sweet wines without sulphites or artificial sweeteners?

[Psychobilly451]

is there a way to make sweet wines without sulphites or artificial sweeteners?

 

[Yooper]

Yes. The easiest way is to make a regular wine (start at 1.085-1.100) and allow it to ferment out. After it is done, add more sugar and allow it to ferment out. And do it again, until the yeast is overwhelmed. This works well, except that certain wine yeast strains can easily go to 18+% ABV, so you can end up with sweet rocket fuel that takes a couple of years to age out.

Even the less attenuative wine yeast strains will easily go to 14%, so it's tricky to do.

I've never done it with ale yeast, but that may be one way to end up with a sweeter wine without making it so "hot". I've done one mead (Joe's Ancient Orange) with bread yeast, and that poops out early and leaves a sweet finish also but I'm not crazy about the flavor of the bread yeast.

 

[Psychobilly451]

Yoopers-thank you for the quick response. have you ever tried this method with a lemon wine?

 

[Yooper]

Yoopers-thank you for the quick response. have you ever tried this method with a lemon wine?

No, never. I don't have a sweet tooth at all, so I like almost all of my wines bone dry- even my crabapple wine is dry. I've only made a few sweet wines, for friends, and never a lemon wine.

 

[Psychobilly451]

once again thanks. I will have to experiment.

 

[huesmann]

Alternately, you can plan to hit a specific SG, based on the level of sweetness you desire, monitor your SG until you hit your target, and pasteurize. Or you can just pasteurize and backsweeten.

 

[saramc]

Or use the recipe for Skeeter Pee, but adjust your starting SG so you yield a 6-8% PAC and then fortify with a neutral spirit (like pure grain) and backsweeten. This SHOULD kill any residual active yeast, bump up the alcohol content, and you end up with a sweet fortified wine.

OR, ferment to dry, sterile filter (yes it can be done at home), backsweeten, keep it cool/chilled and hope for the best.

 

[Honda88]

use montrachet yeast and do what yoop said, montrachet is a wimp and it will die fast and make a sweet wine