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hillbilly wino
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I am makeing a apple wine with fresh apple juice. This is my first shot at makeing wine and I may have made a BIG mistake.
While following a few diffrent recipes I found on the internet. I was siphoning from my primary to my secondary fermintation, the recipe said to top off with water. I did but I tasted it and It tastes very watery now.
Can I just add more acid/lemon jucie? Can I add more yeast and sugar to rasie the alcohol containt?
Please help I dont want to have to drink waterd down wine. But I will if I have to
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 Administrator
DGreene
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How much water did you top it off with?? The yeast is there, you can try adding some sugar but only add it a little at a time and in solution, but you probably are past the point of no return. One option is to get an apple juice concentrate get it to room temp and add that or at least part of it. That way you are adding the apple, some sugar... it's also the way I sweeten back my apple wine, with the concentrate AFTER I sulfite and add sorbate. Did you take specific gravity readings you can give us and can you tell us where it was when you transfered to the secondary and where it is now? By SG I mean a hydrometer reading.
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hillbilly wino
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I added not quite 1 gal to a 5 gal batch.
I have not got a hydrometer yet. I already added a cuo of sugar when I racked it. I will try the apple jucie concentrate.
Could I add a little more yeast or acid/ lemon to add a little flavor without ruining it?
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 Administrator
DGreene
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Anything more than a pint of water is way too much. Also only use distilled water to top from now on. You don't need more yeast. One package is plenty to ferment 6 gallons. You might need more acid but I would either test it or bring a sample to a local brewshop and get some advice on how to adjust it after they test it for you. The lemon will only add a little flavor it's the acid you are after there. While you are at a brewshop purchase an inexpensive hydrometer, that way you can track how much sugar and therefore potential alcohol you start at, and then can track it throughout the process.
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I have been making wine quite a few years, and an accurate hydrometer is a must. So, when you go buy a hydrometer, make them test in in some tap water, to be sure that it is at 1.000 when in the water. I have seen that they can be off as much as .006, which is useless. heres how i do it, to get wine in the 1.002 to 1.005 range (dry). I add sugar initially to 1.090. at each racking, I check the SG..if its below 1.000, I calculate how much sugar raises 6 gallons of must to 1.005. I dissolve that sugar in a half gallon or so of themust, that has been warmed in a microwave oven. It does not hurt anything, it may kill the yeast, but theres plenty of yeast left in the 5 1/2 gallons still in the carboy. i bottle afterr a year, or just in time to make room for the next years grapes. I do stabilize before bottling, and have maintained the sg at 1.002 to 1.005, thuis allows a complete fermation, at max alcohol, and a limit to the sweetness, at 1.005 or so.
I get my grapes in central amd east texas, they are mustang grpes, and make a great wine. don' add acid tho, they are acidic enough. I live in south west Louisiana, and I'm growing Lenoir (black spanish) and 3 versions of mustang grapes. They are new vines, maybe grapes in aug 2010, hoping so
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 Administrator
DGreene
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Most hydrometers are only accurate in a certain temp range anyway, usually 60F degrees. Normally you would get a table when you purchase it which is used to correct in a temperature higher or lower than the test temp recommended and the correction is normally done in increments of .001, normally in approximate temp increments of 8-10 degrees, if you test your hydrometer at 90 degrees you can be as much as .006 off and have a good hydrometer. When you test your must the temp is always important as a measurement, I normally measure it first since I want to 1) get an accurate measurement of specific gravity and 2) in the case of making something other than wine I want to make sure I don't kill the yeast IE if I boiled something even if it was to make gingerale with no alcohol content I measure temp.
As far as your grapes, good choice given the climate down there, mustang are rot (water) resistant. I am not familiar with Lenoir as a wine grape it was my understanding it was an eating grape but that just shows I don't know everything huh!
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