Adding things to a wine kit.

[Skottytee]

Hi everyone this is my first post i joined a week or so ago and have found loads of threads extremely useful thank you.

This is my first year at making homebrew at home so a total novice and have only made fruit contry wines this summer which have come out great i think. Really think this is a hobbie for me :-)

So i bought a cheap wine kit a red solomon grundy which after buying i have found terrible reveiws and comments which is my own fault i should of reasearched.

I was wondering if anyone has addded extra ingredients to wine kits to make them taste better, better body etc? like more grape juice, oak chips any fruit or anything really?

Any comments would be great.

Thanks Scott.

 

[Graz]

WIth the kits it's really the quality and quantity of the grape juice concentrate that sets the cheap ones apart from the good ones. The more you spend the better they are. My Dad used to make the Solomon Grundy kits, they're drinkable but that's about as far as it goes.

It might be possible to boost it somewhat with a extra bit of grape juice concentrate e.g. http://www.wilko.com/wine-homebrew-kits/wilko-red-grape-concentrate-220g/invt/0067534

If the kit requires added sugar then adjust the amount accordingly to get your desired gravity / alcohol content.

Having now done a Wine Buddy White kit and a Cellar 7 Red I've decided I'll probably be spending about twice as much on my next red kit.

 

[110ben]

Like you my first red kit was a wineworks which was quite cheap and tasted like alcoholic ribena. I now only make winexpert world wines and Kenridge classic. Both come in at just under �£50 and make really good reds in my opinion. I prefer Shiraz and pinot noir but that is just me. Whites are different and i find wines around the �£30 and no added sugar required make very acceptable wines as does swmbo. Hope that helps. Oh yeah i forgot i get mine from creativewinemaking.co.uk as they have free delivery over �£45 and are competitively priced. Enjoy the hobby