Adding sugar during secondary ferment

[SMK]

Hello,
First post on this blog. I am making persimmon wine, using Jack Keller's recipe as a guide. His recipe calls for splitting the sugar and putting half in the first ferment and half in the second ferment. I have made a variety of fruit wines for a few years and have never come across this recommendation. I decided to just add sugar to the first ferment to the correct SG and go from there, but I am curious. Does anyone know anything specific to persimmons that would call for this strategy of adding sugar in the secondary? The recipe assumes that yeast will still be present, it does not call for Campden at that point. Thanks for any advice.

 

[lumpher]

Secondary fermentation is done to get the wine off the lees after primary fermentation to avoid the off-flavor the lees can cause, but to make sure it is fermented completely, and the flavor is rounded out. Unless you are going to do a sparkling wine, though, there is no need to add during secondary instead of all in primary. Let it ferment, rack it to get it off the lees, bottle, and let it age.

 

[Miraculix]

It makes sense to split the sugar in two additions, or even more, to lower osmotic pressure on the yeast cells. The more sugar in solution, the more osmotic pressure. So keeping the maximum amount of dissolved sugar low, keeps the stress off the yeast.

What doesn't make sense at all is the racking in between. With the racking, a big percentage of the healthy yeast is being removed. That's not good. Especially when you reach higher abv, you want as much yeast cells as possible.

So best would be to split the sugar into multiple additions, let each addition ferment out completely before adding the next, afterwards let it all settle down and clear and then bottle. Yes, this does not involve any secondary vessel.

 

[dmtaylor]

A lot of people like to baby their yeast. It is not necessary. Yeast is tough. Yeast don’t always need special treatment. You can add all the sugar up front and end up with the same result.

Addition of nutrient is a must. But again, you can add it all up front if you want to.

A lot of people would disagree based on things they’ve read from others, but this has been my experience. Maybe try an experiment splitting the batch and doing it both ways and see what difference it makes. Then you’ll have your own data and not be relying on idiots like me from the web.

 

[Miraculix]

A lot of people like to baby their yeast. It is not necessary. Yeast is tough. Yeast don’t always need special treatment. You can add all the sugar up front and end up with the same result. Addition of nutrient is a must. But again, you can add it all up front if you want to. A lot of people would disagree based on things they’ve read from others, but this has been my experience. Maybe try an experiment splitting the batch and doing it both ways and see what difference it makes. Then you’ll have your own data and not be relying on idiots like me from the web.

If you stagger the sugar additions, the yeast will ferment a bigger amount of sugar successfully. This way you can reach a higher abv compared to what you can get when all the sugar is added upfront. I've tried both ways.

 

[DuncB]

Look up chaptalisation, only times I've done it is for imperial stout and I added a bit each day in the primary.