Alcohol Content of Wine

I am working on a new Riesling wine made from California grapes, and it is time to balance the sugar level and pick the alcohol content.

Most people would have no way of knowing, but my blog page that gets the most traffic is this table on alcohol content of wines that I put in months ago.

Here is a link to another one from http://www.alcoholcontents.com/wine/wine.htm.  I don't like it because it is far too vague.  The lesson is that regular white wines like Chardonnay and Riesling are at 10% for medium and 11.5% alcohol by volume for dry. Medium red wines start at 11% and go to 12%.  Dry reds are 12-14%.  Hardy deep reds can be as high as 17%. The author says that Shiraz and Syrah which are the same grape, have different alcohol content when made in the Australlian style (Shiraz) than in the French/California style (Syrah) -- not sure how believable that is.

Analytical work on wines show that the alcohol content on the label is almost always over reported. It would be smart to subtract 1% from all of them.

There are many ways to measure alcohol content, and about the simplest is distillation. Industrially, GC and a this Anton Paar flow-through densitometer are used. Jean Jacobson wrote  an in-depth segment in a monograph on Amazon. Another good link on alcohol measurement.

Thin Crust Pizza

I have come across a good thin crust pizza site that I want to recommend, and come back to. It is written by Steve Zinski.

This is a thin crust dough recipe, which is not the same as above:

3/4 c water
1 3/4 c bread flour - ideally high gluten flour
1/2 t salt
1/4 t sugar
1 T yeast

Squeezing the Merlot

I picked up a little wine press on Wednesday, it is a Weston Fruit and Wine Press Model 05-0101. It is a small press with the screw running through the center of the basket -- like many of the new ones.

I pressed the 2009 Merlot wine after six days with my new wine press.

I had run a malolactic fermentation for two days I used Bacchus by Lalvin for the starter. I am still unsure of the usefulness of the malolactic. I like how Wikipedia says that it imparts "roundness" to the flavor. I think it is defensive by using Oenococcus oeni,  one protects against less flavorful bacteria.   

The press worked well, although the free run juice accounted for the vast majority of the wine. For red wine, I am not sure how much I needed the press.

I bottled up the wine in a demijohn, but I only got 7.5 gallons for 109 pounds of grapes. I had been hoping for ten gallons. I think this is going to mean a follow up batch of something, or I may do a larger batch of white wine this year -- perhaps a white zinfandel or a blend.

The fermentation ran fast; density was 1.0 by four days. Now that it is in the demijohn, I am not seeing as much bubbling on the gas trap as I'd like. I am trying not to worry.

The 2009 Merlot

The big news this weekend is the 2009 Merlot, which is not really a Merlot, but a blend of two cases of merlot grapes with one case of syrah grapes. I got the grapes at California Wine Grapes in Detroit proper -- one of my favorite stores.

This was a big advance for me in that it involved grapes and not grape juice as last year. My little grape crusher ground through the three cases pretty well, but the sorting out of the grape stems took a while. I have a little grape press on order. Hope it is here by next weekend. [My DW has a request in for hard cider.]

The  grape juice was sweet at 1.105 by density -- perfect. The juice did not taste satisfying though. The White Grenache juice for last year was like liquid heaven -- so great to drink. The Merlot will no doubt be better after fermentation since it is not so great today.

The recipe for the wine is:

72 lb California Merlot grapes
36 lb California Syrah grapes
1.25 t potassium bisulfite
10 gram of pectic enzyme

Allow to sit overnight

1 packet of Montrachet from Red Star

The plan is to ferment until Friday, then:

Malto-lactic bacteria

Press the grapes on Saturday, and move to the secondary fermentors, which are glass demijohns.


More: Grape crates have these kitschy labels that the growers must like. I save these crates and organize my basement junk with them. Here is the label from this year's Merlot.

December 30, 2010 Update

I tasted this wine, and it was too acidic in flavor. I tried to measure the pH, and my (cheap little) pH meter did not read correctly. I added 1 gram of potassium carbonate per 750 ml bottle, and allowed the wine to age. 

This showed a bubbly reaction as the salt dissolved, and the carbonate bubbled into the air as carbon dioxide. The potassium ion is supposed to precipitate with tarterate ion and settle to the bottom. The wine is less tart than it was.

Non-Fermenting Sugars

I am toying with making a Hard Cider or sweeting some part of my 2009 Cherry wine. While I think that Spenda, sucralose, is an interesting idea, it is shockingly non-traditional, and I don't really like the idea of adding chlorinated chemicals to my wine.  [Of course I add it to my coffee, but -- well never mind.]

Spenda would work because it sweetens, but yeast can't digest it, so the  wine will be sweet to the taste rather than extra hearty.

The common solution is lactose, milk sugar, which is at right. It is notable because about 35% of the world's adults can't metabolize it, but then yeast can't either. It also isn't that sweet. Lactose is at right.

Another choice is malto-dextran, which is the main ingredient in corn syrup. It has not been degraded enough to ferment.

An excellent resource is this site from Aussie Home Brewing in Brisbane.

2009 Blueberry Wine and Wine Update

It's been three weeks since I started the blueberry wine, and I racked it for the first time today. I also removed it from its oversized demijohn and put in a three gallon carboy, where it will be for a while.

The flavor has changed a great deal in the last three weeks. The last remaining sweetness is gone. The wine is very fruity, very dark in color, strong tannin flavor, light in alcohol, very yeasty, and a little too sour. The color has changed and it is less red. It was more red than my cherry wine for a while.

I checked the pH and it was 3.2 by pH paper, which is about normal. I bought a little handheld pH meter and a set of standards, but I have set it up yet. I decided that regardless of what it was, it was too early to adjust it. I will wait for a few months before doing anything.

=======================================================================

Update on other wines:

It's been five weeks on the 2009 cherry wine -- so far so good.

It's nearing 10 months on the 2008 Merlot. I am going to have to transfer it out of its demijohn soon to make room for this year's grape wine. I am hoping to get petite Syrah grapes. If I do a white, it will be a Riesling.

I have been drinking my 10 month old 2008 White Grenache. After much work, I have gotten it to clarify with a bentonite addition. I like it better now that it is clear. I like it; it is a fruity simple wine -- not so complex.

Racking the 2009 Cherry and Blueberry

2009 Cherry Racking

It has been two weeks since I made the Cherry wine, and the sugar content is low. I can tell by the absence of sweetness -- I did not bother to measure it. I racked the wine a second time and took out about a gallon of lees.

I am worried about it. The sweetened cherry juice was delicious, but it tasted a bit like cherry cough syrup. Now that the sugar has fermented, there still is a distinct cherry cough syrup flavor. The wine seems to be on the strong side since I overshot the sugar at 1.12 rather than 1.08-1.09 like I wanted. I will worry about what to do with that later after the flavor matures. I probably will blend it with a white grape wine.

The cherry wine is very dark - as dark as my 2008 Merlot, and only slightly redder.

2009 Blueberry Wine -- First Racking

I measured the density (specific gravity) of the primary fermenter and got 1.022. This is pretty good, but I would have liked it to be lower after six days. I am concerned about spoilage so I transfered it to an oversized demijohn.

The flavor is pretty good right now, very fruity, but it is also sweet since the fermentation is not done. Hopefully it will keep going in the secondary fermenter.

At right is the partially fermented juice in the primary fermenter prior to racking. The color is redder than my cherry wine.