Advanced · 23.0 litres · Aromatic white
Off-dry Riesling
Stopped short of dryness so the acidity has something to balance against. Getting the sugar to stay put is the entire technical content of this recipe, and it is not a matter of hoping.
Starting sugar
21.3 Brix
5.33 kg of fermentable sugar
Original gravity
1.089
from the ingredients, not asserted
Finishing gravity
0.999
off-dry
Alcohol
11.8%
Brix alone predicts 11.7 to 12.8%
Residual sugar
10 g/L
approximate, from gravity
Ready after
6 months
best around 5 years
Made to Aromatic white, and every computed figure lands inside the published range for it.
ABV inTA inpH inRS inWhat decides this wine
Stopping a fermentation on purpose, in the right order: chill hard to 2C, rack off the yeast, filter if you can, sulphite to a molecular target, add sorbate, and only then bottle. Skip a step and the yeast wakes up in the bottle.
What goes in
| Ingredient | Weight | Sugar | Volume | Share of sugar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riesling21.5 Brix (picked off the midpoint) | 35.00 kg | 5.33 kg | 22.75 L | 100% |
The ingredients contribute 22.8 litres and the water makes up the rest to 23 litres. Those figures are checked against each other when the site is built, because a recipe whose volumes do not add up produces a wine weaker or stronger than every number above.
Acid and sulphite
Acidity of the must
8.5 g/L
at pH 3.10
No malolactic
8.5 g/L
the acidity you measure is the acidity you keep
Potassium bicarbonate
26 g
to reach 7.5 g/L. Bench trial before treating the batch
Sulphite at bottling
0.7 g
potassium metabisulphite, for 18 mg/L free SO2 at pH 3.15
The batch
- Must volume
- 23 L
- Ferment at
- 12-16 C
- Molecular SO2 target
- 0.8 mg/L
- Malolactic
- No
- Yeast
- R2to 16%, medium N
The sulphite figure is worked out against the pH of the finished wine, not of the must. Malolactic and deacidification both raise pH, and dosing a finished red to its must pH under-protects it by roughly a third. Recompute for your own reading.
Method
- 01Press gently, sulphite at the press, settle cold and rack.
- 02Ferment at 12 to 16C and take a gravity reading daily once it is under 1.010.
- 03At the target gravity, crash to 2C immediately and hold it there for a week.
- 04Rack off the yeast into a clean, sulphited vessel. Filter at 0.45 micron if you have the means.
- 05Sulphite to the molecular target for this pH, then add potassium sorbate. Never sorbate without the sulphite.
- 06Hold at cellar temperature for a month and check the gravity has not moved before bottling.
The two instruments this recipe needs
Every number on this page came from a hydrometer reading and a pH reading. Without those two you are following a recipe rather than making a wine, and the sulphite figure in particular is meaningless without a pH you have actually measured.
Measuring
Hydrometer and trial jar
SOLIGT Triple Scale Hydrometer and Glass Test Jar for Wine, Beer, Mead & Cider - ABV, Brix and Gravity Test Kit
$18.98
Tracks the ferment from must to dry. The gap between your starting and finishing gravity is the only reliable way to know the alcohol you actually made.
Measuring
pH meter
Apera Instruments AI1113 pH Calibration Buffer Solution Kit (7.00, 4.00), 8 oz. Each
$18.00
The most important instrument on this page. pH decides how much of your sulphite is actually protecting the wine, and dosing without knowing it is guesswork.