My wine tastes like vinegar, or harsh, or way too alcoholic.Updated 2 years ago

If you fermented your wine for a long time, or if you chose "dry" as your sweetness level, you might find that the end product tastes super alcoholic and kind of harsh. It might even taste like vinegar (but don't worry, it's not — it takes months for that process to occur).

This is because your yeast has eaten nearly all your juice's sugar, and without any sweetness to offset the alcohol, the harsh, alcoholic flavors will be more apparent.

But don't worry, we can fix it! Here are two common methods:

1). Age your drink in the refrigerator.

Over time, the malolactic culture in your brewsy bag will convert harsh malic acids in your wine to smoother, softer lactic acids, and the taste will rapidly improve.

It will taste better after a week, and even better after a month!

2).  Backsweeten it!

To backsweeten, you can microwave together one part sugar and one part water (or even better, juice!) to make a simple syrup.

Then, you can add it to your wine, tasting it occasionally to notice how the flavor changes until it reaches your desired sweetness.

Just a bit of sweetness goes a long way in balancing out harshness!