Looking for a recipe to make wine w/out sugar

Hi,

I have a 2 gallon Mr. beer keg i'd like to house some wine in but can't find a recipe that includes just grapes or maybe some added berries and wine yeast - i'd like to avoid sugar other than what's naturally occurring in the fruits.

i'm ok with a lower alcohol content

any help would be appreciated

Grapes are easy, for 2 gallons, get 20-24 lbs. Crush and add yeast. Strain off the skins in 7-10 days.

Put into a vessel with minimal head space and let clear. Rack off the yeast lees as needed.

Thank you

Does the same amount of fruit apply to, lets say, a frozen bag of mixed berries?

I'm really turned off on how much sugar is typically added, is there a happy compromise like adding 1 cup or should i not even bother?

Grapes have a lot of sugar, enough that you really don't need to add any sugar to make a wine. Most other fruit doesn't contain nearly as much natural sugar so if you want a final product with 7 or 8 % or more ABV you need to add sugar. You can start out with juice and measure the specific gravity. If it's under 1.065 or so you'll probably want to add more sugar. Or if you want to make, for instance, a berry wine, you can use grape juice or apple juice concentrate in place of sugar to boost the initial gravity, but really the end result is the same for the most part.

clengman said:

Grapes have a lot of sugar, enough that you really don't need to add any sugar to make a wine. Most other fruit doesn't contain nearly as much natural sugar so if you want a final product with 7 or 8 % or more ABV you need to add sugar. You can start out with juice and measure the specific gravity. If it's under 1.065 or so you'll probably want to add more sugar. Or if you want to make, for instance, a berry wine, you can use grape juice or apple juice concentrate in place of sugar to boost the initial gravity, but really the end result is the same for the most part.

Click to expand...

Well, some grapes don't have much sugar at all, unless you're talking about wine grapes. Native grapes may only have a touch of natural sugar.

That's why sugar is added, to boost the alcohol content of non-sweet fruits.

Apple juice might be the best wine to start with, if you don't want to add any sugar. Apple juice might be at 1.050-1.060 or so. Other fruits commonly available to us do not have enough natural sugar, aside from wine grapes.

thanks guys

i'm cool with an abv of 4-6% if it means i've omitted added sugar

i'll get a hydrometer and measure the og and fg to see where it ends up, thanks again

make sure you santize the crap out of your bottles and add pottasium metabisulfite before bottling, 4-6% alcohol is not very much and there are microbials that can live in that range..

Honda88 said:

make sure you santize the crap out of your bottles and add pottasium metabisulfite before bottling, 4-6% alcohol is not very much and there are microbials that can live in that range..

Click to expand...

I would imagine at this range of alcohol PH may be important as well, around 3.0 or so to help keeping it safe from microbs.

Why are you against adding sugar? I have always just considered as yeast food.

yes, acid in wine kills microbes so at this level you are correct. if it isn't acidic enough your wine could have e coli or some other wack evil bacteria in it.

Honda88 said:

yes, acid in wine kills microbes so at this level you are correct. if it isn't acidic enough your wine could have e coli or some other wack evil bacteria in it.

Click to expand...

Unless your wine gets contaminated with sewage, e coli is unlikely, but you can get spoilage bacteria without the right PH.

Just remember a wine with an alcohol content of 9% or less is considered inappropriate by most for any long time storage and most consume within 3-6 months. The only way around that would be pasteurization, I would think. You mention you are turned off by amount of sugar added...you do realize the additional sugar is what produces a higher alcohol content? And sugar is found in nature, plus it is utilized during the ferment? But nothing wrong if you want to go with just grapes and yeast...many of us do that during wine grape harvest season. Just do not want you to get the wrong idea about sugar in various recipes since it serves a purpose, when necessary.

And again, the sugar content of any grape depends on what type of grape it is and when the grape is harvested and crushed/pressed. So it will vary from grape to grape and batch to batch. Same goes with apples and any other fruit you work with...so many variables. The last three brands of apple cider I recently purchased came in at 1.030-1.040. So definitely rely upon your hydrometer. Have fun.

jturkish said:

I'm really turned off on how much sugar is typically added

Click to expand...

Not to sound condescending, but if virtually all the sugar ends up as alcohol then why does it matter whether it came from fruit or was added?
I suppose there are reasons to limit added sugar based on the body of the wine and production of hangover compounds... But it almost sounds as if you're worrying about the sugar in terms of calories or something!
At any rate it's not so much "added sugar" as it is "added alcohol" in the end.

Just figured more sugar equates to more calories

I generally attempt to limit sugar intake

Regardless of how wine is made, a 5 oz. glass is about 100 calories. By the time your wine is done, there won't be sugar in it if you sweeten to about 1.060 at OG.

If a person needs to limit carbs because of health issues but wants to enjoy wine, the means of control is portion size.

jturkish said:

Just figured more sugar equates to more calories

I generally attempt to limit sugar intake

Click to expand...

Let it ferment dry, there will be minimal sugar.

If you measure SG with your hydrometer, add sugar to an SG of 1.090. Regardless of what wine yeast you use, you'll have 12% alcohol and minimal sugar.

jturkish said:

Just figured more sugar equates to more calories

I generally attempt to limit sugar intake

Click to expand...

I think you're misunderstanding what the sugar is for. You don't eat the sugar that goes into the wine: The yeast eats it, and produces alcohol (+ carbon dioxide). The sugar you put in won't contribute to your sugar intake (unless you drink the must before it's fermented, for some reason).

Now as it happens, alcohol and sugar have very similar calories, so you're right in that "less sugar = less alcohol = fewer calories".
But to make it clear, a 13% wine made from table sugar is no more or no less calorific than a 13% Bordeaux wine made purely from grapes (or any other fruit).

I guess it doesn't make much difference to your diet at the end of the day, I just wanted to explain that a recipe made of purely fruit isn't necessarily better for you.

alcohol is converted back to sugar when it gets processed in the body

Honda88 said:

alcohol is converted back to sugar when it gets processed in the body

Click to expand...

My point still stands that its the gravity of the recipe that matters, not the type of sugar that was used in the recipe.

There are a few online calculators where you can plug in your OG and FG and it will calculate calie content based on a certain serving size. Cannot remember where they are because my laptop crashed, so I cannot reference them at the moment.