Sugar addition

I have a 2000 lbs of Washington cab/sav grapes from the freezer. The brix is 21 I am thinking about adding some sugar but am not sure how much to add per liter or per pound to increase the brix to 22 or 23.5? Can someone advise please me. Thank you.

Reply to
Jim
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umm... ahh... just how big IS your freezer? (insert punchlines here)

Reply to
bobdrob

Simple, less accurate formula:

  • 1.5 oz (42.5g) of sugar per USGal (3.785L) = +1 Brix

Complex, highly accurate formula:

Amount of sugar needed Weight of the must X {(Desired Brix - Actual Brix) / (100 - Desired Brix)}

Note: The weight of the Must = USgal of must X specific gravity X

8.346

Hence, if you want to increase 6 US gallons of must from a Brix of 17 to a Brix of 22 you would need:

Sugar needed (in Lbs) Must Weight X {(Desired Brix - Actual Brix) / (100 - Desired Brix)} (6 X 1.070 X 8.346) X {(22-17) / (100-22)} 53.58 X (5/78) 53.58 x .0641 3.43 Lbs 3 Lbs 7 oz.

Hope this helps, Guy

Reply to
guy

You are asking a somewhat complicated question, it all depends on how you intend to make the wine. If this is destemmed already, you can assume 60 to 65% of the weigth will end up wine. Assuming

Reply to
Joe Sallustio

Don't know what happened there...

You are asking a somewhat complicated question, it all depends on how you intend to make the wine. If this is de-stemmed already, you can assume 60 to 65% of the weight will end up wine. Assuming 10% was lost in racking that means you started with 132 to 143 gallons of must. (If you press hard you will get more.)

Using that I get around 20 pounds to raise your must by 1 brix. I'm using 17 grams per liter to equal 1 brix unit

143 US Gal * 3.785 = 541 L must * 17 g =-9201 g sugar/453.3 (g/lb) = 20 lbs sugar to raise 143 gallons of must by 1 brix.

It's common to not add sugar to the grapes if you press before dryness, it's added once you know how much must you have. Don't add it dry either, make sure it's mixed in either a batch of must you pulled off to mix or in water, either way make a syrup.

I would suggest you check my work considering your investment and download Lum's book, it will get you through all of this with ease.

Joe

Reply to
Joe Sallustio

Joe,

I curious why you used 17 grams of sugar per liter = 1 brix. Correct me if I'm wrong, but 10 grams of sugar brought up to 1 liter with water should be 1 brix. I would think more like 12 grams of sugar added to a liter of water would be 1 brix.

Andy

Reply to
JEP62

That does sound strange - 17-19g/L sugar is needed to raise alcohol by

1%, depending on reference, so maybe this is where Joe's number came from?

I've been using this tool for similar calculations, it's pretty handy:

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Pp

Reply to
pp

Guys, I think you are right, 17g is to raise alcohol by 1% not brix, it's on my good hydrometers, they are French. (If you have the books you should look things up and I have the books; I'm sharper in September when things are busy.)

0.92 kg sugar/100 l =1 brix unit. 541l/100 = 5.41 hl* 0.92= around 11 pounds sugar to raise this by 1 brix, not 20. I'm still guessing on the final volume of must, that could be off by 10%.

Thanks for the correction, Joe

Reply to
Joe Sallustio

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