Back-sweetening lesson learned!

[iceman_ii]

Learned VERY interesting lessons about Back-sweetening yesterday. I have a batch of strawberry table wine in the fastferment, cleared it with bentonite, Keisesol, and Kitosan. I wasn't going to stabilize because I was planning to back-sweeten with Erythritol, a non-fermentable zero-calorie keto and blood-sugar friendly sweetener. Got to thinking, what the heck, stabilize anyway, so I did... in the end, I had a nice solid chunk of "stuff" in the collection jar (a quart Mason jar).


I closed the union valve, and blended the erythritol into the mix at about a pound per gallon.

First set of lessons learned:
1. That much sweetener increased the yield by nearly 2L
2. Erythritol dissolving in water is an endothermic reaction, it dropped the temperature by about 8 degrees F.

The REAL lesson learned was when I opened the union valve after fully mixing the erythritol into the wine.... it was cool as hell watching the heavier wine falling into the collection jar... the problem was that the sweetened wine was more dense than the stuff in the collection jar, so it floated it in the jar and some stuff floated to the top of the wine.


Skip ahead a few hours, the stuff floating to the top of the wine is falling back out, as is the stuff in the collection jar - kind of looked like a heart


Note to self - in the future remove the lees before back-sweetening!

 

[madscientist451]

Learned VERY interesting lessons about Back-sweetening yesterday. I have a batch of strawberry table wine in the fastferment, cleared it with bentonite, Keisesol, and Kitosan. I wasn't going to stabilize because I was planning to back-sweeten with Erythritol, a non-fermentable zero-calorie keto and blood-sugar friendly sweetener.

I closed the union valve, and blended the erythritol into the mix at about a pound per gallon.

First set of lessons learned:
1. That much sweetener increased the yield by nearly 2L
2. Erythritol dissolving in water is an endothermic reaction, it dropped the temperature by about 8 degrees F.

Note to self - in the future remove the lees before back-sweetening!

That's way to much erythritol, and drinking that could make you sick. I'd dump that batch, but you can look for yourself about the hazards associated with too much erythritol.
I believe something like 60grams/gallon is a ballpark place to start, but you have to do some taste trials to see what sweetness levels you are looking for. Here's more information:
https://www.homecidermaking.com/non-fermentable-sugar-for-hard-cider/

 

[iceman_ii]

That's way to much erythritol, and drinking that could make you sick. I'd dump that batch, but you can look for yourself about the hazards associated with too much erythritol.
I believe something like 60grams/gallon is a ballpark place to start, but you have to do some taste trials to see what sweetness levels you are looking for. Here's more information:
https://www.homecidermaking.com/non-fermentable-sugar-for-hard-cider/

Thank you for the advice, I honestly HAD done a bit of research myself, and the numbers I found were an upper limit of .71g per kg body weight per SERVING (not gallon), but I opted to follow the more restrictive recommendations of the European Food Safety Authority of .6g per kg of body weight per serving (which is 30g per serving for a medium to small person, 60 grams for a 220 lb person). A gallon has 10 12.8oz servings (won't even go to 5oz wine servings, NOBODY drinks those), which is about 45 grams per 12oz serving, or the recommended amount for a 165 lb person (using the more cautious recommendations).

There is also a cumulative effect on a daily basis, and according to WebMD, most people can tolerate 1g per kg body weight per day with no issue, so at 94g/750ml, a 206lb person can drink a whole bottle every day and be right at 1g/kg of body weight

Yes I did taste tests to determine how much it needed, and .8 lbs/gal was close, but not quite... it had fermented very VERY dry.

 

[lukebuz]

Franken-Wine? Why the concern about sugar in an alcoholic drink? Isn't alcohol basically broken down into the sugars / has the same net effect? If you want less calories, but still sweet, do Stevia. Pure Stevia only needs a pinch to sweeten it up.

 

[Coffee49]

I often wonder if back sweetening prior to bottling would cloud up an otherwise clear wine, I use granulated sugar totally dissolved in a sample of what I am bottling and add to bucket just before corking, it doesn't seem to effect the wine. My formula is 2 cups per 5 gallons for sweet, but not dessert sweet, another cup would get into dessert sweetness. Assuming one is aging juices 10 months and 2 rackings prior to bottling.