Grape Juice and Mango Juice

[Dutto]

In between brewing today's beer I had a stab at a wine with grape juice and mango juice from Lidl as follows:

6L - Lidl Red Grape Juice
1L - Lidl Mango Juice
0.5L - Strong Earl Grey Tea
0.75tsp - Pectolase
1kg - sugar
3pkts Wilco Wine Yeast

I boiled up the grape and mango juice, added the Earl Grey tea and split the resulting mixture into three DJ's.

I then topped up the DJ's with cold water to the shoulder of the jars and added 0.25tsp of pectolase to each DJ.

When the temperature dropped to 22 degrees I pitched one packet of Wilco's Wine Yeast into each DJ and took a composite SG.

The OG was 1.064 which should result in an ABV of just over 7% if fermented down to FG of 1.01.

I'm hoping that this will be a dry but very drinkable chilled wine for the summer.

Fingers crossed! :thumb: :thumb:

 

[cheapbrew]

sounds nice, keep us posted, can I ask why you boiled the juice?

 

[Dutto]

sounds nice, keep us posted, can I ask why you boiled the juice?

Apparently it gets rid of any preservatives which (in theory) could affect the yeast.

After I pitched the yeast I sat waiting for a beer brew to cool and had the pleasure of watching (for the first time ever) the yeast start to activate in the DJ's.

Fascinating. The yeast first fell to the bottom, formed a fine layer that slowly expanded and then lifted (like lifting the corner of a carpet) before heading for the surface.

In about an hour the yeast was fully active and the air-locks were bubbling away merrily; so maybe there is something in the theory? :thumb:

 

[Motorhomebrew]

I see people add tea to their wines etc. Why is this?

 

[Dutto]

I see people add tea to their wines etc. Why is this?

It is an easy way to add tannins which (amongst other things) gives the "pucker" factor to wine and stops it being sickly sweet.

Here's a much better explanation. :thumb:

http://www.wineanorak.com/tannins.htm

 

[Roddy]

lidl rjg doesn’t have any preservatives in it, don't know about the mango mind you ☺

 

[chewie]

If your wanting that wine dry you will want to let it ferment out completely, down to around .990 or thereabouts, at 1.01 it will still be quite sweet tasting.

 

[Dutto]

If your wanting that wine dry you will want to let it ferment out completely, down to around .990 or thereabouts, at 1.01 it will still be quite sweet tasting.

Hmmm!

Thanks for that. :thumb:

Got me thinking now!

I was looking for a light drinkable wine for summer with less than 8% ABV and missed that point!

Letting it ferment out to 0.990 will result in an ABV of just under 10% so now moved from "Hmmm!" to "Damn!" because I could have diluted it down to 1.050 to get the "dry and the under 8%" result. (Possibly plus another bottle as well!)

So, alternatives:

1. Carry on and go for a dry wine with an ABV of +/-10%? (Least work and less potential problems.)

2. Add some boiled water when the fermentation starts falling off? (Always possible to introduce nasties and spoil the taste.)

3. Hit it with Campden Tablets when the SG gets to 1.010 and have low alcohol sweet wine? (Didn't really want a sweet wine.)

Option 1 is the most appealing so that's one problem solved. :thumb: :thumb: Many thanks, and I'll be more carful next time!

I love this hobby. It's so simple it makes you want to cry! :smile: :smile:

 

[cheapbrew]

If its only just started I would boil n cool water and add 1/4 crushed campden tab leave for an hour or two and add it now.

 

[Dutto]

If its only just started I would boil n cool water and add 1/4 crushed campden tab leave for an hour or two and add it now.

Thanks for that.

The problem is that it is in three DJ's that are already full to the shoulder and the last time I added extra water (as per the instructions on three Wilco kits) I had three "boil overs"!

It will be easier to just wait for that batch to finish, have a wee taste and go for a second batch if it tastes better than battery acid; and try and get the second one right!

Thanks again. :thumb:

 

[cheapbrew]

You can always add water after trying it, but I've found this changes the taste and feel of the wine more than adding at the start.

 

[Motorhomebrew]

What sort of wine will using red grape juice produce? A rose style or more of a red? Is this a silly question? Also what style of wine would you get using green grape juice ( white grape juice) I dunno lol. I'm going to be giving your recipe ago tomorrow as it sounds like a nice drink, only as I'm a lover of mango I'm going with 2litres of mango juice

 

[cheapbrew]

yeah it makes a rose looking wine Rob, white grape juice obviously makes white wine, if you want a deep red wine there are several ways to achieve it, elderberries, or blackberries, dark fruits, raisins etc added to colour the wine, if you just want a table type red then adding red grape enricher or grape juice concentrate does a good job.

 

[Motorhomebrew]

Iv just made a batch of this. Is it worth adding any yeast nutrient with the wine yeast or will it not need it?

 

[cheapbrew]

Yes if you have yeast nutrient, you might as well give it the best chance.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I use youngs super wine yeast compound which contains nutrient, i still add a level teaspoon just to be on the safe side especially in winter when the kitchen is cold.

 

[Motorhomebrew]

Yeh I added wilkos yeast nutrient with a wilko wine yeast. The demijohns are now on the cooker with a heat belt round them

 

[cheapbrew]

Rob, did you use the recipe in the OP but with 2 mango and one less RGJ? or what did you use?

 

[Motorhomebrew]

Rob, did you use the recipe in the OP but with 2 mango and one less RGJ? or what did you use?

I used 4 grape juice and 2 mango. Devided into 2 demijohns and topped up with water. OG 1.064 hoping to ferment out to 0.998 or somewhere in that region. Should give me something around 9% other than taking out 1 grape juice and adding a mango I followed the recipe in the OP. So yeh what you said LOL

 

[cheapbrew]

Cool, no boil I assume?

and you didn't top up to top of dj did you? it might foam over into airlock