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 does sugar do when making wine?
There are many recipes for homemade grape wine.They contain recommendations on how much and when to add sugar. Everyone's taste is different, 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 production rules. 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, increase the amount of added sugar, but not above a certain norm, otherwise it will stop before the allotted time.
The concentration of yeast must also be optimal, otherwise its excess will spoil the taste and make the wine cloudy. 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, first determine the strength and type of drink (dry, semi-dry, sweet, semi-sweet, dessert). Then make the calculations, and only after that start winemaking.
How to calculate the amount of sugar for grape wine at home
Homemade alcoholic drinks are divided 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 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 type of drink, calculations will be required.They are based on the fact that to prepare 1 liter of ethyl alcohol it takes 1.7 kg of sucrose, that is, to obtain 1% alcohol in the juice there must 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 must:
| Fortress in 0 | Sucrose per 1 l/g. | Fortress in 0 | Sucrose per 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 Muscat black grape variety contains 21% natural sucrose and fructose or 210 g/liter. The volume of raw materials is 10 liters, from which you need to prepare homemade wine, strength 14 0.
Based on the table values, this requires that the sucrose content in 1 liter of wort be equal to 280 g/liter. Of these, 210 g/liter is already present in grape juice.
Therefore we consider:
280-210=70 (add 70 grams for each liter of raw material)
There are 10 liters of juice in total, which means:
70*10=700
In our case, while preparing wine with a strength of 14 0 you need to add 700 gr. Sahara.
If you have 20 liters of juice, then multiply 70 by 20, we get 1400 grams.
Important! At home, fermentation cannot be used to obtain a drink with an alcohol content higher than 15-16 0.
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 should it be added?
After the calculations are made, you need to decide when to add sugar to the raw materials. When producing light drinks, it is added in 1 serving, medium strength - 2, strong - 3-4 times.
For example, when preparing strong wine, sugar is added 4 times: 2/3 is added when preparing the wort, the remainder is divided into 3 equal portions and added on the 4th, 9th and 14th days of fermentation.
Addition 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 this will create ideal conditions for the yeast.
Technology: take 1-2 liters of wort, add a portion of sugar to it, stir so that it dissolves without a trace. The resulting syrup is poured back into the fermentation container.
Making homemade grape wine is not an easy task, requiring careful preparation and calculations.
But even if you observe the proportions, there is no complete certainty that the finished product will be exactly as it was intended. The taste quality is influenced by many factors, including temperature and the concentration of natural yeast in the wort.
