wine
- Thread starter darrell
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Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
How long has it been since you started it? I usually wait two months before bottling, but as long as there is not much head space in your carboy and your airlock has water in it, you can leave it basically as long as you feel like. It will only improve with aging.
I started it back in OCT. I let it sit 24 hours or so and then added the rest of the ingredients after it stopped working I strand everything and it has been sitting in a dark palace I tested it for sweetness and added more sugar and mixed it up I still need to rack it at lest one more time and yes I still have the air lock on them and thay are holding a little psi
I bottle my wines when they are about 9-12 months old, usually.
If you add more sugar, it'll ferment again. So each time you add sugar, you start fermentation again and then it'll ferment out and drop lees and take longer to clear.
Once it's completely clear, rack to a new carboy and top up. When you go at least 60 days with no new lees, it can be time to bottle.
If you need a sweeter tasting wine, once it's done and clear, you can rack onto stabilizer (sulfite and sorbate) and wait three days and then sweeten. Or you can buy a product called "wine conditioner" which will sweeten and stabilize at the same time. Keep in mind that both of these techniques only work when the wine is completely clear without much yeast in suspension and one in the bottom of the wine, as fermentation will simply restart if there are still lots of yeast present.
huesmann
Well-Known Member
Doesn't that depend on the alcohol tolerance of the yeast, though?
Yes. But gradually adding sugar can push the limits of each yeast strain, and EC-1118 and others can easily go over 18% ABV. So, in general, adding more sugar simply means more fermentation unless you're at about 18+ ABV for many wine yeast strains.
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