How do you know when to bottle homemade wine?!
How do you know when to bottle homemade wine?
We are in the process of making our first batch of homemade wine, an Italian Chardonnay. It was a 6 week kit and was started on Apr. 9th... it has been 44 days... we tasted it and it is pretty dry and we were thinking of adding sugar syrup to sweeten it up a bit, but then someone else advised that maybe we shouldn't do that and we should wait longer to see if it gets better.
How much longer do we wait? In the mean time, we bought more supplies and 3 more kits and we want to bottle this batch so we can use the carboy to get started on the next three kits. The problem is, this batch is REALLY dry... so dry that it really isn't drinkable.
I am so confused and disappointed, I wanted it to come out good and it isn't. Should I check the SG? If I do, what should it be at to be okay to bottle? If I add sweetener, will that change the specific gravity? When we went to step #3, degassing and clearing, the SG was .993 and that was on Apr 26.
I so need some advice. Thanks.
Answers:
Jan, My family has been making wine for generation back in Italy, although I learned there I now make it in US as well but I never add sugar or any sweeteners to it.
I only use yeast when fermenting then after I racked it (always by siphon the wine from one container to the smaller one) 3 to 4 time months apart, I bottle some and keep it in a darkish cool place. I use my wine cellar and naturally I keep the bottles on the side in order to keep cork wet.
If you don't rack it enough you may find some sediments on the bottom side of the bottle.
Try this site it may help you with some questions that you may have.
http://www.winemaking.com/
Good luck :-)
Source(s):
Personal experience
My wife and I just went through the sam thing and we ended up loosign all our wine (merlot) because we bottled it too early. (four weeks just like the kit said). A friend of mine who was also a brewer for many years said the longer the wait the better. (6 months to a year). I know that's not the answer you want to hear but it's for the best results. Itialian Chard is going to be very dry. I'd try to consult a professional vintner but I think if you add too much sugar you could extend the fermenting process, and if you bottle in that time you could have exploding corks.
Good luck
44 days isn't nearly enough time, regardless of what the kit says. after wine is done rapid fermentation (active bubbling), siphon it into another fermenter with an airlock, and let it sit for as long as you can, before bottling. after at least a month or two, the wine will be good. if the wine is too dry, you would have had to have added more sugar at the start. don't add sugar now, you could start fermentaion again, and then the wine will tkae even longer, and you could cause corks flying off and explosions that wouldn't make the process enjoyable.
let the wine sit for at least another month or so, two or three would be better, then bottle. it should finish fermenting and age for a while to gain a more mature taste, and it will taste better. if its dry now, ittl probably be dry then too, but it will get bette with time. good luck.
check out this site
http://www.wineworldfdw.com/fruit_wine.h...