Julie,
Understandable. I've found that most recipes are general guidelines,
and the fruit (among other things)you use can affect your outcome. A couple
of things you could do. After you rack, you could pour all the pulp into a
container, cover tightly, and refrigerate - if there is any good wine it
should float to the top and the lees will fall to the bottom, so you might
get a bit more to top up with. You can top up with water or a wine which is
similar to the wine you're making. Or you could buy some marbles and put
them in the secondary to raise the level of the wine to protect it.
You're right, adding water will dilute your wine a bit, but the
difference in your SG isn't (from my viewpoint) going to make that big of a
deal. I usually just round up or round down when figuring a % alcohol.
Or you could follow the recipe this time, see what happens, and then
modify the recipe yourself the next time. Maybe someone who's made this
recipe can help more.
Darlene

"Julie" > wrote in message
om...
> Hello all.
>
> I'm a wee bit frustrated on accuracy or lack thereof in the blueberry
> dessert recipe from the Winemaker Magazine. Things were fine until
> last night, when I was meant to be removing the pulp from the primary.
> This I did. I also took an S.G. reading (1.025). Then, the
> directions indicated I must top up the one gallon with water. Well,
> in order to top up a one gallon, that means I added 1.75 LITRES to my
> new wine. sg of 1.020.
>
> How on EARTH will that ever be accurate?????? That's almost half a
> gallon of water added to it. Even if it tastes fine, how on earth do
> I know what the heck I made, and how much alcohol volume there is????
>
> Thanks,
>
> Julie

Julie,
Understandable. I've found that most recipes are general guidelines,
and the fruit (among other things)you use can affect your outcome. A couple
of things you could do. After you rack, you could pour all the pulp into a
container, cover tightly, and refrigerate - if there is any good wine it
should float to the top and the lees will fall to the bottom, so you might
get a bit more to top up with. You can top up with water or a wine which is
similar to the wine you're making. Or you could buy some marbles and put
them in the secondary to raise the level of the wine to protect it.
You're right, adding water will dilute your wine a bit, but the
difference in your SG isn't (from my viewpoint) going to make that big of a
deal. I usually just round up or round down when figuring a % alcohol.
Or you could follow the recipe this time, see what happens, and then
modify the recipe yourself the next time. Maybe someone who's made this
recipe can help more.
Darlene

"Julie" > wrote in message
om...
> Hello all.
>
> I'm a wee bit frustrated on accuracy or lack thereof in the blueberry
> dessert recipe from the Winemaker Magazine. Things were fine until
> last night, when I was meant to be removing the pulp from the primary.
> This I did. I also took an S.G. reading (1.025). Then, the
> directions indicated I must top up the one gallon with water. Well,
> in order to top up a one gallon, that means I added 1.75 LITRES to my
> new wine. sg of 1.020.
>
> How on EARTH will that ever be accurate?????? That's almost half a
> gallon of water added to it. Even if it tastes fine, how on earth do
> I know what the heck I made, and how much alcohol volume there is????
>
> Thanks,
>
> Julie

Julie,
Understandable. I've found that most recipes are general guidelines,
and the fruit (among other things)you use can affect your outcome. A couple
of things you could do. After you rack, you could pour all the pulp into a
container, cover tightly, and refrigerate - if there is any good wine it
should float to the top and the lees will fall to the bottom, so you might
get a bit more to top up with. You can top up with water or a wine which is
similar to the wine you're making. Or you could buy some marbles and put
them in the secondary to raise the level of the wine to protect it.
You're right, adding water will dilute your wine a bit, but the
difference in your SG isn't (from my viewpoint) going to make that big of a
deal. I usually just round up or round down when figuring a % alcohol.
Or you could follow the recipe this time, see what happens, and then
modify the recipe yourself the next time. Maybe someone who's made this
recipe can help more.
Darlene

"Julie" > wrote in message
om...
> Hello all.
>
> I'm a wee bit frustrated on accuracy or lack thereof in the blueberry
> dessert recipe from the Winemaker Magazine. Things were fine until
> last night, when I was meant to be removing the pulp from the primary.
> This I did. I also took an S.G. reading (1.025). Then, the
> directions indicated I must top up the one gallon with water. Well,
> in order to top up a one gallon, that means I added 1.75 LITRES to my
> new wine. sg of 1.020.
>
> How on EARTH will that ever be accurate?????? That's almost half a
> gallon of water added to it. Even if it tastes fine, how on earth do
> I know what the heck I made, and how much alcohol volume there is????
>
> Thanks,
>
> Julie

Darlene is right and recipes are guidelines. That works okay for the
experienced but not so well for the neophyte. Also, recipes can be written
in different ways. A gal may be a British gallon or a US gal. Then most
recipes are written to start with a gal. This is a problem when you top up.
I think Jacks recipes are written to end with a gallon.

Anyway, a solution. Get some magnum wine bottles and some regulars and
maybe some splits. visit you local winemaking supply and get some small
bungs and some extra airlocks. Rack into wine bottles with airlocks and you
will not have to top up. or maybe only a little.

I personally hate using marbles if there is going to be any sediment at all.
It coats the marbles and you cannot cleanly rack the wine that is down in
the marbles. But then maybe that is just me.

Ray

"Julie" > wrote in message
om...
> Hello all.
>
> I'm a wee bit frustrated on accuracy or lack thereof in the blueberry
> dessert recipe from the Winemaker Magazine. Things were fine until
> last night, when I was meant to be removing the pulp from the primary.
> This I did. I also took an S.G. reading (1.025). Then, the
> directions indicated I must top up the one gallon with water. Well,
> in order to top up a one gallon, that means I added 1.75 LITRES to my
> new wine. sg of 1.020.
>
> How on EARTH will that ever be accurate?????? That's almost half a
> gallon of water added to it. Even if it tastes fine, how on earth do
> I know what the heck I made, and how much alcohol volume there is????
>
> Thanks,
>
> Julie

Darlene is right and recipes are guidelines. That works okay for the
experienced but not so well for the neophyte. Also, recipes can be written
in different ways. A gal may be a British gallon or a US gal. Then most
recipes are written to start with a gal. This is a problem when you top up.
I think Jacks recipes are written to end with a gallon.

Anyway, a solution. Get some magnum wine bottles and some regulars and
maybe some splits. visit you local winemaking supply and get some small
bungs and some extra airlocks. Rack into wine bottles with airlocks and you
will not have to top up. or maybe only a little.

I personally hate using marbles if there is going to be any sediment at all.
It coats the marbles and you cannot cleanly rack the wine that is down in
the marbles. But then maybe that is just me.

Ray

"Julie" > wrote in message
om...
> Hello all.
>
> I'm a wee bit frustrated on accuracy or lack thereof in the blueberry
> dessert recipe from the Winemaker Magazine. Things were fine until
> last night, when I was meant to be removing the pulp from the primary.
> This I did. I also took an S.G. reading (1.025). Then, the
> directions indicated I must top up the one gallon with water. Well,
> in order to top up a one gallon, that means I added 1.75 LITRES to my
> new wine. sg of 1.020.
>
> How on EARTH will that ever be accurate?????? That's almost half a
> gallon of water added to it. Even if it tastes fine, how on earth do
> I know what the heck I made, and how much alcohol volume there is????
>
> Thanks,
>
> Julie

Thanks for the input. What I'm really looking for is whether it's
actually possible to calculate accurately the alcohol volume of the
finished product if I've added water.

The rest of the msg was more a drawn out b*tch session against the
recipe. I usually use recipes as a vague sort of guideline, but
decided to follow this one, as it's a dessert style and made a bit
differently than I've made in the past. I didn't bother reading down
far enough to see that I'd be topping up with that much water. I
*could* have just left it, and it looked stunningly thick and
flavourful, but followed the recipe instead.

Even if it were a US gallon (4.5l) rather than the other (what is the
other?) of 4L, it's still a whole lot of water to top up... The recipe
left me with only 3 litres to play with. forget the marbles. That's
just crap - doing all of that for 3 litres of wine. craziness. Okay.
Second rant. My apologies. huh. so I'm still left with no clue as
to what I now have on my hands. CAN I find out? Is it possible?

"Ray" > wrote in message m>...
> Darlene is right and recipes are guidelines. That works okay for the
> experienced but not so well for the neophyte. Also, recipes can be written
> in different ways. A gal may be a British gallon or a US gal. Then most
> recipes are written to start with a gal. This is a problem when you top up.
> I think Jacks recipes are written to end with a gallon.
>
> Anyway, a solution. Get some magnum wine bottles and some regulars and
> maybe some splits. visit you local winemaking supply and get some small
> bungs and some extra airlocks. Rack into wine bottles with airlocks and you
> will not have to top up. or maybe only a little.
>
> I personally hate using marbles if there is going to be any sediment at all.
> It coats the marbles and you cannot cleanly rack the wine that is down in
> the marbles. But then maybe that is just me.
>
> Ray
>
> "Julie" > wrote in message
> om...
> > Hello all.
> >
> > I'm a wee bit frustrated on accuracy or lack thereof in the blueberry
> > dessert recipe from the Winemaker Magazine. Things were fine until
> > last night, when I was meant to be removing the pulp from the primary.
> > This I did. I also took an S.G. reading (1.025). Then, the
> > directions indicated I must top up the one gallon with water. Well,
> > in order to top up a one gallon, that means I added 1.75 LITRES to my
> > new wine. sg of 1.020.
> >
> > How on EARTH will that ever be accurate?????? That's almost half a
> > gallon of water added to it. Even if it tastes fine, how on earth do
> > I know what the heck I made, and how much alcohol volume there is????
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Julie

Julie typed:
> Thanks for the input. What I'm really looking for is whether
> it's actually possible to calculate accurately the alcohol volume
> of the finished product if I've added water.
> I'm still left with no clue as to what I now have on my hands.
> CAN I find out? Is it possible?
>
Julia,

It is quite possible and fairly easy to determine the alcohol content.

To calculate the abv: First, a sample of the finished beer or wine is
collected, brought to a temperature of 60º F and decarbonated. The
specific gravity is measured carefully and a very carefully measured
volume (i.e., 250ml or more) is placed in a pan and brought to a
gentle boil for about 10 minutes. The remainder is cooled to 60º F
again and returned to the graduated cylinder or other measuring
device, such as a volume flask. Distilled water is added to bring it
back to the original volume. After agitation, the specific gravity is
again measured at 60° F. The alcohol by volume is then calculated by
subtracting the final gravity from the gravity after boiling then
multiply the result by 469.5. For example, if the final gravity of
your product was 1.010 and the gravity after boiling was 1.021, the
abv would be (1.021-1.010) X 469.5= 5.2% abv.

The 60° requirement is due to the calibration temperature of the
hydrometer. If your hydro is calibrated at a different temp, use that
instead.

HTH,
PJ