How can I prevent all my wine being Dry

The-forager

I find myself back sweetening every wine because it’s so dry. Is there a way to stop this happening every wine?
I don’t constantly watch my hydrometer readings as I ferment my wine in the garage, so don’t attend to it very often.

VikeMan

You could ferment with a yeast strain that will stop working when it reaches an ABV tolerance limit, leaving some unfermented sugars.

The-forager

Ok. I’m mainly using champagne yeast. I’ll try a general purpose yeast. Thank you.

Coffee49

1118 Lalvin is a good yeast for fruity finish taste but it helps to do a hygrometer check, usually 3 weeks and sweet wines are ready for 1st racking & add sorbate. Stopping the yeast early will help retain the flavor of the grape but will have a lower abv.

Raptor99

It depends on what alcohol level you are looking for. My opinion is that fruit wines usually taste best at 11-12% ABV. Most wine yeasts would not stop at that level, so I ferment it dry, then stabilize and backsweeten.

The-forager

Ok so you always stabilise. I never do this. It runs dry and I use glycerine to backsweeten. But it’s expensive where I live.
I’ll try your method. Thank you.

Raptor99

I only stabilize when I plan to backsweeten. I usually bulk age my wines 6-9 months, but I want to be sure that the yeast does not restart fermentation.
Glycerin is good to add body and a hint of sweetness. I add that to some of my fruit wines as well. Yeast won't digest glycerin, so you don't need to stabilize if you do not add sugar as well. But sugar is cheaper.

pvtpublic

Pro tip: Just add some water, and it won't be dry!

lumpher

I always stabilize my wine with potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfite, then backsweeten. If you want to just have the yeast get overloaded and stop fermenting, make a strong wine and use a clean ale yeast.

The-forager

Good tip. Would the ABV be similar to an ale though?
Why potassium metabisulfite? Won’t the sorbate halt fermentation on its own?

lumpher

Potassium Sorbate prevents the yeast from replicating. Potassium Metabisulfite not only kills existing yeast, it also acts as an antioxidant, which helps in long-term wine aging.
If you use ale yeast, it will go to the limit of it's fermentation range (usually lower than wine yeast), then die out. You won't get a high-class wine out of it, but you will get a decent table wine.

The-forager

That’s good info. Thank you.