Lemon Wine

Hey all,

Im making lemon wine right now. It's from lemon aid concentrate. I used the concentrate as directed with dilution of water but I sweetened it to make 8% alcohol. It has fermented to dryness now and I have added potassium sorbate to stop it from fermenting again. It has been seven days since I added the PS.
My questions are:
When can I sweeten it? Is 7 days good?
Do I clear it before I sweeten it or after?
Will the finished drink go bad because it isn't really a wine(8% alcohol)? How long will it keep?
I think I will be diluting it with water too because the lemon flavor is very strong so the alcohol content may be a little lower.

You can add one crushed campden tablet per gallon to the finished wine. There are a couple of reasons for this- one is that campden (sulfite) is a preservative/antioxidant so that will help keep a low ABV wine. Also, sorbate works far better in the presence of sulfite and you would have less chance of fermentation restarting by using it.

After that you can sweeten to taste. I normally let my wines totally clear before stabilizing with campden and sorbate as once they are totally clear they are ready to be bottled.

For sweetening without diluting with water too much, consider sweetening with fresh must (lemon and sugar and water or whatever you had in there) for the best flavor instead of a watery flavor.

Thanks. That's exactly what I needed.

Thinly par the peel of the lemons and also cover with the boiling water in this system. When cool add the juice of the lemons, yeast nutrient and also sugar, stirring vigorously to dissolve the sugar. Add the wine yeast and cover and leave for approximately five days in a warm place and stirring daily. Strain and put into a demijohn and simply fit an airlock to seal the jar.