Advice needed on wow recipe

[tommos76]

I've decided on having a go at making a wow and purchced some juice from Iceland. I've got red grape X 2, apple juice and orange juice all in 1 litre bottles. The sugar content is as follows per litre .red grape 65g, apple 115g and orange 100g. What quantities would be advisable to use to make a 1 gallon batch in a demijohn including sugar quantity? The bottles and made from concentrate and pasteurised so I assume I would need to boil the juice for 20 mins first.
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Martin

 

[LED_ZEP]

Check the labels for preservatives, if it's only juice water and citric acid you don't need to boil. When it says "drink" on the bottle and not juice it'll have a low percentage of actual juice and will be mainly water.
A rough guide is a total of 1Kg of sugar in a standard 4.5l Dj will give you around 12% ish ABV

If there are any sweeteners in the mix these will not ferment so you will have some residual sweetness when finished (not a bad thing)

 

[tommos76]

Thanks for your reply red grape mix is a juice drink and the orange and apple are only juice
The total sugar contact in the 4 bottles is 345 g so if I add 655 of DME to 500 ml of boiling water I should be around. The 12% mark? I would also have to boil the red grape juice for 20 mins.

I was going to add a teaspoon of citric acid and a teaspoon of stabiliser along with a cup of tea with 2 t bags.

Thanks
Martin

 

[LED_ZEP]

Don't add stabiliser until you want to stop fermentation, the tea is a good idea for extra tannin and I would go easy on the citric at first 1/4 - 1/2 tsp and add more at the bottling stage if needed.
Not sure I'd use DME for this type of brew, I'd just use normal table sugar.
No need to boil if there's no E202 or E224 on the label (they are the chemicals that are normally referred to as stabilisers).

 

[tommos76]

Thankyou for the advice I'm just about to fill a demijohn up so will lower the dose of citric acid and not use stabiliser.
I'm going to ferment dry then rack to another demijohn for a further month before bottling to mature. I would be adding stabiliser after fermentation has completed before racking.

Thanks
Martin

 

[Chippy_Tea]

If the juices are 100% juice i use 1.5 litre of apple and 1 litre of Red Grape Juice if the juice is only 50% juice you need to double up those juices or the finished wine will be thin, aim for a total sugar content of 1100g for 13%

Don't bother ageing these wines they do not get much better if at all with the exception of the original orange wine in the recipe thread which is awful when new and only a little less awful after a few weeks (some do like, it think of marmite)

 

[tommos76]

Thanks. It's all in demijohn now .in the end I used 2 litres of grape juice, 1 litre of apple juice and 1 litre of orange juice.
I added 570 grams of DME as I have a sack of it to use and got a reading of .992 on the hydrometer. It's not quite 4.5 litres but I think if I add any water to top up it will be too weak .
Martin

 

[Chippy_Tea]

. 992 is the finished reading it should be up near 1080.

Always stop filling at the shoulder of the DJ or you risk it going through the airlock when fermentation gets going.

 

[tommos76]

Sorry got distracted by my 2 kids running around lol. The reading I got today was 1.092 and with approximately 3.9 litres of mead in the demijohn.
Thanks
Martin

 

[tommos76]

My mother normally drinks a cheap £4.50.pinot grigio dry white . Would I expect to get a better quality wine than the cheap supermarket stuff?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I dont think you can compare what we make with shop bought wine it certainly does t have the same flavour but when you discover a combination of juices you like you won't compare it to shop bought wine you will enjoy it for what it is - your own.