letting the yeast go farther than prescribed...

SWMBO is doing vino.

We made one batch years ago. It was good, but a little too sweet. We would both like this to be a little dryer...(drier?)


I want to let this batch (a cabernet) go to a lower FG than the recipe calls for.

Will that dry it out?

From brewing beer, I would assume so, but vino is not my expertise and I don't want to mess this up for her.

Yes, dryness in wine is rated by residual sugar. A really dry wine will finish around 0.996. So if you stopped it at 1.000, you'd have 1% sugar, 1.004 2%.

Thanks Brother!

Is Below 1SG going to be tooooo dry?

I know that is subjective, but anyone care to offer an opinion?

cheezydemon3 said:

Is Below 1SG going to be tooooo dry?

I know that is subjective, but anyone care to offer an opinion?

Click to expand...

My reds vary, but most are in the .990 to .994 range. They are dry, but that's what I like.

For fun, take the SG of a wine you like when you open a bottle the next time. That will give you an idea of the amount of dry/sweetness you like. Sometimes tannins can cause a bit of a dry taste, or oaking can, but that ages out and smooths nicely and isn't reflected in the SG.

A few years ago, I saw a neat "scale" but I can't find it right now. It had a list of the SG numbers and what it was considered. I can't remember the numbers exactly, but it went something like this:

.990-1.000 dry
1.001-1.008 off-dry
1.009- 1.014 semi-sweet

etc.

The most sweet I've ever liked my wines (red or white) is off-dry but I had a very nice dandelion wine at 1.010 a few years ago that was nice. Generally, big bold reds are bone dry, while lighter fruitier wines are better with a bit of sweetening. I do like dry whites, though.

Thanks Yoop! That is a great suggestion for taking SG of vino we like already.