cheepo redneck wine

[adivadiv]

Hello everyone, newbie wine maker here although I have made lots of scrumpy in the past. Anyway after watching winemaking on the cheap on youtube, I thought that I would give it a go. This is what I have on the go so far.
All fermenting containers are 2 pint or 4 pint plastic milk containers. All of the bottles will be cleaned out wine bottles. I hate wine but my partner drinks 2 bottles every night and still gets up for work no problem.
I am sterilising everything with baby bottle steriliser from Tesco, 56 tablets for well under a £1 and you use 1 tablet to 4 pints of water. Oh and the airlock bungs are slightly too small so padded out with cling film and then cling film wrapped around the outside.
1/ 100% orange and mango fruit juice.
4 pint container
1ltr juice topped up with water and 1pound of dissolved table sugar.
Half a sachet of sparkling wine yeast.
Bubbled like crazy for 3 days but now settled to about 1 bubble every 5 seconds.
14.5% start reading.

2/ 100% pineapple juice.
4 pint container
1ltr juice topped up with water and 1 pound of dissolved sugar.
Half a sachet of sparkling wine yeast.
It went mental for 3 days shooting out of the airlock but now settled to 1 bubble a second approx.
15% start reading.

3/ 6 tea bags
2 pint container
6 Tetley teabags dissolved in 2pints of water with half a pound of sugar.
generous pinch of 5 year old bread yeast. I first put a pinch of 7 year old sparkling wine yeast in but nothing happened so it was probably dead.
11% start reading.
Balloon on top with 4 pinpricks.

4/ nescafe
2 pint container
6 teaspoons of nescafe dissolved in 2 pints of water with half a pound of sugar.
generous pinch of 5 year old bread yeast.
Balloon on top with 4 pinpricks.

Bit of fun if nothing else.
Next 100% orange juice (smooth) in 4 pints, and after that I plan to try 1 large bottle of Benylin original (expectorant) in 2 pints of water.

Have a great night
Ivor

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I hate wine but my partner drinks 2 bottles every night and still gets up for work no problem

WOW 2 bottles a night i thought our lass could drink.

Cheap Supermarket juice wine recipes and method here - http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=49462

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[simon12]

What I found cheap and good is fruit tea bag wine, its been years since I made it but the recipe was roughly 1 pack of sainsburies fruit tea one thats red boiled for 5-10 mins sugar to about 12% ABV (about 1050g for a demijohn) I may have put 1 normal tea bag in and just used standard wine yeast.

 

[adivadiv]

Thank you for the reply guys. I forgot to mention that I have hundreds of tomatoes almost ripening, so tomato wine added to the list. But I am really excited about the cough medicine wine because benylin original makes you very sleepy and I want to make a wine from that to stop my partner giving me earache every night.

 

[adivadiv]

Hello guy's. Well I have just transferred the orange and mango fruit juice wine to a different container and there is good news and bad news. The bad news, having started at 2lts, I only really got about 1 ltr from it because there was so much sediment in the bottom. I could have got a bit more if I filtered it but couldn't be bothered. At least I know to allow for that in future. The good news is, starting with a 14.5% reading at the beginning, the end reading was zero so it looks as if I got the full 14.5. The taste, well to me it taste like very fruity very alcoholic petrol lol. I will leave it to the expert when she gets home from work to try, whilst I wash my mouth out with some good cheap aldi lager. I will bottle it now and leave it for a while. So a couple of weeks for 1ltr of wobbly leg juice.

 

[Nicks90]

Have to admit I can't think why any of those wouldn't be drinkable...
Whether you would WANT to drink them, now that's a good question.

Benylin??????

 

[Chippy_Tea]

The taste, well to me it taste like very fruity very alcoholic petrol lol. .

Why not give this a go its tried and tested and has been made by many hundreds of members over the years - http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=49462

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[GerritT]

I've pushed apple juice to the limit by stacking it with sugar until the yeasties screamed for mercy... It was drinkable, backsweetening with diksap ("thick-juice", think 'concentrate') made it palatable and I was pleasantly surprised.

But two bottles a night and properly functioning the next day: yes, been there. Not on a daily base though
Your partner by any chance has a job in education?...

 

[Nicks90]

There is no way on earth my wife would drink anything with "diksap" in it.
Hahahaha hahahaha hahahaha

And neither would I!

 

[adivadiv]

Hello guy's, thanks for the reply's, and now an update.
I went a bit mad and still have the orange juice in the fridge but made 2 others. Tomato juice and a lido 2ltr mixed fruit juice.
The tea and coffee finished and bottled. Not very strong (probably the old bread yeast) and too sweet for me but her indoors likes it and sweetens her white wine with it.
The tomato, finished and bottled was made with sparkling wine yeast is very nice and about 12% ish .
The fruit juice not finished yet.
Now, the pineapple juice, wow. The end reading was zero so i may have got the 15% and it is delicious, in fact so good not only do I like it, but I am going make more in larger quantities. It is very strong.
I have learnt a few things. Using balloons is rubbish. Normal bungs are too small for milk containers and need to be packed out with cling film which is messy, I will try and get bigger ones. Using bland ingredients gives you a bland result ie. the tea and coffee. Bread yeast is ok for playing around but seems to die at fairly low alcohol levels but sparkling wine yeast is great.
The tomato juice wine is nice and a great colour but so much sediment, I have hundreds of tomatoes on my plants so I may try fresh. Have a great night guy's and I'll be back.

 

[GerritT]

Balloons work fine with smaller battles, I learnt when splitting batches into plastic 1.5 L bottles. So the missus likes 'm? Good, that gives you some rights to the kitchen Nah, I kid, it's always good to have a partner that's supportive. Got any pictures to show off?

 

[adivadiv]

Hello GerritT,

Thank you for your reply, dug out the fuji to take a few pics.
So from left to right.
The delicious pineapple 1.5 ltr, tea, coffee, tomato, orange and mango and then the unfinished mixed fruit.
I have got the tomato plants pics on my phone and can't be assed to plug it in to the pc lol. but can if requested.
Have a great night.
Ivor

 

[GerritT]

Oooh fancy wine capsules as well! And good colours!
Did you turn the ballon inside out by the way? So the talcum side is outside?

 

[adivadiv]

oh and oops, didn't know I had to lol.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Bread yeast is ok for playing around but seems to die at fairly low alcohol levels but sparkling wine yeast is great.

Bread yeast is OK for bread

Using bread yeast will give your wine a flavour you do not want and as it will die long before it reaches the mid teens ABV you will end up with something that tastes nasty and is also very sweet, yeast is cheap and goes a long way (i never use a heaped teaspoon per DJ as instructed and have never had one finish early) why not use the proper stuff.

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[adivadiv]

Hey Chippy_Tea, that's exactly what I found, the tea and coffee wine was just like drinking very sweet water. And yes sparking wine yeast is £1.10 in the homebrew shop and does 25 ltrs. I have lots of it now, and that is what I will always use now. Is it any good for making lager?

 

[GerritT]

Hey Chippy_Tea, that's exactly what I found, the tea and coffee wine was just like drinking very sweet water. And yes sparking wine yeast is £1.10 in the homebrew shop and does 25 ltrs. I have lots of it now, and that is what I will always use now. Is it any good for making lager?

Sorry but I'm afraid you'll have to use specific yeasts for specific ferments. But considering your setup you might try your hand at an ale? Lagers are a bit more difficult. Unless you have a few spare lagerfridges casually hanging around, waiting to get filled?

Having said that: bread yeast is essential for JOAMS. And I think it's something your missus might like!

 

[Nicks90]

adivadiv, one thing I learnt very early on is that the yeast is as important - if not more important - than the raw ingredients in any alcoholic brew.
It absolutely and completely defines the flavour profile.
Wine yeast for wine (with loads of varieties)
Beer yeast for beer
Cider yeast for cider

Yes you can mix and match, but only if you are absolutely sure you want that type of flavour profile