Proper way to backsweeten?

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keving91982

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Hey newbie question here....

So I have been making wine for about a year now, and have had pretty good sucess. However, most batches have came out rather dry, and I would like to backsweeten them. I just wondering what is the proper technique for doing this? I thought racking to a clean carboy, stabilize, sweeten, then bottling? But then, I have been told not to stir finished wine? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
your going to want to look up degassing which is the process of removing the disolved co2 so you end up with a still wine rather than sparkling. I like to use a vacuum hand pump to pull a slightly negative pressure on the carboy and force the bubbles out of solution however you can always "stir" the mixture with a whip of some sort (sold at various homebrew places) to remove the bubbles. You can also backsweeten with something unfermentable like splenda or sweet and low etc.
 
You first want to rack the wine off of the sediment if possible so your stirring doesn't kick up the sediment. Then (if the wine has no gas) add in your so2 (unless you already have it at the level you want) and the sweetening agent and stir GENTLY. Do not kick any air into the mix. For sweetening agents, I like to use wine conditioner because it is almost guaranteed not to re-ferment.
 
I use two different methods
1. I allow wine to ferment dry then add simple sugars to 1.0 SG. It may or not re-ferment. when it is dry again I again sweeten to 1.0( that's is my idea of right sweetness). If it re-ferments again I do it again. At some point the yeast will reach its tolerance and die and finished wine will be sweetness I like. I do this so I don't add sorbate or K-Meta to stabalize. I don't like taste of sorbate. This method requires time and do not plan on bottling for quit a while, just in case is does a little more fermenting latter. I do add K-Meta to protect against oxygenation but far less(1/4 teasp for 6 gallons)

2. Ferment dry, add K-Meta and sorbate, wait 2 days. Sweetin to 1.0 SG. Wait 1 week and bottle. Always sweeten with simple sugar for best results.

First method will make STRONG wine.
I do both but use first method with mead mostly
 
Mad mike, have you ever had any issues with fermentation resuming after you've bottled? How long do you bulk age to ensure this doesn't happen?
 
It has only started fermenting once, the first time. Now I wait 6 months or more to bottle. It could go longer because mead this strong needs at least a year to drink and be good. Some of the locals don't seem to agree and always want it, sometimes, out of the primary. I have done this with Strawberry wine I call "Knock the Panties Off" and it was a real good wine when finished. Women seem to love it
 
Whenever I add sweetening to a wine, I always treat with K-meta and sorbate first. This will prevent bottle bombs. Often, I'll clear the wine before sweetening if I'm using table sugar. If I want to sweeten using a juice, then I add the juice before the fining agents and after the sorbate and K-meta.
 
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