Back Sweetin Muscadine Wine

What would be the best way to back sweetin my muscadine wine ? It's finished and I will be bottling it next weekend. It finished a little dry and I want to make it a little sweeter. Recipe says glycerin, wine conditioner, or simple syrup with just sugar and water to sweetin it up once finished. I was wondering if anyone can suggest one method over the other.

I prefer simple syrup, 2 parts sugar, 1 part water and citric acid...recipes/instructions all over the web. But be sure you have stabilized with k-meta and sorbate or the wine referments (unless yeast are dead due to alcohol toxicity or pasteurization). Glycerin imparts some sweetness but nothing like a sugar, it is more of a body builder. Wine conditioner:do not waste your money, you still add k-meta and sorbate when you use it (even though you think it has all of that taken care of...only your wine conditioner is stabilized), but some people like the simplicity of it.

saramc said:

I prefer simple syrup, 2 parts sugar, 1 part water and citric acid...recipes/instructions all over the web. But be sure you have stabilized with k-meta and sorbate or the wine referments (unless yeast are dead due to alcohol toxicity or pasteurization). Glycerin imparts some sweetness but nothing like a sugar, it is more of a body builder. Wine conditioner:do not waste your money, you still add k-meta and sorbate when you use it (even though you think it has all of that taken care of...only your wine conditioner is stabilized), but some people like the simplicity of it.

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This how I would do it too. Add the citric acid to taste. It adds 'zing', but too much is not good.

I have acid blend which I think has citric acid in it, but I don't have just citric acid. I am guessing I shouldn't use acid blend with the simple syrup ?

kevinstan said:

I have acid blend which I think has citric acid in it, but I don't have just citric acid. I am guessing I shouldn't use acid blend with the simple syrup ?

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If the wine needs some tartness after you sweeten it, you could use acid blend. Muscadine is usually tart enough on its own, though.

Can I use the Ball brand citric acid that can be purchased at walmart or kroger ? Is this the same thing or should I purchase citric acid specific for brewing at my LHBS ?

kevinstan said:

Can I use the Ball brand citric acid that can be purchased at walmart or kroger ? Is this the same thing or should I purchase citric acid specific for brewing at my LHBS ?

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It's all the same thing. You could even use a squeeze of lemon if you want, instead of the citric acid.

I have made an amazing muscadine, and this is what I did in your senerio. Put all in a bottling bucket, and made a simple syrup with white sugar and spring water added to taste.

Came out perfect. I do heat the sugar water mix so that it mixes better. Also let IT cool slightly.

I also pasteurized the muscadine. I was cautious , but it did not effect the taste, and no exploding bottles.

The addition of citric acid, along with holding at a certain temp, when making simple syrup prevents recrystalization of the sugar. Cream of tartar is also a substitute for citric acid. You can make a batch, stash in bottle, dose with k-meta and sorbate and keep on counter. Or in refrig if you do not add KMS&sorbate. Comes in handy when you are getting ready to backsweeten. Great way to make coffee syrups this way.

Ok, I have to chime in here. I made two batches of wine from Vino Italiano. One Riesling and one Moscato. I screwed up! We made both at the very same time and forgot to label them! lol. That's what happens when you have a long brew day! here's the funny thin, both taste very very similar. It's hard to tell them apart. Well we tasted them three ways from Sunday and finally picked one to be the Moscato and went to it. I racked into a bottling bucket and added in steps an entire bottle of Global vinters conditioner. The instructions on it was Add after stibilization and minimum 2oz per gallon. So I added a bit at a time thinking I would stop when I hit the level of sweetness I wanted. Well I never got there even after the whole bottle. So that's 16.0oz in 6 gallons which is 2.8 oz per gallon. (after doing the math I guess I'm not so far off as I thought)

To me though and compared the commercial wine it's still very dry. The ABV is like 12-13% which is WAY higher then my benchmark Moscato I wanted to mimic which is 5.5%ABV. (Cupcake vineyards Moscato D'Asti DOCG) I also added a bottle of brewers best Apricot flavoring (4 oz says to add 6-7 oz per 5 gallons) cause I wanted just a hint of apricot in this wine. I can taste none really. Could this be because of the abv and sweetness level (or lack of sweetness level)


Cupcake moscato tasting. Now I have to say I'm NO expert, maybe the farthest from it but I will convey what I taste the best I can.

Ok at first taste what it really tastes like is a soft Welches white grape juice! This is not a put down I love this stuff. It's very sweet, I would say the only (dryness) is an undertone. Really, this is about all I get, the more I sip it's just reinforced that it's like plane simple white grape juice. This wine was made for the swmbo and her friends that like these wines. So I would like to get as close to this cupcake stuff as I can.

I'm seriously going to the store now to buy some cans of Welches white grape just and thinking about trying that as a back sweeter. Other than that I may sweeten more if needed, I'll also swing by the LHBS and grab more apricot.

That's the plan, unless I come back and Yooper is ready to string me up because it's a horrible one! I'm looking for all input I can get. Thanks!