high proof wine

Alright, I was looking to make a high proof "wine" (sugar and water and whatever else I'm going to need) and pushing the ABV as high as possible, using a distillers yeast. Once I have the abv as high as I can go, then I will add something like a brandy extract, or something like that. Has anyone tried this before? What is the best way to treat the yeast to get as high ABV as possible?

hitthewall79 said:

Alright, I was looking to make a high proof "wine" (sugar and water and whatever else I'm going to need) and pushing the ABV as high as possible, using a distillers yeast. Once I have the abv as high as I can go, then I will add something like a brandy extract, or something like that. Has anyone tried this before? What is the best way to treat the yeast to get as high ABV as possible?

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To make this not turn into "rocket fuel" try to keep t he yeast as happy as possible. Temp and nutrients are a big part of that. You want as clean a ferment as possible here. I have seen/tasted this when done with apple juice concentrate. Its not a taste for everyone!

Good luck!

DoctorCAD said:

I thought this was a wine forum, not a prison hooch forum

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. I've made what you call wine, I got the fresh fruit, pressed it, and everything, it is the slowest most mind numbing process, I had to wait 5 months for the lees to drop out, I would rather have a wine from juice that clears in a month than have to deal with all the hassle that comes from making complicated, fancy wine. To each there own

I'm not going for a hooch, I'm going for a brandy, as all brandy is a high proof wine. However, it becomes high proof through distillation, which is illegal where I live. So I was wondering if you could push a wine up to a high ABV, add an extract flavoring, and produce something with a similar flavor as brandy. I don't want "rocket fuel" but I will expect a burn, because of the high ABV.

You could try freeze concentrating the wine to boost the abv into brandy range without distilling

I always love a good theoretical challenge when talking about wines. I have never made a super high ABV wine (20%+). But I have read a few articles/forums about Brandy and making it from Welch's Concord grape concentrate.

For what I have read up on you do need to take super good care of your yeast to try and keep the fusel oils down and rocket fule tastes. I would probably step feed sugar and concentrate with your turbo yeast to help it get to high levels. Plenty of O2 would be required as well. A recipe may start like:

1 gallon (but brewed in a 2 gallon bucket)

Start off day one

2 cans of Welche's red grape frozen concentrate
1 tbs of black tea (earl grey or another favorite)
1 tsp yeast nutrient (dap)
1/2 tsp yeast energizer (something like fermaid O)
Water to one gallon
Yeast

Day two add:

1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
1/8 tsp yeast energizer

Day 3 add:

1 can of concentrate
1lb of sugar

Day 4 add:

1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
1/8 tsp yeast energizer

Day 5 add:

1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
1/8 tsp yeast energizer

Day 6 add:

1 can of concentrate
1lb of sugar

Day 7 add:

1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
1/8 tsp yeast energizer

Day 8 add:

1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
1/8 tsp yeast energizer

Day 9 add:

1 can of concentrate
1lb of sugar

Day 10 add:

1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
1/8 tsp yeast energizer

Day 11 add:

1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
1/8 tsp yeast energizer

Day 12 add:

1 can of concentrate
1lb of sugar

After day 12 let it ride. also check original gravities and record gravities after adding sugars so you can track how many points drop. That should be enough sugars to get it close to 23% - 25% ABV if taken dry. Also 2 - 3 times a day through the 12 day process hit the must with a wine whip or air bubbler for a couple minutes. Should be interesting if you can get it that high. Once you rack to secondary adding 1/2oz of dark toasted ok for a couple weeks should help.

Airpolis, you are awesome, have you ever tried this recipe?

I have achieved an ABV of around 17.5 and then frozen, I have no idea what final ABV came to. It seemed like I removed about 30% by volume of water. At 17.5 the wine had a very strong alc taste, but concentrating it concentrated the fruity bits enough that the end result was VERY delicious, especially for a young wine.
BTW it was apple/cherry from concentrate. Not suree how high your trying to go, but the stuff I made was very tasty and got ya fuzzed up real quick!

hitthewall79 said:

Airpolis, you are awesome, have you ever tried this recipe?

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No I have not. I have hit probably close to 20% ABV plus or minus a percent with Sake and it uses a similar method to my proposed wine. But only in the sence your are continually feeding sugars over a long time. This is just theoretical and possibly over complicated but that is what I would do.

Going to be getting materials for this soon, when I start, I'll put pictures up.

T_Baggins said:

I have achieved an ABV of around 17.5 and then frozen, I have no idea what final ABV came to. It seemed like I removed about 30% by volume of water. At 17.5 the wine had a very strong alc taste, but concentrating it concentrated the fruity bits enough that the end result was VERY delicious, especially for a young wine.
BTW it was apple/cherry from concentrate. Not suree how high your trying to go, but the stuff I made was very tasty and got ya fuzzed up real quick!

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I am confused. What does freezing the wine do to it to lower the alcohol content? Would this work with beer also, I just saw an article about a world record beer called snake venom that is 67.5% ABV. I wonder if this is how they did it.

This type of stuff is pretty popular here in the nordic countries where alcohol is taxed ridiculously. They sell everything to make it right in the supermarkets.

1. Turbo yeast, 7kg sugar, and 25 litres of water - will make 23% ABV wash in about 48 hours.

2. Add finings to clear the wash.

3. Filter through lots of ground charcoal in an attempt to remove the nasty tastes (Turbo yeast is Nasty with a capital N).

Optional: Some people freeze or steam distill at this point. Helps if you live in a place where it's -20C on your balcony.

4. Add essence (Almond, cherry, whatever). There are all types available.


If you just want to hit 17% ABV, then you can do that with EC-1118 or Kitzingers Champagne yeast. I made a 5 gallon batch of 17% raspberry wine last summer with EC-1118 - ferment it up to 13% dry then add a few more kilos of sugar and let it run dry again.

Inkdrop said:

I am confused. What does freezing the wine do to it to lower the alcohol content? Would this work with beer also, I just saw an article about a world record beer called snake venom that is 67.5% ABV. I wonder if this is how they did it.

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Freezing does not lower ABV, it raises it. Essentially you are lowering the water content and total volume. Leaving behind the alcohol and concentrated fruity bits.

podz said:

This type of stuff is pretty popular here in the nordic countries where alcohol is taxed ridiculously. They sell everything to make it right in the supermarkets.

1. Turbo yeast, 7kg sugar, and 25 litres of water - will make 23% ABV wash in about 48 hours.

2. Add finings to clear the wash.

3. Filter through lots of ground charcoal in an attempt to remove the nasty tastes (Turbo yeast is Nasty with a capital N).

Optional: Some people freeze or steam distill at this point. Helps if you live in a place where it's -20C on your balcony.

4. Add essence (Almond, cherry, whatever). There are all types available.


If you just want to hit 17% ABV, then you can do that with EC-1118 or Kitzingers Champagne yeast. I made a 5 gallon batch of 17% raspberry wine last summer with EC-1118 - ferment it up to 13% dry then add a few more kilos of sugar and let it run dry again.

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Turbo yeast is in no way meant for winemaking, you mentioned steam distilling, that is exactly what it's meant for. Moonshine. For producing mass quantities of mash, which when distilled the return is only about 10% of the original mash's volume, Leaving all the Nasty stuff behind and producing up to 97.5% ABV (195 proof)


I have used the EC-1118 with great results in high ABV apple wine. EC-1118 is capable of 18% ...17.5 is the best I have achieved. Sugar to 3lbs/gallons right up front. Adding a little nutrient when racked to secondary, just beware of the foam! Add the nutrient when about 2/3 of the must is transferred, wait a few mins then add the rest and top off.

I step fed apple cider last year with Lavin 1116 yeast. It finnely gave out at 18.5%. I just tossed in suger and nutriants at odd times untill it stoped. I used apple juice concentrate the last few times. So it ended up with a nice apple flavor, at a young age. Tasty!

Premier Cuvee does nicely as well

T_Baggins said:

Premier Cuvee does nicely as well

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Agreed. I did a handful of 1 gallon test batches with premier cuvee not long ago. They all certaintly have a "potent" dry flavor to them to say the least.