First Wow wine brew. (not good)

[Scottyburto]

Hi all

I made my first WOW using "whole berry" cranberry juice, red grape and apple. I went for the "whole berry" juice as its ingredients were mostly white grape and apple and it was 69p in heron. Tbh im really disappointed with it! It tastes ok at first but has a really dry 'opened for days' cheap wine aftertaste coupled with a cranberry bitterness.

I left it in the fv for about 2 weeks as i broke my hydrometer when cleaning and never got chance to sort. I racked & added wilko 2 part finings and left for another week until clear then bottled.

Obviously no one else was there when i made it but is there any obvious noob mistakes that may have made that result in similar flavours?

Key questions are:
Was cranberry the mistake?
Is this what WOWs taste like anyway?
Is it the finings? (As most seem to use kwik clear or bentonite!)
Did i leave it on the trub too long?
Are u supposed to 'stop' a wine at a specific gravity?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts/musings!

 

[Tony Palmer]

The Gerry Fowles method (Straightforward Winemaking) is 1 litre grape juice (natural) and 2 litres apple juice (Lidl not from concentrate) + 450 g sugar per 4.5 Litres. Add nutrient (1tsp) , pectic enzyme (1tsp) and Tartaric acid (1tsp) maitain ~ 20 C

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Tony have a look at this -

How to make Supermarket Juice Wine - HERE.

.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Scotty i have made many (many) gallons of supermarket juice wines so i will give you my thoughts.

A lot of juices are not 100% juice so you need to double up if they are under 50%, i always use one litre of red grape juice (used to be white grape juice before it became scarce as mentioned below) in every DJ as this gives body to the wine then add one or two litres of the other juice to give it more flavour, mixed juices (white grape juice and some other juices) are to be avoided when you start out as getting the balance is too much like hard work, try the rose wine recipe at the bottom of this post and see what you think of the end result then you can compare it to the one you just made.

Was cranberry the mistake?

No cranberry juice wine is excelent and was one of our favourites until white grape juice became scarce.

Is this what WOWs taste like anyway?

No, non of my wines have ever tasted as described probably due to my earlier explanation above.

Is it the finings? (As most seem to use kwik clear or bentonite!)

Many members use wilko fining so you can rule that out.

Did i leave it on the trub too long?

No i have left it longer with no adverse effect.

Are u supposed to 'stop' a wine at a specific gravity?

You can but its best (in my opinion) to let it finish then back sweeten if required.


Rose wine

1 litre Red grape juice.

1.5 litre Apple Juice.

750g Sugar.

1 tsp Tannin or a mug of very strong black tea. (3 bags stirred every couple of minutes as you put the rest of the ingredients together)

1 tsp Yeast (i use youngs super wine yeast compound)

1 tsp Yeast Nutrient.

1 tsp Pectolase.

1 tsp Glycerine. (optional)

1 tsp citric acid or juice of one lemon. (optional)

 

[Scottyburto]

Thanks for all your answers, i will give ur recipe a go and report back! Main reason for doing a wow was to get experience of the process to i can buy a wine kit without the fear of ruining it!

I did take note of the 100% juice comments in the giant wow recipe thread. I think the mistake i made is too much sugar and using blended juices...

 

[Frogbrew]

I've made tons of wow variants, lost count, but still swear by the 1ltr rgj and 1ltr aj. +750g sugar.
The Morrison's rg,aj,rasp 2ltr also makes a cracking wow if you have one nearby.
Don't give up, start with a basic one and then experiment.

 

[GDog]

I experimented with WOWs, and made some great drinkeable stuff - all learning, as you point out. Wouldn't make one again though, once you are confident with sterilisation, bottling, racking, modern kits are the way forward to making wine that tastes 'shop bought'

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I make both kits and WOW's I still like playing with different juices and the small cost involved in the latter.