When and how to add sugar to homemade grape wine, table of proportions
The question of when and how much sugar to add to homemade grape wine is decided before preparing the drink. The characteristics of the finished product depend on this - the less and earlier it is added, the more sour it will turn out. To achieve a harmonious taste, care must be taken to maintain a balance between the characteristics of the raw material - the acidity and sweetness of the grapes.
What Sugar Affects When Making Wine
There are many recipes for homemade grape wine. They have recommendations on how much and when to put sugar. Everyone has a different taste, so this issue should be approached carefully - a drink prepared according to a third-party recipe may not meet expectations.
When making homemade wines it is important to follow the rules of production Particular attention should be paid to the fermentation process. It stops when the strength reaches 12-13 volume fractions of ethyl alcohol. To continue fermentation, the amount of added sugar is increased, but not higher than a certain norm, otherwise it will stop earlier than the set time.
The concentration of yeast must also be optimal, otherwise excess yeast will spoil the taste and give the wine a turbidity. It can turn out too sweet and cloying for several reasons:
- took very sweet grape varieties;
- used a large amount of water when diluting the juice;
When preparing homemade grape wine, they are first determined with the strength and type of drink (dry, semi-dry, sweet, semi-sweet, dessert). Then - to make calculations, and only after - to start winemaking.
How to calculate the amount of sugar for grape wine at home
Home-made alcoholic beverages are classified into several types based on the concentration of sucrose:
- dry - up to 0.3%;
- semi-dry - 0.5-3%;
- semi-sweet - 3-8%;
- fortified - 8-35%.
- sweet - 14-20%.
In order for the fermentation to proceed as it should, the wort must contain a certain amount of sucrose and fructose. This indicator is measured by a special device - a sugar meter.
During the preparation of dry grape wine, nothing is added if the concentration of natural sucrose and fructose in the juice is 12-14%. To produce a different kind of beverage, calculations will be required. They are based on the fact that 1.7 kg of sucrose are used to prepare 1 liter of ethyl alcohol, that is, to obtain 1% alcohol in juice it should be 20 g.
To facilitate calculations, you can use the table of the ratio of the strength of grape wines and the amount of sucrose in the wort:
| Fortress in | Sucrose per 1 l / g. | Fortress in | Sucrose at 1 l / g. |
| 8 | 160 | 15 | 300 |
| 9 | 180 | 16 | 320 |
| 10 | 200 | 17 | 340 |
| 11 | 220 | 18 | 360 |
| 12 | 240 | ||
| 13 | 260 | ||
| 14 | 280 |
In order to calculate the amount of sugar, it is necessary to subtract the data obtained by the sugar meter from the table value.
For example, 1 liter of juice from Black Muscat grapes contains 21% of natural sucrose and fructose, or 210 g / liter. The volume of raw materials is 10 liters, from which you need to make homemade wine, strength 14 .
Based on the tabular values, for this it is necessary that the sucrose content in 1 liter of wort is equal to 280 g / liter. Of these, 210 g / liter is already present in grape juice.
Therefore, we consider:
280-210 = 70 (add 70 gr for each liter of raw material)
There are 10 liters of juice in total, which means:
70*10=700
In our case, during the preparation of wine with a strength of 14 you need to add 700 gr. Sahara.
If you have 20 liters of juice, then 70 multiplied by 20, we get 1400 gr.
Important! At home, using fermentation, you cannot get a drink with an alcohol content above 15-16 .
When making fruit and berry wines, you should know that if they are prepared only from natural juice, the taste will be too sour. Therefore, to maintain proportions, water and sugar are added to the wort.
When and how often to add it
After the calculations are done, you need to decide when to add sugar to the raw material. In the production of light drinks, it is added for 1 portion, medium strength - for 2, strong - for 3-4 times.
For example, when making strong wine, sugar is added in 4 times: 2/3 is added when preparing the wort, the remaining part is divided into 3 equal portions and added on the 4th, 9th and 14th day of fermentation.
Adding rules
A high concentration of sucrose in the wort can inhibit fermentation, so it is not poured all at once, but in small portions, with an interval of 5-7 days. This delays the process, but it creates ideal conditions for the yeast.
Technology: select 1-2 liters of wort, add a portion of sugar to it, stir so that it dissolves without residue. The resulting syrup is poured back into the fermentation tank.
Getting homemade grape wine is not an easy task that requires careful preparation and calculations.
But, even observing the proportions, there is no complete certainty that the finished product will be exactly as it was conceived. The taste is influenced by many factors, including the temperature regime and the concentration of natural yeast in the wort.
