

[lockwood1956]

There are tons of threads on removing wine bottle labels in the general winemaking area...

this is a good starting place

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=4915&highlight=labels

regards
Bob