How much honey to backsweeten chokecherry wine?

[regjill]

The final OG was .990 and I have just racked it into the campden and potassium sorbate. I am ready to back sweeten. If I use 1/4 c honey per liter of wine is it going to be too much? I took off a liter of wine from the original carboy and added 1/4 c honey and poured a little of that into glass number 1. Then I added another 1/4 c to the liter and poured a little into glass number 2 then I added a final 1/4 c of honey to the liter and poured that into glass number 3. I am assuming that that will give me an estimation of how sweet the wine will be on completion. I liked glass number 1 and my husband liked glass number 2. Is this an somewhat accurate estimate of what it will be like? I realize of course that it will sweeten with time.
What do you suggest?

 

[Yooper]

The final OG was .990 and I have just racked it into the campden and potassium sorbate. I am ready to back sweeten. If I use 1/4 c honey per liter of wine is it going to be too much? I took off a liter of wine from the original carboy and added 1/4 c honey and poured a little of that into glass number 1. Then I added another 1/4 c to the liter and poured a little into glass number 2 then I added a final 1/4 c of honey to the liter and poured that into glass number 3. I am assuming that that will give me an estimation of how sweet the wine will be on completion. I liked glass number 1 and my husband liked glass number 2. Is this an somewhat accurate estimate of what it will be like? I realize of course that it will sweeten with time.
What do you suggest?

It does taste a little bit sweeter with time. What I would do is take the SG of the one you like the best (or the one he does, whomever you want to please with this!) and then sweeten the entire batch to just under that target. For example, if you love it at 1.012, sweeten it to 1.011-1.010.

 

[regjill]

Would it be wise put the entire amount of honey (around 5 cups) into an empty carboy and then rack the 23 liters over top of it?

And secondly, at what point after this may I bottle?

 

[Yooper]

Would it be wise put the entire amount of honey (around 5 cups) into an empty carboy and then rack the 23 liters over top of it?

And secondly, at what point after this may I bottle?

I"d probably dissolve the honey with some of the wine, stirring well, or some water, and then rack the wine into it. Otherwise, it's so darn thick it would be hard to combine easily.

If it was my wine, I'd stick an airlock on it and watch it for 3 days to make sure it doesn't start fermenting again. (Sorbate isn't fool proof, especially if the wine is fairly young). If it doesn't start up again, then it's safe to bottle.