I've got about 3 US gallons of grape wine a buddy of mine made starting with way too much sugar. He started with about 12 pounds in 5 gallons of juice. It's about 3 months old and well done fermenting of course with a final gravity of 1.050. I do not know what the starting was as he did not measure. He is a novice and was blindly following a recipe for 'Hillbilly wine' that he got off the net somewhere. Taste is about what you would expect. Very sweet grape. There is no way I can drink this stuff as I prefer dry wines and this is VERY sweet for even a sweet one. What can I expect if I distill it?

First thing that comes to mind is foaming because of the high sugar. Should I be worried about that and what can I do to remedy it?

Any ideas on good alcohol percentage to shoot for using an adjustable reflux still ,Brewhaus Pro Series II 2' column, in order to retain some of the good grape flavor while still getting a pretty clean product? I'm looking for quality versus quantity.

Or is there something else I should do with this stuff aside from giving it away or pouring it down the drain?

Any help or comments greatly appreciated.

Allen

I have tried restarting it twice. Once with champagne yeast and once with Distiller's Turbo even. As I stated before, the gravity is 1.050 which is plenty far below a usual starting point of 1.090 or so for a wine. I have no idea why it won't restart. Then again I'm new at all this and have much to learn.

Thanks Freebrew. I read earlier about Bayanus yeast a few threads up under a Hydrometer question and it seems that may would restart it but I would have to order some and wait on it. This wine doesn't really have enough potential to begin with to go through too much hassle for it as it is made from Concord grapes. I'll run it through the still sometime.

Should I use an anti-foaming agent like Brewhaus sells or with it only being 3 gallons in a 7 gallon boiler just run it as is?

Thanks

Allen

I doubt I'll make any port. Not exactly my thing. I'll keep your suggestion in mind for a buddy that likes it though. I will post back to this thread with the results. It will be 2 - 3 weeks before I get the still. Right now I'm just making some mashes and bottling them so I'll have plenty of stuff to play with when it gets in. That wine is going in for sure I've decided.

I'm currently making a grape with raspberry wine that I'm anxious to taste. I'm fermenting it to complete dryness and will sweeten slightly if needed when done. I started it New Year's Eve and it's still bubbling at the moment.

Thanks again.

When I make a sweet wine I always back sweeten with a simple syrup of 2 cups of sugar to one cup of water. Bring to a boil and let cool and then add potassium sorbate to all wines you are going to sweeten to keep re-fermentation from occuring in the bottles, and of course metabisulfite to keep oxidation from happening and kill any littles bugs that may be around. Not sure if you knew about the simple syrup so that is why I gave it to you. This formula can be used for larger batches just in the same portions. I always taste wines that I am sweeting and sweeten to taste. This has been very successful for me.

I know about it alright. That is basically what I boiled over last night, except it was 36 pounds of sugar in a stock pot to go into a wash.