Anyone done sussreserve?

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sloanfamilydsm

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I have a World Vinyard Riesling kit and was wanting to back sweeten using the german practice of adding unfermented must after fermentation before bottling. My question is that I bulk age and will be needing to keep this must for up to 24mo. Is freezing some of the must an option or do I use a canning method to preserve? Second idea is should I chaptalisation to get the initial SG up so the wine has enough alcohol to safely age and balance out?
 
I am working on something similar. I have some juice for back sweetening. So far I have added potassium sorbate to keep it from fermenting. I plan on adding it to the wine once it clears, then bulk age.
 
Thank you for chiming in on this. It'll be my first time back sweetening using the must to do it. I think you're right that using sorbate will be mandatory for this as I don't have the capability to filter. I hate adding chemicals to my wines. The one article I was able to find on this procedure added the sweetener at the end of aging. Won't this procedure effect the aging ability of the wine?
 
sloanfamilydsm said:
Thank you for chiming in on this. It'll be my first time back sweetening using the must to do it. I think you're right that using sorbate will be mandatory for this as I don't have the capability to filter. I hate adding chemicals to my wines. The one article I was able to find on this procedure added the sweetener at the end of aging. Won't this procedure effect the aging ability of the wine?

Even if you pasteurize your juice won't survive on it's own for two years. The wine has alcohol to help preserve it.
 
Even if you pasteurize your juice won't survive on it's own for two years. The wine has alcohol to help preserve it.

I love to age wine. Just seems to taste better to me & I got the time. Good call on the juice not surviving that long. What would the shelf life be using this method? Do you raise the starting gravity knowing you'll be diluting it later?
 
sloanfamilydsm said:
I love to age wine. Just seems to taste better to me & I got the time. Good call on the juice not surviving that long. What would the shelf life be using this method? Do you raise the starting gravity knowing you'll be diluting it later?

The shelf life of juice or wine? I plan on using my juice after my wine clears, which should be a few months. You'll have to calculate how much juice you plan to add to determine your alcohol content.
 
sloanfamilydsm said:
Thank you for chiming in on this. It'll be my first time back sweetening using the must to do it. I think you're right that using sorbate will be mandatory for this as I don't have the capability to filter. I hate adding chemicals to my wines. The one article I was able to find on this procedure added the sweetener at the end of aging. Won't this procedure effect the aging ability of the wine?

If you plan to backsweeten with a fermentable sugar source you must have adequate k-meta and sorbate on board to prevent refermention in a dry wine. Only exception, if yeast are killed off due to alcohol toxicity, you choose to pasteurize or can successfully sterile filter(but even that is not failsafe).
 
If you plan to backsweeten with a fermentable sugar source you must have adequate k-meta and sorbate on board to prevent refermention in a dry wine. Only exception, if yeast are killed off due to alcohol toxicity, you choose to pasteurize or can successfully sterile filter(but even that is not failsafe).

If I were able to bulk age first, is freezing some of the must an option or do I use a canning method to preserve? Second idea is should I chaptalisation to get the initial SG up so the wine has enough alcohol to safely age and balance out?
 
sloanfamilydsm said:
If I were able to bulk age first, is freezing some of the must an option or do I use a canning method to preserve? Second idea is should I chaptalisation to get the initial SG up so the wine has enough alcohol to safely age and balance out?

Every time I have used the Sussreserve method I have added my must within 3 months of fermentation. As long as you have FIRST used kmeta and sorbate, adding it now should work just fine, and your only maintenance will be some kmeta every year or so for preservation. The sweetness will remain and begin to also age and become more complex. The great thing about rieslings is their higher acidity also lends itself to ageability. A 10% Riesling can age just like a 14% Cabernet.

A second option is to not hang onto the must. Two years down the road, you could just get more juice and perform the Sussreserve then!

Good luck! Let us know what you decide!
 
Ok so here it is "the master plan". First off, thank you all for your input. I appreciate all of your opinions and have subsequently changed what I was initially gonna do because of your experience and ideas. Tomorrow, 10-10-12, is fermentation day!! I have a Vintners Reserve World Vineyard Washington Riesling kit that when I'm done with it (2+ years from now) will taste every bit of a $20 bottle of wine for around $2 a bottle + time. First off I'm going to make it a sweet wine. I will reserve one (1) quart (approximately 10%) of the concentrated juice to back sweeten. I will use chaptalisation to get the S.G. up to the correct range of choice double checking my Ph after topping up to 6 gallons adjusting as needed.. After fermentation is complete, using Lalvin D47 yeast and Opti-White nutrient, I will transfer to a 5 gallon secondary bottling 2-3 750-ml bottles for topping up later. Allowing 2-3 months for the new wine to settle out and get to 90-95% clarity, approximately 3 months, I will transfer to a 5 gallon carboy adding the sorbate to kill off any remaining yeast and add my "sussreserve" to back sweeten. After checking my So2 I will bulk age this wine for 24 months. I can almost taste the sweet sunshine while typing this up.

Damn, Putting that all in writing is harder than I thought. Just for the record I have 13 vines that I process each year separately from the "kit wines" that I find myself experimenting with. 5 Swenson Red, 5 Espirit, 3 Concord. I make those wines very straightforward using blending to satisfy my creativity each year. At some point I will sweeten using Stevia, but have not seen very promising reviews on aging said product yet.
 
Sounds like a plan, except I wondered... why hold back some must if using that kit. Why not use the Sussreserve pack it comes with?
 
Sounds like a plan, except I wondered... why hold back some must if using that kit. Why not use the Sussreserve pack it comes with?


I am also using the "f" pack included with the kit. I am wanting a sweet wine and the kit is off-dry to start.

More to the point is the Mrs. loves sweet wines
 
Bubbling away nicely. After adding 1.5 cups sugar with ending S.G. 1.093. Reserved one (1) 750ml bottle to "sussreserve" + "f" pack contained within kit. I love the smell D47 produces from the air lock, smells like candy to me.
 
sloanfamilydsm said:
Bubbling away nicely. After adding 1.5 cups sugar with ending S.G. 1.093. Reserved one (1) 750ml bottle to "sussreserve" + "f" pack contained within kit. I love the smell D47 produces from the air lock, smells like candy to me.

It's one of my favorites too.

"I, love smell of D-47 in the morning... smells like... victory."

:)
 
Just for the record wine will burn your eyes and nose when sprayed under pressure at your face. :)

10-20-12 Transferring Day. Gravity 1.002.

OK so I thought I would get and early start on this saturday. Armed with one stout cup of coffee in me at 7:30 A.M. I was ready to transfer the newly made wine into a 6 gallon carboy. Drew off my test sample and drained the conical into the secondary, a 6 gallon carboy. After putting in the stopper I decided to put my thumb over the hole for the stopper and give the carboy a man like swirl but forgot to let my thumb off right away causing it to shoot my new wine directly into my face and surrounding area. I gotta say I should have waited until after the 2nd racking before I did any kind of carboy shaking. Or next time do it on a weeknight after work instead of early on a saturday.

I'm don't have any #'s on Ph or TA yet as this batch is needing some time to degauss before I proceed. I am questioning my degaussing efforts on step one right about now.
 
sloanfamilydsm said:
Just for the record wine will burn your eyes and nose when sprayed under pressure at your face. :)

10-20-12 Transferring Day. Gravity 1.002.

OK so I thought I would get and early start on this saturday. Armed with one stout cup of coffee in me at 7:30 A.M. I was ready to transfer the newly made wine into a 6 gallon carboy. Drew off my test sample and drained the conical into the secondary, a 6 gallon carboy. After putting in the stopper I decided to put my thumb over the hole for the stopper and give the carboy a man like swirl but forgot to let my thumb off right away causing it to shoot my new wine directly into my face and surrounding area. I gotta say I should have waited until after the 2nd racking before I did any kind of carboy shaking. Or next time do it on a weeknight after work instead of early on a saturday.

I'm don't have any #'s on Ph or TA yet as this batch is needing some time to degauss before I proceed. I am questioning my degaussing efforts on step one right about now.

Here is how I have degassed....

I fill my carboy half way. I then hold my hand over the carboy, then rock enough for the liquid to swish, let off the pressure and repeat.

I'm sure others will say it will put too much air in the wine, but it works for me.
 
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