Port style wine

[Petebrewer]

I want to produce 4 gallons of a Port style wine without going to the expense of adding brandy. I have some high alcohol tolerant yeast (GV 4) but would appreciate any tips on fermenting up to 18% alcohol. I'm fermenting in an outside building and have a Thorne Electrim heater pad and a Brewbelt. Bearing in mind the outside temperatures could drop to 2C overnight in the next few days, will I also need a duvet or something to cover the bin? I've always fermented indoors until now so any tips will be gratefully received.
Pete

 

[pdxal]

Not sure if you know, but I believe port wine is produced by adding brandy to fermenting wine before it has completely fermented out the sugars in the grape must. This adds alcohol but leaves a sweet wine due to the unfermented sugars from the original yeast dying or becoming unable to ferment further. If you ferment high gravity grape must with an alcohol tolerant yeast to dryness it won't be the same, though it will have the higher alcohol percentage. I suppose fermenting to 18% then adding sugar or unfermented must could approximate a port, has anyone here tried that?

 

[A_McG]

I've gotten grape juice up to 18%. I stated with enough sugar to get to 14% and added energizer and nutrient. Once it started to slow I added more sugar and yeast nutrient. I got it to 18% with sugar left and had a very hard wine. I used lalvin ec-1118

Of note, it will take a long time for it to be drinkable. Took at least a year to taste good, but the longer it's been aging the better it has gotten.

 

[Petebrewer]

Thanks. I'd be interested to know why you didn't add all the sugar at the start. Would that be likely to result in a stuck fermentation?

 

[A_McG]

Yeah, I didn't want it to get stuck. Also wanted the yeast to stay healthy and not get too stressed. When doing high abv it's important to keep the fermentation slow. It's going to have some off flavors regardless, but anything you can do to help it out is a good idea.

Also, I racked the wine to another bucket before adding the second round of sugar. I bulk aged it for 9 months before bottling. I have a bottle about every other month or so, gets better with each one

 

[Petebrewer]

Your experience is very interesting and I'm grateful to you for sharing it with me. I'll let you know how I get on (good or bad). I'll be using using the following recipe for 4 Imp gallons (about 5 US gal) :-
2kg (4lb 6oz) Elderberries
1kg (1lb 3oz) blackberries
1.8kg (4lb) Sloes
1l Red grape concentrate
1.64kg (3lb 10oz) canned peaches
1kg (2lb 3oz) prunes
360g (12oz) honey
18g (0.7oz) potassium bicarbonate
4kg (8lb 11oz) granulated sugar + 1.4kg (50oz) for sweetening.

This should give 19% alcohol (hopefully), 0.57% acid (expressed as Tartaric), assuming an increase of 0.15% during fermentation, 0.34% tannin and 2.1% soluble solids.

The tannin content is high, but I'm hoping that adding Bentonite may reduce that, and the soluble solids are a bit low but the sweetening sugar will increase that, so I'm going to try it anyway. If nothing else I'll learn something.

 

[A_McG]

Interesting recipe and hope it turns out. I did mine for the sake of trying it and was surprised it actually turned out drinkable. I still only brew wine 12-14% but the hitting 18 was fun and I brew for fun

 

[theDREWery]

I made a rasin wine awhile ago that went to 20%, and had to be sweetened. I rehydrated about twice as much yeast as I needed in 100*F water. After ten minutes, I added a ladle of must. Every half hour I added another ladle or two, until my 4 cup pyrex was full, and then pitched on the main must. A very vroomy ferment, no fusels that I can detect at 6 months or a year. I think this was something I read on Jack Keller's site, works very well on difficult musts.

 

[Petebrewer]

Thanks for your tips on brewing a high level of alcohol. I can understand why you did that, and intend doing the same. My main concern is getting a steady temperature, so think I'll use a thermostatically controlled convector heater to keep the shed from getting too cold overnight.