ASDA red grape juice, sultanas and black forests fruit wine

floydmeddler · Jul 9, 2024

I decided to make a 5L batch of sweet(ish) red wine for a change :-)

Recipe:
5L ASDA red grape juice (Gravity: 1.060) https://www.trolley.co.uk/product/asda-red-grape-juice/ELQ920
650g sultanas
500g frozen black forest fruits https://www.trolley.co.uk/product/asda-frozen-for-freshness-black-forest-fruits/VPG283

Pretty straight forward. I put the sultanas through the mincer on a fine plate then added them to a pot along with the juice. Black forest fruits were added then the whole mix was blitzed using a hand blender. I then passed it through a large brew bag into another pot. Gravity was 1.102. I heated the mix upt to 60c to (hopefully) kill off any bacteria. When it cooled, I added to the fermenter (corny keg) with yeast nutrient. Fermenting with S05 as I know this craps out at 12%ish. Worked well in a recent mead. I'm hoping this ends at around 1.014 as I really want a slightly sweet finish. Won't be bottling. Will serve from the keg it was fermented in. Planning on getting a floating dip tube added so that I don't have to worry about drawing up glasses of yeast.

The mix tasted wonderful. The black forest fruit mix added a lovely acidity. I could have drunk it as it was!

Any advice? What about adding tannins? Not really a wine maker so any thoughts most welcome!

Cheers!

Stu · Jul 9, 2024

No sugar at all?
Yeah, I'd have probably added a strong cup of tea. Always added that to any home-made wine.

jof · Jul 9, 2024

Isn't SO5 a beer yeast?
Do you find it works ok for wine?

MashBag · Jul 10, 2024

Proper of piste

I like your thinking of using the yeasts alcohol tolerance. To control sweetness. Stability worries me. If you leave some sugar in there, something is bound to find it and want to have a go. Once finished I would sulphite.

I assume you are planning to drink this quite quickly? It might struggle to clear, given the blitzer.
Cloudy doesn't matter.. Get some stoneware drinking glasses

This would make a nice winter warmer with some spices.

A bit more sugar and a bottle of cheap brandy would get you close to port.

Keep us posted.

MashBag · Jul 10, 2024

I used to know a bloke who make 12% loopy juice fron cheap orange squash. Surprisingly drinkable with ice on a summers evening.

floydmeddler · Jul 10, 2024

jof said:
Isn't SO5 a beer yeast?
Do you find it works ok for wine?

It sure is. It worked really well in a recent mead recipe so I thought I'd give it a shot here.

floydmeddler · Jul 10, 2024

MashBag said:
Proper of piste

I like your thinking of using the yeasts alcohol tolerance. To control sweetness. Stability worries me. If you leave some sugar in there, something is bound to find it and want to have a go. Once finished I would sulphite.

I assume you are planning to drink this quite quickly? It might struggle to clear, given the blitzer.
Cloudy doesn't matter.. Get some stoneware drinking glasses

This would make a nice winter warmer with some spices.

A bit more sugar and a bottle of cheap brandy would get you close to port.

Keep us posted.

Hey MB

Yep. A bit unorthadox :-)

I reckon it'll be stable in the keezer at 2c so can't imagine anything thriving in there. I want to avoid suphhites. Trying to keep this baby pure.

With regards to clarity, I'll hit it with some gelatine. Low temps will aid it too of course. Not planning on drinking it for around 3 months. Should be nice and settled then. Floating dip tube will help too of course.

Won't be carbed. I'll just hook gas up at 5psi to push out a bottles worth when I fancy it. Imagine I'll want to serve it at room temp too. Time will tell.

Better be feckin nice!

Fermenting along nicely ATM :-)

floydmeddler · Jul 10, 2024

Stu said:
No sugar at all?
Yeah, I'd have probably added a strong cup of tea. Always added that to any home-made wine.

I wanted to avoid sugar. Sultanas were a more appealing option for me.
I have some tannin so will add 1/4 tsp.

MashBag · Jul 10, 2024

Sounds good. The tannin is a good shout.

jof · Jul 10, 2024

MashBag said:
I used to know a bloke who make 12% loopy juice fron cheap orange squash. Surprisingly drinkable with ice on a summers evening.

Well he'll have done better than me.
Too much potassium sorbate in modern squash to make anything reasonable.

Stu · Jul 10, 2024

floydmeddler said:
I wanted to avoid sugar. Sultanas were a more appealing option for me.
I have some tannin so will add 1/4 tsp.

I wouldn't have put any sugar in the tea.
Literally, a very strong cup of black tea.

floydmeddler · Jul 25, 2024

Update. Fermented down to 1.006. More than I was expecting. ABV: 12.6%.

It's tasting fantastic already. Those black forest fruits have added a lot of flavour. At the minute, it's tasting pretty berry forward. Perhaps half a bag would have sufficed. However, this flavour might mellow over time. I'd say it's tasting a bit acidic with those berries.

It's also lighter in colour than I was expecting. Definitely red, but I'm sure it'll be transparent when it clears. Much, much darker than rose, though.

I'm not detecting any sultana flavour. Was expecting this to come through. Maybe it will over time.

My reflections at the min:

Reduce black forest fruits by 50%
Up the sultanas to bring the must up by another 10 points - purely for a higher FG as my aim was to go for a sweet wine.

Another thought: Rather than sultanas which are a white grape, maybe I could experiment with currants - a red grape.

All in all, I'm over the moon with this so far. My wife even gave it the the thumbs up which says a lot!

An Ankoù · Jul 25, 2024

floydmeddler said:
Update. Fermented down to 1.006. More than I was expecting. ABV: 12.6%.

It hasn't fnished yet. I thin you can expect it to go down to 1000 since there are no complex sugars or dextrins in there. And yes, it;s going to be dry, but very nice.

floydmeddler · Jul 25, 2024

Hi An Akoul. I used a beer yeast (S05) as it stops fermenting around the 12.5% mark. Used it in a mead a few months back and this stopped fermenting at around 12.5 too. If it fermented down to 1.000, it would come in at arounf 13.5. I've never heard of S05 reaching that tolerance before. I could be wrong, though! We'll find out. :-)

floydmeddler · Jul 25, 2024

OK. So, I grabbed another litre of red grape juice from asda and some currants. I stick blended 340g of currants in the juice then brought it up to 60c and held it for 15 mins. Cooled it and took a gravity reading of 1.157. Added to the brew along with some yeast nutrient. Might need to add more yeast. We'll see if it takes off.

According to beersmith, with today's new addition and the original 5L combined, the SG would have been 1.112. Assuming the S05 won't tolerate anything above 13%, I 'should' get an FG of around 1.016. Current gravity should be 1.030 ish so not much more work for the yeast...

Ferment on little one!

floydmeddler · Sep 23, 2024

This is already VERY delicious. Pretty much crystal clear, too. Very rich. Massive flavour. Sweetness is just right - adds 'jam' flavours. I know that doesn't sound appetising, but think of the 'jamminess' of those big Aussie red wines - like that :-)

Those forest fruits have mellowed but are still in the forefront in a gentle way. So glad I added them. They kinda make this wine what it is. The cherries in particular have left an impression.

I know I should let it age but I can't see that happening...

100% brewing a bigger version with currants in place of sultanas. I need a whole corny of this. I think it will make it even richer and certainly darker in colour.

Will update more on this batch as time goes on and when I get round to doing a big batch I'll post, too.

Floyd

Lee Week · Oct 17, 2024

floydmeddler said:
This is already VERY delicious. Pretty much crystal clear, too. Very rich. Massive flavour. Sweetness is just right - adds 'jam' flavours. I know that doesn't sound appetising, but think of the 'jamminess' of those big Aussie red wines - like that :-)

Those forest fruits have mellowed but are still in the forefront in a gentle way. So glad I added them. They kinda make this wine what it is. The cherries in particular have left an impression.

I know I should let it age but I can't see that happening...

100% brewing a bigger version with currants in place of sultanas. I need a whole corny of this. I think it will make it even richer and certainly darker in colour.

Will update more on this batch as time goes on and when I get round to doing a big batch I'll post, too.

Floyd

Floyd

This sounds like my kind of wine, would you be happy to post the tweaked recipe for me to have a try?
Only just done my second brew, so have a long way to go on this journey!

lee

LoopyJuice · Nov 9, 2024

jof said:
Well he'll have done better than me.
Too much potassium sorbate in modern squash to make anything reasonable.

I have to say, this is true if you would be making it a strong percentage of squash, once watered down it's strength isnt nearly enough to stop fermentation, I used vimto once and it was decent as a cheapo loopy juice as said

Chippy_Tea · Nov 9, 2024

jof said:
Well he'll have done better than me.
Too much potassium sorbate in modern squash to make anything reasonable.

I don't know how i missed this first time around.

I totally agree Jof if the juice has preservative best avoided made Ribena wine when i first started i boiled it for 15 minutes as recommended in the recipe to get rid of the preservative (that didn't work) it took weeks to get to .1010 then stopped fermenting it was so sweet it was undrinkable.

Preservatives like sorbic acid and sodium benzoate inhibit yeast growth and reproduction in foods and beverages:

Sorbic acid
A weak acid that's often added to foods as a salt to prevent yeast and mould growth. Sorbic acid targets respiration, so fermenting yeasts are more resistant.

Sodium benzoate
A yeast inhibitor that's often found in soft drinks and used in winemaking to prevent spoilage and stop fermentation.

Chippy_Tea · Nov 9, 2024

LoopyJuice said:
I have to say, this is true if you would be making it a strong percentage of squash, once watered down it's strength isnt nearly enough to stop fermentation, I used vimto once and it was decent as a cheapo loopy juice as said

Sorry i couldn't disagree more you would have to water it down so much to stop the preservative effecting the yeast it would have little taste when finished fermenting.

If you want to make cheap great tasting wine here is a guide and many recipes - How to make wine from supermarket juice

ASDA red grape juice, sultanas and black forests fruit wine

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