2 Magnum Red WIne Kits with modifications

[Berry454]

A brew shop online had a sale on the Magnum wine kits. I picked up 3 of the red wine and one of the rose for £15 each.

These are poor wine kits. Thin, not much body and are generally considered a do not buy.

They do however contain around a litre of grape concentrate. Combined with everything else in the kit it's worth £15 if you can make it a decent red!

So I decided to make these kits and throw some additions in! I'm using entirely Asda juices for the modifications as they are the only juices I use right now. For example, asdas red grape juice is made from 647 grapes. Far better than the juices which are just rehydrated from concentrate!

Kit 1
Magnum red wine kit
4 Lt Asda red grape juice
3 Lt blueberry juice
10 black tea bags
2850g sugar
Grape skin extract 25g

Kit 2
Magnum red wine kit
4 Lt Asda red grape juice
3 Lt cherry juice
10 black tea bags
2720g sugar
Grape skin extract 25g

Both kits come out to 1.085 giving a potential abv of 12-13%.

Both kits started yesterday and so far my initial impressions are that they will be a dark red and they honestly smell AMAZING.

Price break down the same for each kit
Magnum Kit £15
Red grape juice £4
Blueberry juice £3
Tea bags £0.40
Grape skin extract £2

Total £24.40

This so far smells and looks so much better than the £25 range kits I've brewed in the past. So if it turns out as good as it looks then this could be a great value red!

Day 1 blueberry

Day 1 cherry

 

[Berry454]

Day 2 update

Fermentation has started off vigorously! It's only been 14 hours since I pitched the yeast and they're already foaming like crazy!

Blueberry

Cherry

 

[Berry454]

About an hour after the last update they both foamed over the fermenting barrels.

I've now removed the lids and airlocks and I'll be fermenting these out with just a loose fitting lid. The airlocks definitely increase the risk of foaming with the additional pressure which builds up.

 

[soupdragon]

Nice experiment. Will be good to hear how they compare to the MYO red

Cheers Tom

 

[Berry454]

Update

Both kits are now finished.

Blueberry Magnum

FG 0.998

Cherry Magnum

FG 1.000

Racked them both off and surprisingly the wine is very clear before even adding the finnings. A large sediment was left behind in both buckets after racking off.

They smell amazing. Great depth of aroma, fruity, Herby with a little spice on the nose.

The colour is a deep purple instead of the typical dark maroon of most cheap wine kits.

Stabilized, degassed and finnings added.

 

[Berry454]

Both kits are now bottled and I added 200ml of glycerine to each fermenter before bottling.

These are honestly some great wines. It completely taken me by surprise as I didn't expect much from this experiment. But woah, both kits easily compare to a £8-£10 bottle from the supermarket and they have only been bottled for a couple of days! Way way better than the results I've had from wine buddy, Solomon Grundy gold and even the cellar 7 kits that I have brewed.

This will be my go to wine now for reds. Definitely won't be buying the cheaper red kits from other brands.

The cherry and blueberry surprisingly came through well in both wines. Neither flavour was overpowering but just touches on the tongue a few seconds after drinking each wine. Light and subtle was exactly what I wanted for the added cherry and blueberry juice and it definitely worked.

 

[soupdragon]

Do you prefer the blueberry or the cherry? Not really a lover of cherries so if I ever remember to give this a go (still got 6 kits on the shelf to do, about 14 months of consumption), it'd probably be the blueberry

Cheers Tom

 

[Berry454]

Do you prefer the blueberry or the cherry? Not really a lover of cherries so if I ever remember to give this a go (still got 6 kits on the shelf to do, about 14 months of consumption), it'd probably be the blueberry

Cheers Tom

Definitely the cherry Tom but overall I just prefer cherries over blueberries.

Both wines have the same characteristics. Touch of blueberry or cherry as an after taste.

Definitely a great result and honestly I don't see why you couldn't do this with any of the cheap red kits. Just worked particularly well with the magnums because they are the cheapest kits on the market.

 

[soupdragon]

They're still on offer at creating winemaking but I need to use up some of stock before I dare buy anything else. Could almost start my own home brew shop with the amount of wine kits, beer kits and all grain kits I've got in my brew room got a perfectly organised schedule to follow so none of them go out of date

Cheers Tom

 

[Wineuncorkeduk]

Both kits are now bottled and I added 200ml of glycerine to each fermenter before bottling.

These are honestly some great wines. It completely taken me by surprise as I didn't expect much from this experiment. But woah, both kits easily compare to a £8-£10 bottle from the supermarket and they have only been bottled for a couple of days! Way way better than the results I've had from wine buddy, Solomon Grundy gold and even the cellar 7 kits that I have brewed.

This will be my go to wine now for reds. Definitely won't be buying the cheaper red kits from other brands.

The cherry and blueberry surprisingly came through well in both wines. Neither flavour was overpowering but just touches on the tongue a few seconds after drinking each wine. Light and subtle was exactly what I wanted for the added cherry and blueberry juice and it definitely worked.



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Great label designs