wine 101: step 6

Yesterday I went up to Urbana-Champaign to play in the Illinois Hat Ultimate Tournament. Last year's tournament was moderately cold and windy. This year the temperature was below 40 degrees and the wind gradually increased as the day progressed. My team, shirt color Carolina Blue, started off strong, but ended up in fifth place out of six. I can't say how much I actually contributed, however, because I landed on my knee laying out for a disc in the first game and played a total of ten points the rest of the day.

Let me say, it was awfully cold sitting on the sidelines. I was glad I at least had some special hot chocolate to keep me warm. Wine might have worked too. That's why I came home today and started a new batch - persimmon. I'm going back to put pictures in the earlier posts, since I partially photo-documented today's process.

STEP 6: Add sugar.
Once you've strained your must into the fermentation vessel, it's time to add sugar. As I mentioned earlier, granulated sugar is the best. There are a few ways you can decide how much sugar to put in.

1. Guess. If you like really sweet wine, put in 6 cups. If you like really dry wine, but in 3 cups. Anything in between, and you put in something in between. Remember, the sweetness of your fruit contributes as well, so if your fruit is perfectly ripe and wonderfully sweet, you may only need 4.5 cups of sugar to get a sweet wine. With guessing comes knowledge through experimentation.

2. Use a sugar formula. The one I consult was given to me, but it comes from an out of print book called Possum Living by Dolly Freed.

S = (0.02 x A x T) - (0.01 x W x P)

Where:
S = the sugar to be added, in ounces.
One cup of granulated white sugar is very close to 8 ounces.

A = the alcohol percentage your yeast can work
Wine yeast works at 14%.

T = the total amount of must you want, in ounces
One gallon is 128 ounces.

W = the weight of the fruit, in ounces
This one is tough to judge. I have a small scale, so I usually weigh one of my fruits and multiply. Or you could put your fruit on a bathroom scale and then convert into ounces.

P = the percentage of sugar in the fruit
The following list (provided by Dolly Freed) is based on a fruit that is the average perfectly ripe piece of fruit. Subtract a bit if it is a little less sweet than an average.

Apple 15%
Apricot 13%
Banana 23%
Blackberry 11%
Cherry (sweet) 17%
Grape (taste them) 15%-35%
Orange 11%
Peach 11%
Pear 15%
Persimmon 33%
Plum 11%
Raspberry 13%
Strawberry 8%
Sugar beet 17%

For example:
If I make a gallon of apple wine with seven ripe apples, my formula looks like this

S = (0.02 x 14 x 128) - (0.01 x 53 x 15)
S = 35.84 - 7.95 = 27.89 ounces
S = 3.5 cups

I've done about half of my wine with this formula, and half without. I like sweet wine, and when I use the formula, it usually comes out a little drier than I'd like. Lately I've been starting with the formula results as a baseline and then adding more sugar if I feel in the mood to make a sweeter wine. Either way, once you've decided how much sugar to put in, add it into the vessel and stir it up well.