Most wine recipies include a volume of water and suger to add. The sweet I understand, to get the correct specific gravity. But waht about the water?
Grape wine is the juice and thats it.
What is the rule of thumb for water amounts??
As you say, with grapes you do not usually dilute the wine as the grape has close to the right about of sugar and acid. Other fruit are not so blessed. Most recipes give the amount of fruit to go into a gal. So you add enough water to the juice or fruit to make a gal.
If you are truly working from scratch, then start with juice. If the SG is low, add sugar till it is where you want it. if it is high dilute until it is correct.
Then check pH and TA. If it is low adjust acidity by adding acid. If it is high, which is the usual case, then make up a sugar syrup of the SG level you want and dilute with it to get the right acidity. By diluting with the sugar solution instead of water you do not run the risk of getting the acidity right and then messing it up by adding sugar latter.
Ray
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