Dry hopped white wine

[Ciaran12s]

One for the winos,

I still haven't attempted a wine as yet and was thinking of doing a supermarket juice as recommended by chippy. However, I just can't see it being a winner with swmbo. Not that she'll dislike it, just that shed rather have here usual marlbrough sav blanc.

It's the gooseberry/grassiness she quotes as being the flavours she likes from the usual.
So I was thinking (always dangerous) of getting white grape juice from Waitrose if possible, and making up about 4 litres with some gooseberries in the mix. That will hopefully give the gooseberry tartness.
I was thinking of then dryhopping (probably with a citrusy American hop) to add a little grassy note.

Complete cobblers or worth a go? Anybody had any joy or success with something along these lines?

Cost wise it's probably well under a tenner so if it all goes horrible wrong
Its not a massive loss. Could be a real winner though! Maybe.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Got to be worth a try as you say if its awful it hasn't cost much.

 

[Ciaran12s]

So I got this one underway a few days ago.
4l white grape juice
2 cans gooseberries in light syrup
Strong tea
1 tsp bentonite
50g sugar.

The OG was 1.070 but that's with gooseberries floating on top and sugar still trapped within them.

I'm away for 3 weeks on Tuesday so will try a sample when I get home and maybe put some hops in depending on what it's like. Or bottle half and dry hop the other half.

I'm looking for some advice as to the process. So it's fermenting away quite happily, fermentation will, or should be well and truly finished by the time I get home. Is it a simple matter of racking to a bottling bucket and bottling? Is degassing a must? Is there anything else I'm missing?
Sorry for the daft questions, im just not sure how different the process is from that of beer!

 

[Ciaran12s]

The boss and I sampled some of my wine at the weekend. Not a great result unfortunately.

The first batch was promising but finished quite sweet, about 1.000 if I remember correctly. This one was wgj, 2 cans of gooseberries, sugar and tea made up to 4.5 litres. I did undershoot the sugar and topped it up later but couldn't get the yeast roused to consume it. I also used bentonite which may have prevented it from drying out.
It was quite nice, definitely a slight sauv blanc character to it, had it dried out it may well have been a complete success. I'll try it again anyway.

The second batch is awful and I don't reckon it'll ever be anything but. This was much the same recipe, but only 1 can of gooseberries and I dry hopped it. I didn't weigh the hops but about 10 pellets of northern brewer.
It tastes unpleasant, lifeless and has the aroma of cardboard packaging. This finished dry and I didn't bother with the bentonite, it's just as clear as the batch with the bentonite.

 

[tonyhibbett]

I tried to improve upon a cheap sauvignon blanc kit by adding fresh gooseberries and also made a straight gooseberry wine, which actually tasted a lot better. Neither of them tasted like sauvignon blanc!