Any way for less sweet

I just bought the Green Apple Riesling kit and am looking forward to it. One thing I was concerned about is it Rieslings can be a little on the sweeter side but I love green apples. I think a little tart fruity wine will be fantastic. I read some comments that people have added corn sugar and or honey to the kit to get a little higher alcohol and take some of the sweetness away. Any thoughts on this or changing the yeast for one that ends with a higher content? Is this even a good idea for a kit?

Adding more of any fermentable sugar will increase the alc content, but then you have to be prepared to take away from the formulated balance that the f-pac provides. Sweet is sweet, SG is SG, but the balance of it all is another thing all together. But you can tweak any kit.

saramc said:

Adding more of any fermentable sugar will increase the alc content, but then you have to be prepared to take away from the formulated balance that the f-pac provides. Sweet is sweet, SG is SG, but the balance of it all is another thing all together. But you can tweak any kit.

Click to expand...

One approach is to taste test as you add the f-pack. This is juice to sweeten the wine. Taste without, with about 1/3. Stop adding when sweetness level as desired.

I have not made one with an f-pack yet, only dry reds. Good to know. Thanks

A bit more 'tartness' can be created using an Acid Blend powder that is available at most Homebrew shops. I advise the same as Sara and Nova in that you should add a little, taste, and get to the desired level.

I made this kit about 5 months ago and I recommend adding only half the F-Pack, try it, then add more if necessary. I added the whole F-Pack and I find it too sweet with a fake, jolly rancher like apple taste.

mrdauber64 said:

I made this kit about 5 months ago and I recommend adding only half the F-Pack, try it, then add more if necessary. I added the whole F-Pack and I find it too sweet with a fake, jolly rancher like apple taste.

Click to expand...

Thanks. How did the alcohol content turn out?

n00bNmd said:

Thanks. How did the alcohol content turn out?

Click to expand...

I added 4 or 5 pounds of extra sugar and got it up over 10%. I'd imagine it would have been way too sweet if I hadn't done that. It's a good tasting wine, my wife really like it, but for me it is too "fake" tasting.

mrdauber64 said:

I added 4 or 5 pounds of extra sugar and got it up over 10%. I'd imagine it would have been way too sweet if I hadn't done that. It's a good tasting wine, my wife really like it, but for me it is too "fake" tasting.

Click to expand...

Was this a "mist" kit? Regular wine kits should already be adjusted to give you 10-12%.

novalou said:

Was this a "mist" kit? Regular wine kits should already be adjusted to give you 10-12%.

Click to expand...

Yes, this was a mist kit, I think they typically come in at 7 or 8 percent.

mrdauber64 said:

Yes, this was a mist kit, I think they typically come in at 7 or 8 percent.

Click to expand...

That was the other concern. Thanks for the info. I read some other posts about adding sugar. I wouldn't think to add that much, but I will check it. Hopefully get something crisp, fruity, and over 10. Sorry to hear you didn't like it much. At least your wife did.

The other thing, add 1/2 the f-pac up front, this will increase the ACV, apparently green apple is one that bodes well by following this technique.
From what many others report you typically do not want to exceed a starting SG of 1.085 to still have success with the mist-style kits.

mrdauber64 said:

I added the whole F-Pack and I find it too sweet with a fake, jolly rancher like apple taste.

Click to expand...

You weren't kidding about the Jolly Rancher thing. I put it together this afternoon and put some of the f-kit in the primary. It really smelled like the apple jolly rancher candy (I used to love those things). The smell took me back. Its out of my hands now. Thanks for the help.

I wouldnt add any sugar. check the attenuation and alcohol tolerance of your yeast. that will have the largest effect on the sweetness of your wine. Plug it in to a fermenting calculator. the higher your fg the sweeter the wine will be.

Also estimate your abv. if it's higher than the yeast's tolerance the yeast will die and the result will be a higher fg (amount of sugar left after fermentation).

rule of thumb is to make a kit vanilla your first time around, then make alterations based on the original product.

I just put in secondary Kiwi Melon from Orchard Breezin' ( a mist type kit) yesterday. I added 4 more pounds of sugar in the primary. That bumped the ABV to around 11%. After the f-pack the taste was awesome, very fruity with the alcohol on the back end.
I put a quart in the refrigerator that would not fit in car boys (6 of them) after it settled we drank the quart instead of saving if for topping off! It was that good after primary fermentation.

Sounds great. The tartness of the kiwi would be nice as long as the melon doesn't overpower it too much (my taste). The ABV is what I was shooting for. I found a calculator online and hopefully things work out for my batch. Enjoy and thanks for the info.