Calculating Starting Sugar for Wine

Describes the steps to manually calculate how much starting sugar you need to reach a given starting gravity & a given alcohol by volume (ABV).
Strange Appetites: / @strangeappetites4637
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[@DIYFermentation]

Sorry, this channel does not offer individual winemaking advice. Amazon, BrewDemon & Canva affiliate product information. As an affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases. My current winemaking setup: BrewDemon Fermenter: www.avantlink.com/click.php?tt=cl&merchant_id=f34b031c-e43a-43a4-973d-24d17c9a727a&website_id=ebe44688-8c34-46de-b945-9406903c8ad6&url=http%3A%2F%2FBrewDemon.com Wine Yeast Sampler: amzn.to/3F8gNtf Hydrometer: amzn.to/3l2XbMS Airlocks: amzn.to/36bpGlg Wine Corks & Caps: amzn.to/3vgBA9w Wine Bottle Corker: amzn.to/3zO4fVa Stoppers: amzn.to/3673Tv1 Racking Cane: amzn.to/34YyP19 StarSan: amzn.to/356Tnot Straining Bags: amzn.to/2VKkW4y

[@DIYFermentation]

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[@chrispigott6913]

@@DIYFermentation I have an old wine making book that I have been using for years. It says two and a half pounds of sugar per gallon for wine that will keep, 3 pounds for a strong wine and up to 4 pounds of sugar for a sweet wine. No mention of a hydrometer ! No wonder my wines are so strong !

[@grandpied]

An amazing ability to answer so many questions quickly, concisely and fluff-less-ly.

[@jenslyn42]

I'm really happy you chose to explain it in SI units, rather than the usual ounces of sugar per gallon I have heard of before.

[@DIYFermentation]

Thank you for watching.

[@slahring1]

FINALLY!!!!! I cannot tell you how many KZbin videos I have watched trying to figure this out!! As a newbie to this, this video is EXACTLY what I was looking for and needed to keep going. And it just so happens that TODAY is the day I have to do this or my whole 14 gallons of sorted and cleaned concord grapes would be wasted. Thank you!!!!

[@DIYFermentation]

Glad I could help!

[@bongdallion3435]

Best explanation ive seen yet on youtube, thank you

[@comtedesaintgermain9269]

this is exactly what i was looking for, a fundamental approach! thank you so much man!

[@DIYFermentation]

Thank you for watching.

[@chemainealston2395]

I love your videos. I learn so many different recipes. I appreciate the way you break the information down.

[@DIYFermentation]

Well, this one was a bit complicated. I ended up creating a spreadsheet to crunch the numbers when I need to find out how much sugar to add.

[@dalvarad100]

I saw your video on how to make blackberry wine for the first time last year-- i was looking for something else to make with my over abundant blackberry vines. I followed your recipe, word for word, and the wine was successfull. I bottled it in late July and opened the first bottle for my birthday in Nov, i know just 3 months, but I couldn't wait. You were right thought, when I opened the other bottles in March, April, May and June it tasted better. This year I'm trying again, with a few variations, and I'm also making your peach wine recipe but with fresh peaches from my mother's garden. Let's see how long I hold out-- I'm trying to teach myself how to use the hydrometer and try to manipulate the wine a little more next season--- a big thank you to you sir for making this simple, easy, and on a budget for me to try-- PS. my husband is enjoying the process too. He says he wishes he paid more attention in chemistry LOL-- God bless

[@stevesniezak4307]

Outstanding video! Very down to earth, common sense and understandable. Also exactly what I was looking for. Thank you very, very much.

[@DIYFermentation]

I usually don't do these technical type videos.

[@pradeepshukla3970]

Thanks for all the highly informative videos uploaded on your channel 👍

[@DIYFermentation]

Glad you like them!

[@JayDeeChannel]

This is exactly the info I needed! Thank you for making it simple to work out!!!

[@DIYFermentation]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Nagap08]

. Thanks for another great video.

[@Cravix02]

Awesome information. Thank you sir

[@dockofthebaycountrywines69]

Nice and simple! 😊 Keep the videos coming!

[@DIYFermentation]

Thank you.

[@tomprocko1989]

This video helped me alot, thank you for taking the time out to make this :)

[@DIYFermentation]

You're very welcome!

[@michaeljohnson-mc9lx]

I ran into a problem when I first started making mead that I didn't understand. I figured fruit juice was about 1.030 usually so I add 2 pounds honey per gallon. But then I used grape juice!!! I didn't check gravity on the juice first. My Hydrometer barely sank into the must haha. It was a bobber pretty much! yeast stalled right away and it was a pour out situation. I did it again recently and checked og first. one pound of honey to one gallon of grape juice is right at 1.090.. perfect!! Love the video man!! You do videos that most of the channels don't. That's why I watch! Apparently grapes have a ton of sugar on their own haha!

[@apenutz987]

Great video. Thanks.

[@DIYFermentation]

No, thank you.

[@johnbarrios4531]

Great info thanks

[@DIYFermentation]

Glad it was helpful!

[@DirtDigglerDetecting]

OMg when you started doing Math. I fell in Love. I Loved this. THANK YOU. Just picked up some Juice and sugar an yeast to try this out. Thank you so much

[@DIYFermentation]

Once I put all the formulas into a spreadsheet, the process actually became easy to use.

[@kiennguyentrung8396]

so helpul for me, thank you so much

[@DIYFermentation]

Thank you for watching.

[@kiennguyentrung8396]

I have one question can I

[@royalecrafts6252]

the amount of alcohol is subjected to the quantity of alcohol that the specific yeast can produce and how consistent that particular yeast produce the wanted level of alcohol, you can't really predict that unless your yeast is super consistent even if you pre-calculate everything

[@johnwriterpoet1783]

Must instead of musk.😊

[@treich1234]

@ 5:59 Where was the 19 grams of sugar derived from?

[@autumnskyridge]

Enjoying your videos! What online calculator would you recommend for someone trying to calculate how much sugar, yeast (and type of yeast) to add in order to make dry wine from both store bought juice and table grapes and frozen fruit? And what SG should I have if I want to make dry wine? Thanks for your help!

[@Lemonz1989]

Thank you. Exactly what I needed 😊 I noticed you said you choose to add less sugar than the calculation tells you to. I did some more reading about this, and notice one source said 1 degree on the hydrometer equals 2.7 grams of sugar per liter, but another said 2.36 grams of sugar per liter. You might try the lower value next time when calculating it? ☺️

[@DIYFermentation]

Thank you for sharing.

[@mikeharmon4901]

I followed an old Jack Keller recipe for mustang grape wine and lost the recipe after he died and my record of the 4 year old batch that I just bottled. The only thing I found from Jack's recipes for mustang grape was one using grape juice. He recommends adding water to this in from a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio. He also recommends starting SG of 1.09 after sugaring. I am at 1.07 SG after adding the recommended sugar. Would your calculations work without the must to find what sugar is needed to raise the ABV to 12.5%? The juice pretty well includes everything but the skin and seeds.

[@TSliw]

Thanks for all the videos. Love your energy, you're clearly having a good time while doing this One question i have with this method is if you do anything to help dissolve the sugar in the water/must after taking the initial SG? Do you worry about getting every grain of sugar dissolved, or will the yeast do its thing regardless?

[@DIYFermentation]

This channel is not that critical in it's measurements.

[@TSliw]

@@DIYFermentation thanks! Gonna try back sweetening for the first time wish me luck

[@user-zp8ck2ze8k]

My home made rice and sugar wine test like sour, is that ok??

[@davidwright7140]

I shoot for a starting gravity of 1.100. One pound of sugar gives you 0.046 SG points. Pretty easy to get close without going through all that.

[@AkuaKamau]

Hello DIY I have a question. You havent used the 1.080 hydrometer reading in your calculations. How comes?

[@DIYFermentation]

Personal choice. Anywhere in the general vicinity is good enough. This channel is not about exactness.

[@jdesmond4101]

Hey Charles. Love this channel. Think you made a typo though. It's must, not musk.

[@DIYFermentation]

You are indeed correct.

[@thenicklam]

Thank you , you made it clear and simple 🤌🤌

[@user-iv9lr7uu3c]

Based on your calculation, you would end up with a 4.97% wine, if you didn't add any more sugar. 94.5 g/l / 19 = 4.97 Is this correct?

[@alcoholyouback]

Hey Charles, Would you consider having a starting gravity above 1.110? In order to have a stronger wine % at the end?

[@DIYFermentation]

Sorry, but as stated in the initial comment "This channel does not offer individual winemaking advice."

[@rodneyswitzer607]

The answer is yes.

[@alcoholyouback]

@@rodneyswitzer607 thanks! 😊😊

[@Grandpa_RLP]

1lb of sugar in 1 gallon of water gives you 32 gravity points. It doesn't get any more simple.

[@DIYFermentation]

If I were making kilju, perhaps. But with varing amounts of sugar in juice, with varing preferred starting gravities, with varying preferred abv outcomes, your calculation won't work.

[@Grandpa_RLP]

@@DIYFermentation It absolutely will work. Once you determine what your starting gravity of juice/must is you use this simple formula. Target gravity - starting gravity = missing gravity points (example) 1 gallon batch. SG of must 1.048 and target gravity of 1.080 (1080 - 1048 = 32) add 1 lb of sugar to reach 1.080 of it is more or less you simply do the math to determine how much. If you know 1 lb = 32 gravity points you can easily determine how much sugar to add. It is the same thing you are doing only easier. If you are making 5 gallons multiply answer by 5. But you do you. :)

[@dannygjk]

@@Grandpa_RLP Depends partly on your desired alcohol content. I'm a caveman and I want to brew it until the yeast dies. Plus by doing that you don't have to worry about building excessive pressure in the bottles.

[@wireman4029]

Thank you! This information is ALL I was searching for.

[@MBTIinRealLife]

It's kinda strange. They say, that 1% of sugar in musk gives us 0.56% of alcohol in the final product. 0.56 fits well with 19 grams of sugar to get 1 gram of alcohol, just as you say. So far so good. Now then, we take our 10 litre musk with 1000 grams of sugar in it from apples. We wanna get 16% ABV. It's 19x16=3040 grams of sugar needed. 3040-1000=2040 of sugar needed to be added into musk to get 16% ABV. But. When we add 2040 grams of sugar into 10 litres musk we will get 11.22 litres'musk because 2040 grams of sugar dissolved in sugar and added 1.22 litres to the total volume. Now, instead of 28% share of sugar (28% x 0.56 = 16% desired ABV) we get only 27% (3.040 of 11.24 is 27% of 100%).

[@EDUKASIESENSIAL]

are those all sugar convert into alcohol in the first fermentation, or just 70% of it

[@DIYFermentation]

On this channel, I would consider the question over-thinking things a bit. I try to keep thing simple (this video aside). But to answer your question, I would say about 70%/

[@Quinny1394]

So I'm going to be doing an 9 litre batch (2.4gal) of pyment in an 11 litre (2.9gal) food safe pail, still need to drill a hole in the lid for an airlock and one on the side for a tap/faucet. I determined that 1.4 kilograms (3.09lb) of raw mixed blossom honey will make it 1.050 and top up with red grape juice, should make it 1.100 and let ferment dry, rack into secondary, stabilise and back sweeten with raw leatherwood honey and add a French oak spiral, after some time when it tastes like it doesn't need anything and it can go into bottles I will use some type of finings. It can continue to age and mellow out in bottles, I will use 750ml wine bottles with real corks and let them sit for however long in my parents wine fridge, its never plugged in but its always at a good temperature as their house is made of stone & brick and is always 'room temperature' Got it all worked out 😉🤣 Cheers.

[@DIYFermentation]

Thank you for sharing.

[@deanlol]

One of the problems with brewing that I'm finding is how people are using the Imperial system and the Metric system interchangeably. We have had devastating results in rocket science because of issues like this. How can we predictably make good wine if we use liters, grams, pounds, gallons and ounces all together as units of measurement?

[@DIYFermentation]

I agree, I remember a mars mission that was lost because of this. I generally now just use the imperial system. This video I had little choice but to mix the two. I eventually created a spreadsheet to crunch the numbers and spit out the results in both metric and imperial.

[@deanlol]

@@DIYFermentation I guess that's what I'm going to have to do.

[@williamk2023]

👍.

[@mohamedazwaw5845]

how you got 1080 thanks

[@ellederberryblue8377]

Yes??

[@velurajkumar5435]

Pleas explain how much yeast to put 1 liter of water

[@DIYFermentation]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKvGdZudaLGNf9U

[@ellederberryblue8377]

Are you saying that you take a hydrometer reading before ANY sugar at all? Meaning the reading is from just fruit and water?

[@DIYFermentation]

That is correct.

[@avanti2762]

@@DIYFermentation But how do you do that? For example if im making a one gallon batch, do you add the fruit and water all the way upto the one gallon mark and then take an sg? and then you calculate sugar and take water back out of the must, dissolve with sugar and add it back into the must?

[@tominva4121]

Now - if your making Mead what is amount of Honey compared Sugar?

[@DIYFermentation]

Sorry, that is for another video at another time.

[@dooomswear303]

@@DIYFermentation rude

[@flawdanative3223]

It's called "Must" not 'Musk'.

[@shashatheonly]

i dont quite understand. you said your goal starting SG is 1.080 for 12.5% ABV. but with my calculations you will only get 11% ABV if you start with 1.080.

[@mosesgitari9085]

19 from where?

[@DIYFermentation]

Source material used for the video: mpesgens.home.xs4all.nl/thwp/sugar.html

[@titusinkitchen158]

19 grams of suger for 1% of alcohol is the same always, is that is the formula?

[@DIYFermentation]

The formulas for this video can be found here: mpesgens.home.xs4all.nl/thwp/sugar.html

[@earlgrae]

its Must, not Musk 😄

[@dvsmotions]

FYI, it's called must not musk.

[@DIYFermentation]

Point taken.

[@penelopepitstop7748]

@@DIYFermentation But what an ugly sentence... 😕

[@robinbranco437]

How about a new video? 1 gal of motts 2 cups light brown sugar 1/2 pack of bread yeast??

[@royalecrafts6252]

1000 is the value of distilled water

[@panzak83]

You are really simplifing all the prosedure in your videos but today you lost me at the part of ABV calculation

[@DIYFermentation]

Yes, I know this one was a bit outside the level of this channel, but it needed to be done.

[@BjornHansen314]

I dont have a hydrometer or anything like that. So im just guessing. What is the starting gravity of ordinary 100% apple juice? 1.045 is what I have heard. My math may be wrong, but i calculated if you want 12.5 abv in store bought apple juice you need to add approximately 2.25 cups of sugar to one gallon. 😊