Last year I was short my regular carboy so I made up a California Cabernet Sauvignon kit to 19.5 litres rather than the suggested 23.5 litres. The results were incredible. The stuff tastes like $20+ a bottle wine and is only just over a year old.
I thought about this for bit to try and figure out what happened. I figure the kit makers are trying to get the most out of their juice so they make a kit to come in at 1.080, just above the level to make wine that will keep (19 Brix, 10.1 %). By reducing the water I increased the quality by 20%.
I'm about ready to start my second kit (the first is still in its infancy). It comes with 16 litres of juice/concentrate. This thread implies that I can make 16, 19.5, or 23.5 litres of wine. Sure wish I had samples of each to try before deciding what to do.
Let's say that I decide to make 19.5 instead of 23.5 litres. Should I reduce the rest of the ingredients proportionally (oak, metabisulate, sorbat, bentonite, ...)?
By not diluting the concentrate as recommended by the Kit's manufacturer, you may increase the quality of the wine, but you may run into some problems. You may increase the level of alcohol above of what was originally intended, making the wine more potent (if this is what you want you could just spike your wine with vodka), but you will also increase the wine's harshness and unbalance its flavor. If the yeast provided by the kit is not alcohol tolerant, you may not ferment all the fermentable sugars and the wine could end up sweeter than what was originally intended. In my experience, when I make 6 gallon (23,5 L) wine kits in a 5 gallon (19.5 L) batch, I need to age the wine more than 1 year before it looses the harsh flavor, while kits made as recommended, they are drinkable 6-8 months after bottling. Unfortunately, I have not made the same kit, side-by-side using both methods. That would be the best way to compare both methods and sample the wine at various time points to determine which is best. However, I am afraid that this will change depending on the type of kit and class of the grape.
I used the ingredients in the kit as supplied without reduction. Everything stayed in balance to produce an excellent wine. My kit was about 7.5 litres. If I fermented at that concentration I would be getting into ice wine territory!
Check the specific gravity and compare against the chart at
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to find out what your juice concentrate will produce. Most wine yeasts won't produce more than 14%. Look at the Brix link on the
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site to get an idea of sugar content for grapes and other fruit, should you want to experiment with other fruit wines. I had some strawberry wine last week that knocked my socks off. I experiment with small quantities in old gallon glass jugs. just for fun. Recently I am looking into wine vinegars as a way to spend some of my wines that have gone past. Anyway, I ramble on, back to your descision ...
How about splitting the batch?
Something I have done in the past is to split a batch. Let one half go longer before stopping it, so it is drier, for drinking with meals. The rest is for social occasions. If I want something in between, I can mix them later. They are all the same batch. no problem. Apply the same idea to the different concentrations
I agree that adding sugar to a weak juice is a waste ( unless you are making grappa!) I don't make my kits to more than 24 brix (1.100 S.G.) The alcohol will stay in balance with the flavor. Kit wine is balanced.
If you live in a warm place perhaps you can filter your wine or rack it more often to get rid of harshness. My Italian friend racks his monthly like they did in the old counrty. Get the wine off the sediment to improve the flavour he says.
I think filtering and my cold basement helps the most.
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