Wine Making - What Ingredients Part 2
Author: John Gygax


Sugar

Most winemakers use ordinary white granulated sugar, since this
is still the least expensive, the most convenient and the best.
Soft brown sugar may be used in the making of Madeira type wines
to produce a caramel taste akin to the madeira flavour. Cube
sugar, caster sugar and icing sugar are all more expensive but
nevertheless suitable. Golden syrup or a light treacle may be
used in red wines or strong dessert white wines, but the colour
and flavour of this sugar affects the colour and flavour of
light white wines. Fructose or glucose may also be used,
preferably some of each, though they can be used singly if
desired. Invert sugar is simply a mixture of fructose and
glucose which ferments very rapidly. It can be made by boiling a
solution of ordinary white granulated sugar with a teaspoonful
of citric acid for 20 minutes. Although invert sugar is used
extensively in the brewing industry its many advantages in
winemaking are less apparent than one first may think.
Commercial invert sugar contains 25% water, so 4 measures of
this is equal to 3 measures of granulated sugar.

Honey may be substituted for sugar in the ratio of 4 parts
honey to 3 parts sugar. It will affect the flavour slightly and
it is recommended that not more than one quarter to one third of
the sugar be so replaced, unless a honey flavour is required in
the wine. Similarly, malt extract may be used and the same
proportions apply. Black treacle and molasses should always be
avoided since they impart a most unpleasant taste to a wine.

Cereal as a source of carbo hydrate has limited merits.
Although the starch in the cereal can be converted to sugar by
the enzyme diastase, the grain imparts a flavour which can
hardly be described as vinous. They are most effective when used
as an additive to provide some body to a wine, rather than as a
main source of sugar.

Most winemakers add sugar to a must in its dry, granulated
crystals form, and stir till it is dissolved. Others prefer to
use a sugar syrup to effect a quicker dissolution of the sugar
without so much stirring, with its consequent admission of air
and, therefore, oxygen to the must. The usual formulae is 2 lb
sugar dissolved in 1 pint of boiling water to produce 2 pints of
syrup (1 kg dissolved in 62 els produces 1 litre). The solution
is covered and left to cool before use. If a syrup is used, less
water is required.

Lactose or milk sugar is sometimes used for sweetening a dry
wine. It cannot be fermented by ordinary wine yeast. The
quantity to use depends on the amount of sweetness desired of
course; about 20 grams (f oz) per bottle is enough for the
average palate. Saccharin - which is more than 500 times as
sweet as sugar -may also be used to sweeten a fermented wine. It
has no carbohydrate content and cannot be used for fermentation.


About The Author: John Gygax is a Powertool Fan
http://www.powertooldirect.co.uk