Real quick question about fruit wines
 

I have been making wine for a couple years now, and have always
fermented my wines to complete dryness then sweetend. A couple of
weeks ago I "think" I read somewhere that when making a fruit "country"
wine, you are not supposed. Something about losing a lot of the fruit
flavor. For the life of me I can't find that page again. Is this
true? Thanks for any help.

Sorry, Did not follow your question. You read that you are not suppose to
what? Sweeten it after making it dry? Or not suppose to make it dry to
start with?

There is nothing wrong with either practice. You might visit Jack Keller's
web site as he gives lots of advise on making country wines. But rephrase
your question and we can answer it more directly here as well.

Making dry country wines and then sweetening them is a common practice. The
sugar brings out the character of the fruit in the wine. When done
correctly it is a safe way of making wine. When done incorrectly you can be
making hand grenades. But that is a different issue from losing the fruit
flavor.

Ray.


"dparker" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>I have been making wine for a couple years now, and have always
> fermented my wines to complete dryness then sweetend. A couple of
> weeks ago I "think" I read somewhere that when making a fruit "country"
> wine, you are not supposed. Something about losing a lot of the fruit
> flavor. For the life of me I can't find that page again. Is this
> true? Thanks for any help.
>

Sorry, Did not follow your question. You read that you are not suppose to
what? Sweeten it after making it dry? Or not suppose to make it dry to
start with?

There is nothing wrong with either practice. You might visit Jack Keller's
web site as he gives lots of advise on making country wines. But rephrase
your question and we can answer it more directly here as well.

Making dry country wines and then sweetening them is a common practice. The
sugar brings out the character of the fruit in the wine. When done
correctly it is a safe way of making wine. When done incorrectly you can be
making hand grenades. But that is a different issue from losing the fruit
flavor.

Ray.


"dparker" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>I have been making wine for a couple years now, and have always
> fermented my wines to complete dryness then sweetend. A couple of
> weeks ago I "think" I read somewhere that when making a fruit "country"
> wine, you are not supposed. Something about losing a lot of the fruit
> flavor. For the life of me I can't find that page again. Is this
> true? Thanks for any help.
>

ok, sorry about the confusion, I'll try again lol. I think I read
somewhere that if you are making a sweet wine from fruit such as
berries, you should not ferment to dryness, then sweeten. You should
stop fermentation and stabalize before it is dry. Something about
losing some of the fruit taste??? Can't find that page to save my life,
might have been dreaming. Hope that's better, thanks Ray

I have never read that. I do frequently ferment to dryness and then sweeten
back up if desired. I frequently like the dryness, even with country wines.
If you do want to stop the ferment before dryness is reached, about the only
reliable way is to plunge the carboy into a freezer and take it down to a
temperature that stops fermentation. Keep it there for a few days, then
stabilize it with sorbate and sulfite and bring the temperature back up and
see if the fermentation remains stopped.

Personally I find this a lot of trouble and just let it go to dryness,
planning ahead for a particular %alcohol and then stabilize and sweeten but
you can try the other way if you think it makes a difference. Maybe it
will. There is always another way!

Ray

"dparker" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> ok, sorry about the confusion, I'll try again lol. I think I read
> somewhere that if you are making a sweet wine from fruit such as
> berries, you should not ferment to dryness, then sweeten. You should
> stop fermentation and stabalize before it is dry. Something about
> losing some of the fruit taste??? Can't find that page to save my life,
> might have been dreaming. Hope that's better, thanks Ray
>