[Sca-cooks] Wine Must and Honey?

[Terry Decker]

Must is the juice of pressed grapes, in other words, the basis of grape
wine.  It has naturally occurring sugars which can be fermented.  Honey is
the basis of mead.

What Drake is talking about is converting almost all the natural sugar to
alcohol to produce a very "dry" wine.

As I understand it, this doesn't answer the problem of making a beverage for
a diabetic because dry wines are still high in carbohydrates which break
down into sugars causing insulin demand.

Bear


>Greetings.  Drake wrote:
>>I suggest making a very dry wine from wine must or honey
>>(using a good champagne yeast like Lalvin 1117 or 1118) and adding
>>artificial sweetening post fermentation.
>
>Would you please clarify and/or expand for me about must and honey?
>Is the must considered a sugar?  Just what does the must do when
>making a wine?  Is it something like a "starter" for the wine?  From
>the sentence above, it looks as if no sugar would be needed if must
>were used.  And, it looks as if the must is equal to a sweetener.
>Therefore, could must be added to some other recipes where a
>sweetener is needed?
>
>I am asking because I recently read someone's article where s/he
>equated must with sugar, and since verjuice was sometimes used where
>must was used, extrapolated verjuice to be equal to a sugar.  I
>_know_ that isn't true, but never having worked with must, before I
>spout off to the person, I'd really like to understand just what the
>action of must is.  And, knowing the person, s/he will tell me that
>if must can be used in place of honey, then must "must be" a sugar.
>
>Alys Katharine, recouperating from Pennsic