Thanks for the response. The specific gravity approach makes the sugar
answer pretty straight forward.

I'll do some digging to find Rotter's paper on acid. Meanwhile, I'm sure --
like you said -- that I'll have to add water to dilute the acidity. Sounds
logical that I should handle the acidity first since the dilution will
change the specific gravity. At least I'm intuiting that the specific
gravity will change.

I know that as a rank amateur in winemaking, I should heed the experts and
go with someone's recipe. Alas, I'm just not good at recipes. Especially in
the case where the recipe calls for three units of 'concentrated' grape
juice for each unit of undiluted pomegranate juice. Or start with a batch of
boiled barley. Isn't barley used to make beer?

Can I bother you with one more question? Is there any problem with making a
simple syrup by boiling the sugar in water (and then cooling it down, of
course) rather than dumping the dry sugar in the juice and stirring the
daylights out of it?

Merci,

Casey Wilson
Freelance Writer and Photographer




"pp" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> You need a hydrometer to measure this, for fruit wines to get 10-12%
> alcohol in the end, you want to be around 1.075-1.085 on trhe specific
> gravity scale.
>
> You can measure acid by titration. Fruit wines are different from grape
> wines in terms of acid management in that the acid goes up during the
> fermentation, so if you want a dry wine, you'd start with a lower
> acidity than for grapes, maybe around 5g/L? Or you can balance the wine
> in the end with some sugar. Ben Rotter wrote about this on the
> newsgroup - do a search.
>
> The other thing is that for many fruits, straight juice is too acidic
> to produce a good wine, so it's typically diluted with water, sometimes
> a lot. Jack Keller's and Ben Rotter's sites have info on average acid
> values for fruit, so check there - I would think that a pomegranate
> would definitely need so dilution.
>
> There is a lot of variables, so although I don't myself like the recipe
> approach, if you're just starting up, it'd make sense to follow a
> recipe. That will get you into a decent ballpark in terms of the
> balance.
>
> Pp
>
> On Dec 1, 9:55 am, "N2310D" > wrote:
>> I'm one of the new guys here. I'm getting set to make a batch of fruit
>> wine
>> from raw juice.
>>
>> I think I know the answer to the sugar question. Is the task to add
>> enough sugar so the hydrometer level indicates 10-12% potential sugar for
>> the fermentation stages? If not, then how do I determine how much sugar
>> to
>> add.
>>
>> What is the ideal acid level? I read that if the acid is low, add
>> more
>> and if it is high, add water to dilute. But I can't find what ideal or
>> even
>> nominal is.
>>
>> --
>> Regards,
>>
>> Casey Wilson
>> Freelance Writer and Photographer
>