How to lower potential ABV

[GeneDaniels1963]

My blueberries are starting to come in, and I still had some in the freezer, so I decided to make some wine. Sometimes we like low ABV wines, so I planned to make it about 9%. But I made a mistake in my calculations (since I am making 1.5 gal), and the must has a potential more like 12%.

I could leave it as is, but what if I added some water. Would that thin the wine too much? Any other ways to lower potential ABV?

 

[eebowler]

Potassium sorbate stops yeast from reproducing and potassium metabisulphite kills them so adding both of these when you reach the desired ABV would help but may not completely stop fermentation.

Another way I've read is to put the must in the fridge at close to freezing temperatures for a couple weeks, to kill / inactivate the yeast and allow them to settle. Racking afterwards removes yeast from wine.

( novice here)

 

[Seamonkey84]

Depending on how much berry you already added, either more berries or water should be fine. Or just add more of both berries and water. Since blueberries can’t be very acid, many recipes call for up to 6lbs to a gallon of water, I’ve used more but had to make the wine sweet to be drinkable. so far I’ve only used store bought frozen wild berries from here in Maine, but I’ve planted some cultivated bushes for the future.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

There is 6 lb of berries in 1 1/2 gal of wort. I am thinking a little more water will be OK. So I just added 4 cups of water and got the SG down to what I wanted, about 1.065. That should give me about 8.5%.

I just pitched Red Star Pasteur yest. Do you think it will go to 1.00 in this blueberry must, or will it leave just a little sugar behind, say 1.005 or 07? I would really like that with a light carbonation.

 

[Seamonkey84]

Most likely it will ferment bone dry, which is a good thing if you want to carbonate it. For sweet and carbonated naturally, you’ll have to pasteurize it. Check the cider forum, there’s a pinned thread on how to bottle pasteurize. You’ll want to let it go dry, then degas and clear it to get rid of a lot of off flavors built up from primary, then sweeten for bottling. As long as you didn’t let it bulk age for months and months, and it didn’t get stuck or stop from reaching abv tolerance, there will be enough residual yeast to carbonate your bottles. Then check daily (put some in a soda bottle) for your desired level of carbonation, and pasteurize when your satisfied. I haven’t done it yet, but I am thinking about it for a sweet hydromel so I do t have to use chemicals to stabilize. Otherwise it’s stabilize and sweeten, then keg.
If you’re batch were to stall at 1.007 like you were thinking then you wouldn’t be able to bottle carbonate it a the yeast would be inactive. If you don’t degas the carbonation that built up from a higher gravity (than beer/cider) fermentation, it will have the off flavors and aromas from primary trapped in the bottles with it.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

I have not tried pasturization, and am not wanting to try. I do bottle carb most of my brews. I will probably carb half and backsweeten half to see which way I like it better. As a fruit cider, or as a low ABV semi-sweet wine

 

[madscientist451]

6 lbs of blueberries for a 1.5 gallon batch seems like too much to me, your wine may be too acidic in the end?
Here's a great article about something similar to your situation:
https://blog.eckraus.com/wines-starting-specific-gravity-too-high

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

Thanks for the article, I just found it last night.

As for the acid, I will probably use some acid reducing crystals after fermentation is compete.

 

[madscientist451]

How much water did you add to the 6 lbs of blueberries?