Did you know a high percentage of alcohol is not everything? Indeed, most continental wines are made in the region of eight to eleven percent of alcohol. While there are wines made with the recipes based on the book, of course, wines made by the recipes in most winemaking books is a good deal stronger than the others made commercially.

Apparently, a good percentage of alcohol ensures that wines keep well and that the lower percentage of alcohol wines those under twelve percent might begin to ferment again at any time. This is true in a case where a stray yeast spore, either left in the wine or one reaching it at some later stage, will begin to reproduce and live on any sugar present. At this time, only the very driest of low percentage of alcohol wines will keep and these must be so dry that no unfermented sugar remains at all. However, not all of us like bone-dry wines.

When making low-alcohol wines, you just add enough sugar to make the amount of alcohol required and to allow the wine to ferment right out. Remember, the wine will be dry if less than two and a quarter pounds of sugar are used for one gallon. Now here’s your guide to produce the right amount of sugar and alcohol required in one gallon of wine;

Your aim in making low alcohol wines is to add just enough sugar to make the amount of alcohol needed and to allow the wine to ferment right out. The wine will be dry if you use less than two and a quarter pounds of sugar in one gallon. Now, take a look at the short table. The table here shows the amount of sugar needed to produce the amount of alcohol required in one gallon of wine. Note: if two gallons are being made, double the amount of sugar. Suppose you have decided on making wine of ten percent of alcohol, the amount of sugar must be one pound fourteen ounces per gallon.

To reduce dryness, you may sweeten the taste either by adding dissolved invert sugar or by dissolving household sugar. Care must be taken here to ensure that the wine doesn’t come in contact with metals. One pint of wine from one gallon will do, but make sure to put this into a china jar or similar vessel and stand this in a saucepan of water. You must add one teaspoonful of sugar for each bottle (one per gallon, six bottles) and warm the water until the sugar in the wine is dissolved. You must mix this with the bulk and sample. So if your wine is not quite sweet enough, you will know that they may be repeated.

You can also use Campden tablets, but if the wine is crystal clear, Campden tablets might cloud it slightly. So when this happened, rebottling might be necessary. It is also a good idea to use four grains of potassium metabisulphite in place of one Campden tablet; this should be enough to preserve one gallon of wine. You must crush the bisulphite crystals, and dissolve them in a little warmed wine and stir this into the bulk immediately after sweetening. Make sure the crystals are quite dissolved. One more tablet or four more grains of bisulphite crystals may be added without harmful effects, except that it might give just a hint of flavour to the most delicately flavored wines - though it will not affect those with a good all-round flavor.

Many people enjoy the taste of wine, but don’t need all the alcohol found in most wines, especially home brews. Jackie Seasword is experienced in masterfully crafting homemade wines and has discovered some tricks in creating a lower alcohol variety without giving up any flavor. To find homemade wine recipes, click on the link.

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