Adding Grape juice to a wine kit

[Shubit Innn]

Hi
I have recently acquired this wine kit.

https://brew2bottle.co.uk/products/...MIpN2u8Yag5QIVmoXVCh2L8Ao3EAQYASABEgJDufD_BwE

I was wondering about substituting 3 litres of water for Waitrose Merlot grape juice but it says on the bottle to keep refrigerated, will this be an issue ?.
I was also considering adding 20 or 30 Tesco berry teabags in boiling water for 30minutes before dissolving the sugar in the water. And maybe only making 25 bottles to give a higher ABV.
What are your thoughts ?
Many thanks.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

If you havet made the kit before why change it.

 

[Shubit Innn]

Good answer, I always like to add a personal touch if ever I make anything from a kit. I was just wondering if the grape juice would work.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Why not make it as per instructions see how it turns out first then experiment if it's not good you may find it's perfectly drinkable as is.

 

[johncrobinson]

IF you do feel you must experiment dont forget to reduce the added sugar otherwise it may not all ferment out.
I often add booster juice to wine kits (Its the matching booster to the kit)
But if you have not made this kit before why not as chippy_tea says make it as is then go from there.

 

[Shubit Innn]

Thanks for your replies. I think maybe I should have just made it as it come but I do like to experiment.
In the end I added 2 litres of welches Grape juice, kept the 3.5kg of sugar and made up to 24litres.
This gave an OG of 10.080 which I thought was a little low so I added another 0.5kg of sugar which made it about 10.097ish.
Fermentation is now on its 8th day and is bubbling away nicely. I took a reading and it's now at just under 10.030.

 

[Shubit Innn]

I had a bit of a disaster today. The spare room I'm brewing this in is thermostatically controlled with a small heater to be 25degrees C.
The heater setting for this is just over "1" on the dial and I've been checking day and night. Anyhow I was playing with the heater and became distracted. 5 hours later I discovered the room like a Sauna and The Dial was on "6", everything in the room was so hot to touch and the wine smelt very strong of sulphur. I've no idea how hot it was in that little room as I panicked and opened windows ect but a few hours later it was still 34degrees in there. Wine still bubbling away nicely but smells so bad. - Not happy

 

[Arcs]

So glad (not rubbing it in) that I got see to this thread before I make any mistakes with my winnings. I've never brewed wine before, so I was interested in your thoughts and possible mistake. I've been watching a few youtube threads and doing some research.

The only thing I am gonna change is use cane sugar and not brewing sugar to brew the white wine when I get my winnings posted. I believe they want an honest review as possible so that's what they are gonna get - after all it will hopefully sell the product.

This summer most of us went through some temp crisis or other with regards to brewing beer and wine. But I guess most of them turned out fine. My only problem was using gervin yeast and having FV eruptions which aint so bad once you get the hang of it.

Brewing short seems like a good idea to be honest, but what sort of abv are you looking for? 16%? 18? I've not tried a wine that is more than 14%. I am not so sure a shorter brewing time due to the heat and grape juice and brewing short will necessary give you the desired effect. But who am I to say that, I am just a wine nQQb so I dunno. Depends on the yeast and what it can tolerate heat wise. Had you used kviek (which would possibly been amusing and interesting) for that room and brew temp then you might not have needed to worry so much depending on the strain of yeast.

You are likely to have a false positive were your brewing time is slightly shorter. I would consider adding a wine sweetener if on first taste its sharp or bad. (see here https://www.biggerjugs.co.uk/produc...a0XuaBjmqHamXuCuDccRuP3l9hZKekwkaAnjIEALw_wcB) as an example, can also get from wilko.

The only bad beers I brewed were the first one I did because I was a nQQb and the burton bridge porter because it's a waste of time and tastes like pi$$. Let the temp drop off and perhaps also consider more brewing time till the fermentation stops.

If it tastes like **** do consider the sweetener and either ask for more advice or google it. Hope it turns out well in the end. I think it should be ok though and my own adventure with it should turn out fine as long as I sanitise. This is a cheap kit by standards of other wines which involve a few more ingredients and are not that hard to fathom. Good luck.

 

[Arcs]

Alot of suggested yeast is Gervin wine yeast. I haven't see what comes with the pack yet so I've no idea what's in it. With it being a cheapish at rrp of 25 quid resell at 15 quid, I'd hope that it would be gervin. But like Coopers beer kits, there's never a confirmation of what yeast is in the kit. Like I said. Good luck.

 

[druid1966]

I will brew it a bit short ( 3-4l short ) gives more body and a bit more ABV.. and will often add a 1/2 kilo of dark soaked raisons to add a bit more tannins. Seems to make otherwise average wine kits taste much much better.

 

[johncrobinson]

RE:> Shubit Innn. Sorry to hear of your disaster I had the same problem once when i swiched off a brew belt and the wine got cold,It stuck.!!!
My only failure in 40 yrs.

The problem is you now have hydrogen sulphide in your wine not very nice.!!!

I seem to remember reading in a book many years ago a simple method about getting rid of it. I cant remember what it was but I think it may have had something to do with copper.
The info about this should be online somewere.

A dedicated brewroom is great lucky you,Once you get that heater fixed.

RE:> ARCS 16-18% abv is high for a wine,There are techniques to achive this but the fermentation time will be extended to perhaps a month ore more.

 

[Arcs]

Thanks for the tip John, still waiting on the delivery from brew2bottle sadly. I wish Royal Mail would hurry up, I want to get to work on this, just bought some fermentables

 

[johncrobinson]

Know what you mean Arcs when i was 16yrs old i bought a camera mail order.After the first week I paced the floor every day waiting for the postie.

 

[johncrobinson]

By the way Arcs cane sugar is just fine for winemaking,I allways use good old granulated.

As allways there are exceptions namely when making high alcohol kits brewing sugar (glucose) is then a must to get max abv.

 

[Shubit Innn]

Thanks for all your help, this morning the sulphur smell has faded a lot, the wine is still fermenting away, it doesn't taste bad either and hydrometer is saying 10.015.
I'm gonna leave it as long as possible before moving onto the next stage.
I found an article that suggests running through a funnel with copper brilo pads inside into another bin but think I'm just gonna wait and see. I'll keep you posted.

 

[johncrobinson]

By the way i checked up it IS copper,( copper sulphate to be precise).
Used to be included in kids chemistry sets back in the day.
very little is required but i dont know where you would get it today ( "elf"and safety and all that).

If hydrogen suphide dosnt clear completely
Could try using a few offcuts of copper pipe as used by plumbers but dont leave them in the wine for to long as too much copper can be unheathy as well.

 

[johncrobinson]

Be aware most cheaper scourers are only copper plated. Use these and you could end up with a persistant iron haze in the wine.

 

[Keats]

I will brew it a bit short ( 3-4l short ) gives more body and a bit more ABV.. and will often add a 1/2 kilo of dark soaked raisons to add a bit more tannins. Seems to make otherwise average wine kits taste much much better.

What do you soak the raisins in? Just water or some type of spirit?

 

[druid1966]

I just used boiling water to rehydrate them and remove most of the suphides ..

 

[Keats]

Cheers, I guess that will kill off anything that could harm the wine too.