red wrote:never tried parsnip - did it take long?
as to sweet or dry... well thats a matter of taste. maybe try more sugar next time and see?
mind you everytime i try and make a wine sweeter next time.. i seem to make it stronger....
Depends on the yeast type your using. If you use a modern high tolerence yeast it will convert as much sugar as possible to alcohol, up until it is inhibited by the presence of the alcohol (as it's toxic to yeast.)
These high tolerence yeasts will make upto and over 15% alcohol. If you use an old fasioned yeast, say a white white yeast from Germany, it'll drop out at a lower alcohol content , thus leaving residual sweetness.
There is a specific method to make sweet still wine, it's not easy. Consult a good home brew book there are 6 traditional methods of wine making, number 5 is usually still sweet, number 6 is sweet sparkling !.You basically make it dry , rack off, as much yeast as possible and gradually keep adding sugar and racking off. You can also kill off the yeast with campden tablets, then add some sugar solution watch it for a week to ensure no bubbles form then rak and bottle.
You can also use saccarin, but I wouldn't advise it.
And finally the method I use is: I hate sweet wine, but once in a while I get a batch that is too sweet. I bottle and keep this. Then when I get a batch that is too dry, I open the sweet and add to the dry (blending, just like the big wineries do!)
EDIT
I am supprised mind, I always find root crop wines far too sweet!. Once made potato which was like highly alcoholic sugar solution. It was a great blending wine!.
but its dry and we were wondering if it would be better to make it sweet next time - what do you think?
I have that problem too
That's a problem?