How To Stabilise And Back Sweeten A Wine
One of the issues many new winemakers face is making a wine that is simply too dry, back sweetening a wine is a simple remedy that can transform the finished wine.
Back sweetening ranges from turning a really dry wine into a semi-dry wine that isn’t necessarily sweet, but suits your taste better. Or you can go all the way to creating a dessert wine that tastes sweet as dessert wines are intended to.
It is most often the case with fruit wines that rely on sugar as the primary fermentable. Plain sugar is 100% fermentable so when the yeast ferment the wine all of the sugars gets converted to alcohol leaving no residual sweetness. A wine that is too dry is fairly easy to remedy by back sweetening but you’ll need to make sure of a few things before just adding sugar to the wine.
Back Sweetening a wine involves adding a type of sugar or sweetener back into the already fermented wine. Before you can do this we need to make sure that the sugar we add isn’t going to start a second fermentation. To do this the wine needs to be stabilised which needs to be done once fermentation is completely finished and the wine has cleared.
Table of Contents
When To Stabilise A Wine?
To stabilise a wine we need to use additives such as potassium sorbate, it should be noted though that these kinds of additives won’t stop an active fermentation. The idea is to use the minimum amount of additives necessary to stabilise a wine. We don’t want to add lots of potassium sorbate in case it alters the flavour or colour of the wine.
The point where you want to stabilise a wine is once the fermentation is completely finished, we can check this using a hydrometer, in most cases, a fruit wine will finish at a specific gravity around or below 0.998 – 1.000. Secondly, we want the wine to have cleared, with the yeast sedimented to the bottom. If the wine is still hazy the yeast may be in suspension still so trying to stabilise the wine at this point would not work effectively. To stabilise a wine you’ll need an additive called potassium sorbate as well as sodium metabisulphite (Campden Tablets).
What Is Potassium Sorbate and Sodium Metabisulphite?
Potassium sorbate is an additive used extensively in the food industry as a preservative also called E202. It is used to prevent the growth of mould and yeast which is ideal for the winemaker.
The way it works is not to kill the yeast but to stop the yeast from reproducing. This means any live yeast will continue to ferment any sugars available but won’t be able to reproduce new yeast cells. This is why we need to completely finish fermentation before stabilising the wine.
Sodium Metabisulphite is more commonly known as Campden tablets to home winemakers, it works as a disinfectant, preservative and antioxidant in food. This inhibits the yeast but also prevents oxidisation in the wine which stabilises the flavour and colour of the wine
How To Stabilise A Wine?
Once the wine is at a point where you are ready to stabilise, of course, you will have sampled the wine and tested with a hydrometer, you’ll need to rack the cleared wine off any sediment into a new vessel. As we will be adding potassium sorbate and mixing any sediment will be stirred back into the wine which is not what we want.
Now with the wine in a new vessel, we can add the potassium sorbate and Campden tablet. You should pay attention to the recommended dosage instructed on the packages you have just in case they are differing strengths. The common dosage is 3/4 tsp of potassium sorbate and one Campden tablet.
Dissolve the additives in a small amount of boiled and cooled water until clear, the solution can then be added to the wine and mixed gently. Leave the wine for at least 12 hours before doing anything else.
Back Sweeten Your Wine
There are a few options as to what to sweeten your wine with. Plain sugar is the simplest, dissolve the sugar in water at a ratio of 1:1 and it can be dosed into the wine. Another option is to use a fruit juice. Grape juice, for instance, is going to add both flavour and sweetness that may be more desirable than just adding sugar. Glycerine is another option, it’s a liquid polyol that is colourless, flavourless and odourless that tastes really sweet plus it’s unfermentable as well. It’s also sold in home brew shops as wine sweetener as well as some pharmacies.
To keep things simple let’s say we want to back sweeten with sugar. You will want to dissolve a small amount of sugar, say 100 grams in 100 ml of water by boiling to create a sugar solution.
A small amount of this sugar solution can then be added to the wine. Add very small amounts, mix and test, it is very easy to over sweeten a wine.
To work out roughly how much you’ll need to use it’s you can take a small sample of wine to back sweeten. Take a small sample (100ml) of wine and add a few drops of the sugar solution at a time (a drop is 0.05 ml), keep sampling the wine to see when you reach the correct level of sweetness. Once you hit your sweetness extrapolate out the amount of sugar to the whole batch.
This same method is applicable if you are using fruit juice or other sweeteners.
It’s not an exact science but this method will give you a rough amount to aim for but always be prudent, you can’t really dry out an over sweetened wine. If you wanted to make a dessert wine, for example, with this strawberry wine simply add enough sugar so the balance is on the sweet side. Always sweeten the wine in bulk to get consistent results, it’s not a good idea to try and back sweeten by the bottle.
This is for what i am searching for. Thanks for sharing this helpful guide.
The common dosage is 3/4 tsp of potassium sorbate and one Campden tablet.
Is this for one gallon?
How big is the vessel. like in liter or gallon?
Hi, Johannes this would be per gallon / 4.5 litres.
Hi,Neil not sure what measuring standard you are using but in Canada a gallon is 4 liters and in the US it is 3.78 liters,perhaps you are using Australian measurement?
I am in the UK so I guess a gallon seems to be different in all these countries!
UK is a METRIC country. Change the recipe to LITERS and you’ll avoid these problems.
“Mandatory use of prescribed units for retail sales took effect in 1995 for packaged goods and in 2000 for goods sold loose by weight. The use of “supplementary indications” or alternative units (generally the traditional imperial units formerly used) was originally to have been permitted for only a limited period. That period being extended a number of times due to public resistance, until in 2009 the requirement to ultimately cease use of traditional units alongside metric units was finally removed.”
Noted!
This is to ‘metric’.
Technically the country may have been forced to be ‘metric’ … some of the PEOPLE stayed and have taught our post 2000 children imperial!
All cooking etc in our house is done on scales with imperial weights!
My children have on the way learnt several skilled missed by other children.
It’s 4.5l in Canada as well
Ziad, basically there are two standards for “gallons” US and Imperial. US standard is 3.78 litres to the US Gallon. Imperial gallon is 4.546 litres
1 imperial Gallon = 4.546 Liters
I have 4 one gallon glass bottles 2 (concord) 2 White Zin) SG 1000, Ph 4 in Ice box two weeks
Imperial gallon (UK, NZ, Australia) is 4.5 litres.
US gallon 3.8 litre
Not sure of other countries.
That’s why I like to have litre measurement as well in recipes, to know whose gallon is being referred to lol
Hi , i,m doing 5 gaallon plastic barrells so im getting this right-i,d add 5 tandem tablets and how much pottasium sorbate to stop the fermentation/// first timer ,trying to figure out THANK YOU ROSS
Yes, scale the amounts proportionally. The amounts here are for one gallon / 4.5 litres.
simple,if it calls for 3/4 of potassium sorbate to every gallon then multiply this by 5 =3.75
Hi, so after the wine is stabilised and back sweetened, is it ok to bottle straight away, or a good idea to let stand for a while? Thanks
Yes, I stabilise right before bottling.
>The common dosage is 3/4 tsp of potassium sorbate and one Campden tablet.
Dosage for how much liquid?
That would be for a gallon / 4.5 litres
Hi I sweetened my finished wine and added the stabilisers however my wine has started to ferment again. Should I leave it to finish then repeat the stabilisers again before bottling? It seems I have followed the wrong advice initially!
If it has started to ferment again then let it completely finish and clear. Most of the sugar added will have fermented out so sample again to check the sweetness and repeat the back sweetening process if necessary.
Hi Neil,
Our February 2020 Red 80 litres is sitting at 2.9 PH, we are considering back sweetening slightly, could sweetening also raise the PH or must we use another method to obtain 3.2 to 3.5 PH, or it is necessary at all.
Adding sugar in itself won’t change the pH but will make it taste less tart. If it is too tart or sour you would need to add a deacidifying agent such as potassium carbonate or to blend the wine with another with a higher pH.
Can I back sweeten wine that I have already bottled? I have made banana wine and bottled it with screw cap bottles so easy enough to undo and pour back into a fermentation bucket.
You can but you will risk oxidising it and it will be a lot of effort. I would probably just sweeten it when you come to drink it with a little sugar syrup.
How do you add the pot sorbate/campden tablet mixture and the sugar mixture into a carboy with a small neck? I’m using one gallon carboys, and the necks are quite thin. I don’t want to use a funnel as I want to prevent splashing. Do you have any tips for this?
A small amount of splashing may be unavoidable. It is not really a problem when adding sulphites in the form of Campden tablets because they scrub oxygen out of solution. A funnel is probably the way to go.
When I’m short a funnel and need one I just find a clean piece of paper and roll it into a funnel. Hope that helps.
I don’t know where ‘Metric’ gets their info but they are wrong.
The UK is still very mixed. Try going in a pub and ordering a litre of beer. They still sell 18mm thick plywood that is 8 foot x 4 foot. Go figure.
No they don’t, it’s sold metric one direction and imperial the other, and it’s called compromise. It’s not hard to work with both.
No idea what you are on about Gerry?
I’m a roofer, been laying ply wood for decades.
I know what I buy. My point was that Metric was talking nonsense (as are you).
The UK is only ‘metric’ on paper. It is still very MIXED. Got it?
Hi Lewie, in New Zealand used to be 8’x 4′, now 2.4m x 1.2m . It is a few millimeters short of 8 feet
This was a very informative, simple, and easy to follow guide, thank you for making this! 🙂
Hi Apple wine made 6 weeks ago have rack it no sediment seen have stabilised wine prior to back sweetening but has now gone a little cloudy should I wait longer than the 12 hour time to wait to clear again or carry on back sweerening
It sounds like fermentation may have restarted. If you have a hydrometer then take a reading before and after sweetening to ensure the sugar hasn’t been fermented.
Hi Neil, also in UK, so your litres-to-various country’s ‘gallons’ is very clear: litres are the same all over the world – 4.5 litres is nominally referred to as a ‘gallon’ in ye olde England-type recipes!
Back to your original topic of back-sweetening, I prefer to use concentrated grape juice to back sweeten and have always wondered whether the high sugar content – 64.5brix – or 213grams of ‘sugar’ per 250ml, in the juice will restart fermentation, even when finished with sorbate and campden tablet.
Conversely, I have always added the grape juice concentrate during the fermentation, and allowed for its ‘sugar’ content when calculating total sugar to be added. I notice that the grape juice concentrate contains ‘preservative E202’ – sorbate – in other words: do you think this minute amount would kill some of the yeast’s reproduction capability, and it might better be added at the end when all activity is stopped?
I think the preservative in the grape juice is for the shelf life of the product. Once diluted in the wine it wont be enough to prevent re-fermentation without further added sorbate.
The higher sugar content won’t matter as you will be adding less grape concentrate to sweeten by the same amount. Hope this makes sense
In Spain most bars sell ‘pints’ but are usually 500ml. I have also seen REAL British Pintts in Real British glasses as well. The Spanish don’t give a damn as long as they are selling beer. And what about ‘PUBS’ in France and Italy? The USA insists on being the odd man out and they apparently cannot give simple instructions on anything without a bloody lot of ‘faff’
I entered ONE REPLY but that reply has now appeard as a replu yn to every bloody comment< Something WRONG here, But what Im was going to say is that the SWEET WIT NE of HUNGARY TOKAY is sold and labelled a ONE to FIVE PUTTONYS with FIVE being of the highest quality. PUTTONY means BUCKET and represent the amount of RAW GRAPE JUICE added to the base wine after completed fermentation and stabilisation.
Any experience substituting phony sugar for us diabetics?
I have used a sweetener called erythritol before which I have used to back sweeten mead. The great thing about it is that it won’t ferment so you won’t even have to stabilise the wine before adding. Just make sure this won’t affect you in any way.
I have a concord wine that has been in the secondary fermenter for a month, all clear with a sediment on the bottom. I think its time to do something with it. I tasted it and it super dry, so I know I want to back sweeten it using this method. This is my first time ever making wine and while I like dry, this is a little too much. I also canned some grape juice from these same grapes. If I used that juice to back sweeten it, how can I know it’s safe to bottle? Do I need to leave it in a carboy with an airlock and watch it or can I just trust the potassium sorbate and campden tablets are gonna keep me from an unholy mess? Also, what about fortifying it with brandy instead? Or using both the homemade juice and the brandy? The juice has a 1/4 cup of sugar per quart of liquid. I only have about 3 gallons of wine to sweeten up.
This method will work for back sweetening the wine. The sugar is just replaced with the juice to get the level of sweetness you want and the sorbate and metabisulpfate will prevent further fermentation.
You can also consider fortifying the wine if you want, it won’t make the wine any sweeter unless you add some form of sweetener. You will need to calculate how much brandy to add to reach the desired ABV, a calculator such as this will be helpful – https://www.vinolab.hr/calculator/fortification-spirit-addition-en41
Reply to Gordon re diabetics there is a non fermentable sugar made from milk called
Lactose I use it to back sweeten my wines if to dry. It is available from home brew shops.