New winemaker here.

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oklahoma_man777

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Could I use brown sugar as a alternative to cane sugar when it comes to fermentation? I'll be making my first wine pretty soon and was kinda looking into brown sugar but I'll use any other if it's better.
 
I doubt that the brown could influence the taste of a red much but a white wine I would have reservations about. if you flavor your coffee or tea with brown can you taste a difference compared to white? I cant but I have a poor palate.:mug:
 
Especially for your first wine, I would suggest you stick with straight cane sugar rather than brown sugar unless you are actively trying to have a molasses-like flavor in your wine. You don't say what you will be fermenting with it, so the flavor profile it would add may work... or it may not.
 
I understand, I like cane sugar too so it's not a big deal to me, I was hoping to make a blackberry wine :)
 
I understand, I like cane sugar too so it's not a big deal to me, I was hoping to make a blackberry wine :)

I LOVE this blackberry wine: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=31294

I never use brown sugar, because to me it tastes awful once it's fermented out. It tastes great in my oatmeal, and in apple pie, etc- but once the sugar ferments out, all that is left is a strange molasses taste, but without the sweetness.

There are those that like it in apple cider, with that molasses taste, but it is horrible to me. I think it would be absolutely foul in a fruity wine like blackberry wine.

I like to keep my blackberry wine dry, while some like it off-dry or even sweet. I sometimes oak mine, and age it a bit, and it comes out like a marvelous dinner wine that is one of my all time favorites. So there are lots of things you can do to influence the end result even using a traditional recipe.
 
I've made a loads of blackberry wine and found that the less water you use in the recipe, the better. All the water does is dilute the fruit flavors, which are subtle for blackberry to begin with. So I don't use any water, just straight fruit. It yields about 1gal per 10lbs of fruit, depending on the efficiency of your pressing method.

The other big advantage here is that you don't need to add any acid back to the wine since the fruit's pH and tartness is already good. The blackberries are only about 11% sugar, so you will have to add in 10% more sugar to reach 21brix.
 
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