elderberry wine recipe question

Hello, I used your elderberry wine recipe last year and loved it. Thank you for such a great recipe. Is it possible to reduce the sugar for a lower alcohol volume just a little bit? I am afraid to alter the recipe and ruin the results.

Thank you,

Mary

Hi Mary,

Welcome to Permies.

Can you post the recipe you are using?

Welcome to Permies Mary. Good question.

Yes, the amount of sugar will impact the alcoholic content of the wine. The recipe I use calls for equal parts of sugar and elderberries, and the result is something around 5 percent alcohol. I've never tried to alter the ingredient ratios for the reason you mention.

If you want to try the less sugar route, I'd say experiment. Start with the full recipe and then try decreasing the amount of sugar in subsequent batches. That will give you an idea of what you like.

Another way to control the amount of alcohol is to stop the fermentation process before all the sugar has been converted. The problem with this is that you have to use a chemical to do it. I've never tried this because to me the chemicals are somehow icky.  

Leigh Tate wrote: Another way to control the amount of alcohol is to stop the fermentation process before all the sugar has been converted. The problem with this is that you have to use a chemical to do it. I've never tried this because to me the chemicals are somehow icky.  

A .45 micron filter would remove virtually all active yeast. I have heard of folks using 5 micron with good results as well.

I wonder if cold crashing it first followed by filtering would be the most efficient because the coolness would flocculate a lot of the yeast and drop it onto the lees. This would at least give the filter some relief instead of having to filter ALL the yeast in the brew.