adding to wine must to make port

Having started 2 gallons of mixed berry wine as follows:

2lb elderberry
2lb blackberry
1lb blackcurrant
1lb sloes
small can wine concentrate
port yeast, nutrient, pectolase
sugar
original gravity 1.093 @17C (expected range 12-13%abv)

Presently @ 1.030

The plan is (and this is where advice or personal experience might be useful) to rack off one gallon into a demijohn at some point and add extra fruit and sugar to the remaining must to produce a gallon of 'English Port' ~ 18%abv.

The question is when to do this - i.e. at what approximate specific gravity? 1.010? 1.005? Also, is it advisable to add any extra yeast nutrient?

This may have been reached within the next two or three days so hope somebody replies soon.

This is not how you make a port wine...you make a port wine by adding brandy or some other distilled spirit to the the wine before it is done fermenting...the liquor kills the yeast and you are left with the residual sugars that the yeast didn't ferment in the wine.

I remember doing something like this with a blueberry port, before I was smart and took good notes. I had all the fruit in the primary and I had a starting SG about the same as yours. When I hit SG of 20 or so I racked to secondary.

I would let the SG drop, and feed it with syrup little at a time until the yeast died. Your final ABV will be whatever the tolerance of your yeast is. i did it with slow additions so as not to end up with a 1.030 sugary mess. I'm sure you can calculate the amount of sugar you need and do this in a more systematic method, but I was not motivated to do so.

I have the fullest intentions of adding brandy later on. For now, my plan is to let it get to some specific gravity (it's now just over 1.020) then siphon off one gallon which will carry on fermenting (since I'm stirring twice a day there will be plenty of yeast in the must) to produce a mixed berry wine of about 12-13%abv.

I plan to add extra fruit (I've already done the calculations how much) and add sugar in stages to raise the alcohol levels.

I've had a think and decided to do this when the must is at around 1.005-1.010.

But your posts have put the question to my mind - before adding the spirit what kind of specific gravity does the must want to be? Alternatively, if I knew the specific gravity of port I could work it out. I wondered if anyone here knows before I go shopping for port?

On our sister site, winemakers talk, there's a subforum devoted to making port-style wines. Usually, they shoot for an 18% wine, but add the brandy when the SG get to about 1.03 or so. The brandy bumps the alc up to close to 18-20%, and there's still enough sweetness to mask the booziness. Hope this helps. I definitely recommend going to the winemaking talk forum and browsing the port subforum there for more ideas/pointers

RegarRenill said:

On our sister site, winemakers talk, there's a subforum devoted to making port-style wines. Usually, they shoot for an 18% wine, but add the brandy when the SG get to about 1.03 or so. The brandy bumps the alc up to close to 18-20%, and there's still enough sweetness to mask the booziness. Hope this helps. I definitely recommend going to the winemaking talk forum and browsing the port subforum there for more ideas/pointers

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Thanks for that information. 1.03 before adding brandy eh? Have added some extra sugar (in syrup form) just now. I was surprised just how fast it went from 1.030 to 1.004 once I'd siphoned off the first gallon and added extra fruit and sugar! Have added more syrup today which took it to 1.020, and I suppose checking it daily so I can add even more sugar whilst the yeast colony is still very active. In the past when adding sugar in stages I've sometimes done it rather late (around 1.000 for example) and the ferment has stopped dead!

People make a lot of faux ports by step feeding with more juice concentrate or sugar. We like to let it drop to 1.01 and take it back up to 1.02 as many times as the yeast can take it. You have to put your extra nutrients in early. Good yeasts for this are EC1118 and Premier Cuvee for their high alcohol tolerance. Most dont even bother adding the brandy as it is already pretty sweet with a high alcohol if done right. Not a true port, really more of just a sweet high alcohol dessert wine.

WVMJ

Oops. Found a coupla maggots from the sloes. I fished em out needless to say.

Hope they wont damage the wine!

Now you have to add some more nutrient to make up for the maggots you took out! Probably would have tasted better if you didnt know there were in there WVMJ

WVMJ said:

Now you have to add some more nutrient to make up for the maggots you took out! Probably would have tasted better if you didnt know there were in there WVMJ

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They had ear to ear smiles - if they had ears that is!

WVMJ said:

People make a lot of faux ports by step feeding with more juice concentrate or sugar. We like to let it drop to 1.01 and take it back up to 1.02 as many times as the yeast can take it. You have to put your extra nutrients in early. Good yeasts for this are EC1118 and Premier Cuvee for their high alcohol tolerance. Most dont even bother adding the brandy as it is already pretty sweet with a high alcohol if done right. Not a true port, really more of just a sweet high alcohol dessert wine.

WVMJ

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Sounds good to me. I did wonder whether to bother with the brandy. It was at 17.5% yesterday and still fizzing away. A message from Ritchie's products said the port yeast I used of theirs would go to 18%. I hope to be adding more syrup tomorrow!! Later on I may taste for oak and add more chips if I think it would stand them. I have already put in 3grammes at the start - ten days ago.