How to Make Wine With High Amounts of Alcohol
Making wine with a higher alcohol content can be challenging. Most modern wine yeast, which turns sugar into alcohol, has been bred to produce wine with an approximate 10 percent alcohol content. Many different types of wine yeast are available, and you will have to pick the kind that is right for your specific taste in wine. Regardless of the type of wine yeast you use, you can determine the alcohol content. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Prepare the wine must in a gallon container according to your favorite recipe.
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Insert a hydrometer and measure the potential alcohol reading. For example, if the initial reading is 12 percent potential alcohol, check the hydrometer daily until the reading lowers to around 1 percent. That gives you an actual alcohol reading of 11 percent.
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Add sugar and bring the hydrometer back up to 5 percent. Read the hydrometer daily until the reading once again falls to 1 percent.
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Add sugar until the hydrometer reaches its highest level, perhaps 3 percent. Allow to ferment until the yeast is used up, and the hydrometer will have reached 0. At this point, the alcohol content will be 18 percent, which is considered high for wine. Using different yeasts and adding more or less sugar as the process runs its course will also aid in making a higher alcohol content wine.
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Tips & Warnings
Ferment your wine at a slightly higher temperature between 74 degrees and 78 degrees.
Also, make a starter yeast mixture. Pour yeast into a 50 ml of warm water, and allow it to sit for 1 minute. Dissolve 1 tbsp sugar and a pinch of yeast nutrient in 75 ml water, then once dissolved completely, mix the sugar water and yeast together. Let sit for 4 hours, and pour the starter into the must.
References
- Photo Credit bottle wine and glasses with a wine image by mashe from Fotolia.com
