How to Make a SWEET WINE at Home, Without Exploding Bottles

[@jakehenrion5255]

This is the video I needed! Back sweetening my kiwi wine soon and it will be the first sweetened wine for me. No one wants to waste months of waiting just to have bottles explode

[@jimdent351]

Glad you're doing videos again.

[@TheHomeWinemakingChannel]

Glad you are still a fan!! Thanks Jim!!!

[@alexlarsen6413]

Best home winemaking channel there is! 👍

[@TheHomeWinemakingChannel]

Thank you, Alex!!!

[@Flux_Flow]

Word of advice, be very careful when moving a large glass carboy. I accidentally bumped two together and one cracked. Next thing I knew, it fell apart. I had to move every appliance out of the kitchen to mop up. I was not injured but the cleanup was something else with 5 gallons.

[@doityourselflivinggardenin7986]

I've been back sweetening for years. So far, no grenades. I like that you put science and math to it. That makes your wines more predictable. My method is a bit more crude. I go by SG readings. After years of back sweetening, I know where to dial it in. You are correct however, in sweetening too much. I've done it before. Different wines require different SG. Red European red grapes don't taste good if sweetness is too noticable. However, berry and fruit wines can really take it. Not all cloudy wines should be restricted from back sweetening. Sometimes my peach wines will NEVER clarify. I literally have thrown EVERYTHING at them and they remain cloudy. I simply age them for a very long time and back sweeten them "blond". One batch is 3 years old and has absolutely no carbonation, but is still blond. Regardless, it is crazy good. If my back sweetening makes the wine go flabby I will add some acid blend. I let my back sweetened wine age for at least a month before serving. It needs that time to find its place. Otherwise, it tastes like sugary wine. Good video!

[@TheHomeWinemakingChannel]

Thanks for the great feedback. I will occasionally get a haze that won't clear in a fruit wine, which usually is from too much pectin. Some fruits seem to need about a double dose of pectic enzyme to prevent it. It could possibly be mineral based but who knows. You are right though, in some cases the wine could have very little yeast remaining but still have a haze. If you have tried both a positively charged and negatively charged fining agent (not at the same time), and hit it with a late dose of enzyme, there is not much more you can reasonably do. For fruit wines, I don't really care quite as much about that crystal clear sparkle, because you can always call it a "cider".

[@chrissewell1608]

I have let my wine ferment out, for months. Filtered it. Added the camden tablets to Kill the fermentation! Then let it sit in the carbuoy for a couple of more months, until I finally had a chance to bottle it. I did not have any problems with those bottles.

[@Jage_]

I love watching you for the technical videos. We need more quality content for wine/mead making like your format.

[@TheHomeWinemakingChannel]

Thank you!

[@NickDeWachter]

Good explanation, and not too technical. At least not for me 😅. One question though: why plain suger instead of using a non-fermentable one. Which is safer

[@billyz357]

Hi, I’m making my first batch of fruit wine. I racked it from the fermenter to a carboy. The bung on the carboy keeps popping up. Do I have an oversized bung? Under sized? What should I do to keep it down? Thank you

[@cameroncook6146]

I love your channel. I am new to wine making and I'm following your videos to learn. However I get confused on some videos you do this on others you say to do something different. I'm speaking about back sweeting. I'm following your Make wine from Welchs juice video and this is different then that video. Which one do I follow?

[@T.RockTx]

How about adding Splenda after fermentation to back sweeten the wine?

[@GEOPH2625]

That was complicated. I like the detailed steps. Thanks!

[@TL50-r9f]

Seems like I have been doing it somewhat backwards. I haven't had a 1 year aged bottle blow up yet. I usually rack 2 to 3 times till the wine is "clear", then add k-metabisulfite waiting 3 days before adding k-sorbate then wait 5 days and rack onto the sugar, wait 1 week then add kieselsol and chitosan(clearing agent), wait 2 weeks then I bottle. From what you are saying it's better to give the wine time to clear over months or use a clearing agent to clear it faster, then cold crash, rack, add sulfite, cold crash again, rack again then add k-sorbate then bottle?

[@GEOPH2625]

Do you have anything on making low abv wines? Like maybe 4-6%?

[@glleon80517]

Great video! For a sweet wine, what do think about not letting the wine go completely dry and then add a neutral spirit to stop the fermentation? This is the way I make port-style wine and I have never had a bottle bomb. You can use the Pearson Square method to figure out how much spirit to add to hit your target ABV.

[@joantrendafilov7963]

yeah because yeasts cannot survive in higher alcoholic environment. But this is fortified wine and not exactly what the video is about.

[@jb7489]

Great information as usual.

[@TheHomeWinemakingChannel]

Thank you!! Hope it helps if you sweeten your wine!!!

[@fustratedfisher]

I have a question? When racking wine and aging it do you add stabilizer agents and age the wine or age the wine without the stabilizer?

[@chrissewell1608]

You can age the wine, and may not even need a stabalizer. Or add the stabalizer, and let it age some more! Either way will work, as long as you know, that the wine won't start fermentation inside your bottles, and create a champaign or a bomb!

[@ThomasBerglund-y8f]

[@TheHomeWinemakingChannel]

Awesome. For the most part the fundamentals of winemaking and mead making are pretty similar. What is interesting about mead is that there isn't really a benchmark to shoot for. It is really the wild west out there, where people are trying all sorts of things... adding hops, spices, chocolate, cinnamon, etc. There are a lot of similarities to a country wine (non-grape based), where additional spices and flavoring agents are often added. I also have noticed that it is sometimes approached more like a beer from the start but other times more like a wine. Basically you can do whatever you want. You got me thinking, I may need to do another Pyment soon with some of my white wine from the backyard vineyard.

[@TL50-r9f]

great information.

[@TheHomeWinemakingChannel]

Thank you!

[@davidkraiger4377]

Nice, thank you

[@vellakoil_Kattuseval]

Nice stuff❤

[@TheHomeWinemakingChannel]

Thank you!

[@stanleygrover1685]

Like Dry ! But many like sweet!

[@TheHomeWinemakingChannel]

We end up making about 90% dry wines, and a few semi sweet to sweet wines to keep all the guests happy. I will never sweeten a premium red, but I will sometimes find that a half a percent or so of sugar will really balance out a crisp, dry white (especially if hasn't undergone malolactic fermentation). In those cases, I would still call it a "dry" wine but it just isn't bone dry where it is almost tart (thanks to the malic acid).

[@ianferguson3998]

It's called college girl wine.... I know I make it.

[@TheHomeWinemakingChannel]

Lol, you know what I'm talking about.

[@tylerstout1549]

Ironically, Not very long ago, sweet wine was the status quo and was reserved for VIP guests and served before meals. Also. Statistically, people who prefer sweet wine generally have more sensitive and nuanced palette

[@tvviewer4500]

@@tylerstout1549yeah who came up with those statistics? Someone who wanted to sell cheap wine to idiots

[@tylerstout1549]

@@tvviewer4500 tell me you're a moron without telling me you're a moron