Have you ever had a wine that tasted great but was so sour that it removed the enamel from your teeth? Have you ever had a wine that was so "crisp" that you could use it to clean concrete? Have you ever had a wine that was so dry that in the desert with no water you would prefer to drink sand? Well, if you've answered yes to any of these questions, or you just want to add a little sweetness to your wine for no better reason than you have a sweet tooth and that's the way you like it, then welcome to the wonderful world of back sweetening.
Back sweetening is a popular technique among home winemakers to do just that -add some sweetness into their wine after fermentation is complete. It’s a great way to balance flavors, counterbalance acidity and fine-tune a wine that matches your taste preferences. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to back sweeten your wine:
Why Back Sweeten Wine?
There's no right or wrong answer to this question. Some like their wines dry. Other like it sweet. Back sweetening allows you to control the final sweet taste of your wine. During fermentation, yeast converts sugars into alcohol. Yeast has this habit of consuming all of the available sugars, which results in a dry wine, which is great if that's the way you like it. By adding some sweetness back into the wine, you can counterbalance aggressive acidity and achieve a balanced flavor profile. Also, judicious back sweetening can shorten the time until your wine is drinkable.
What You’ll Need
- Finished Wine: Our starting point is a wine that has fermented to completion and has been stabilized (To learn the nitty-gritty on stabilizing wine, click here).
- Sweetener: Common sweeteners include sugar, honey, grape juice, or simple syrup. If you can't be bothered with mixing your own sweetener, then you can also use a pre-mixed sweetener, which in the home wine making hobby is typically called wine conditioner.
- Stabilizers: Potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfite to prevent refermentation.
- Measuring Tools: Hydrometer or refractometer, and measuring cups. You don't have to use the hydrometer or refractometer. You can always sweeten simply to taste.
- Sanitized Equipment: Siphon and mixing container.
Step-by-Step Guide to Back Sweetening
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Stabilize Your Wine:
- Before adding any sweeteners, stabilize your wine to prevent refermentation. Add potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfite according to the manufacturer’s instructions, but typically this is one Campden tablet and 1/2 teaspoon of potassium sorbate per gallon of wine. This step is critical to ensure that the yeast does not restart fermentation when you add sugar.
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Determine Desired Sweetness:
- Taste your wine to decide how sweet you want it to be. You can make small test batches to find the right balance. A hydrometer or refractometer can help you measure the sugar levels accurately. This is fine if you are a numbers geek and want to keep detailed notes. Otherwise, you may simply sweeten to personal taste.
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Prepare Your Sweetener:
- You'll find it easier if you dissolve your sugar in a small amount of wine or water to create a simple syrup. This makes it easier to mix evenly into your wine. You can also sweeten with unfermented grape juice, but if so, make sure your juice is pasteurized to avoid introducing unwanted microbes.
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Add Sweetener to Wine:
- Gradually add the sweetener to your wine, stirring well to mix the suger completely. It's very important for thorough mixing, because otherwise you are not really tasting all of the sugar you've just added. Taste as you go to avoid over-sweetening. It’s better to add too little at first and adjust as needed.
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Let the Wine Settle:
- After sweetening, let the wine sit for a few days. This allows the flavors to properly integrate. What does this mean? Sometimes when sweetening, you taste a sample and you taste sugar and you taste wine, but they seem like two separate tastes. After a few days, these flavors meld together. We also like to wait a few days to make sure the stabilizers (potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfite) have worked properly. Give the wine a final taste test before bottling.
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Bottle Your Wine:
- Before bottling your wine, make sure the stabilizers have worked properly and the wine has not begun to ferment again. If you skip this step and later discover the wine has begun fermenting, then you will discover it later with corks shooting out of your bottles.
Tips and Tricks
- Experiment with Sweeteners: Different sweeteners add unique flavors. Honey can add rich floral notes, while grape juice can enhance the wine’s natural fruitiness. If you are sweetening a cider, for example, you can sweeten it with raspberry juice.
- Monitor Stability: Even with stabilizers, keep an eye on your bottled wine for any signs of refermentation, such as fizzing or increased pressure in the bottles. Once again, it's always best to have verified no re-fermentation before bottling the wine.
- Keep Notes: Okay, so we said earlier that you don't need fancy equipment like hydrometers or refractometers to back sweeten, but as a minimum you should at least keep notes. Record how much sweetener you used in a particular batch. This helps replicate successful recipes in the future.
Back sweetening is sweet! Okay, that's a lame joke, and I am rightfully ashamed (though I couldn't resist. What does that say about my mental state?), but back sweetening is another tool in our winemaker's repertoire that allows us to fine-tune our home-made wines to perfection. With some experimentation and careful attention to detail, you shape your wine to exactly the way you want it. And that's a prime reason why we love this hobby!