Home made wine

[becca]

I have just made a wine using fruit juice and sugar, grape juice, apple and mango, pineapple juice. After fermentation added a stabiliser. It has not cleared properly and has a sherry like taste. Should I add a bottle of shop bought wine to change taste and do I need to add some benotite to clear before bottling, thanks

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Did you degas the wine before adding the Stabiliser?

Have you used finings?

 

[jof]

The question is: is the sherry taste acceptable?

The clarity will eventually come with time. Probably months of it given that pineapple & mango based fruit juices can be quite cloudy.

You can help the clarity of some fruit wines by adding pectolytic enzyme right at the beginning when you mush your fruit/mix the juice.

 

[becca]

I did degass but tbh, hardly any co2 in compared to the kits previously used. Taste not really nice, had shot glass, but wouldn't be able to have a wine glass, that's why thinking of adding something for the taste, have used finings, not sure whether to add more or benotite, thanks

 

[jof]

If it doesn't taste nice, then you need to think.

Would it be possible to add something to improve it (I think unlikely)

Do you keep going, bottle it & shove it at the back of a cupboard for a year & home it improves. This is pragmatic choice if you have spare demijohns & plenty of patience.
This is particularly true with country wines.

Do you need your demijohn back to have another try.

Sometimes brewing is about making small improvements to a winning formula.
If you make big changes, it increases the risks of making something unpalatable.
And we all get occasional bad brews (I made 40 pints of drain cleaner last week)

 

[Chippy_Tea]

If it doesn't taste good I would bin it rather than spend more money trying to improve it

 

[becca]

Taste is good to diagnose what the issue is, and then it can be corrected.

What did it taste of?

Soapy, hot, vinegar, sweet, sharp, lemon juice, dry... makes you teeth itch? Sucks you cheeks it?

What are you getting?

Hi, hard to say, dry, fortified flavour, leaves a warm feeling after swallowing, like a brandy type drink

 

[becca]

If it doesn't taste nice, then you need to think.

Would it be possible to add something to improve it (I think unlikely)

Do you keep going, bottle it & shove it at the back of a cupboard for a year & home it improves. This is pragmatic choice if you have spare demijohns & plenty of patience.
This is particularly true with country wines.

Do you need your demijohn back to have another try.

Sometimes brewing is about making small improvements to a winning formula.
If you make big changes, it increases the risks of making something unpalatable.
And we all get occasional bad brews (I made 40 pints of drain cleaner last week)

Can bottle and stick in the shed for a few months and see how it goes, thanks

 

[MashBag]

The dryness can be lifted with a bit of sweetener. During artificial the big yellow top cheapy that most supermarkets carry is good.

Do you know the %?

Did you leave it with a bit of air in the DJ?

 

[An Ankoù]

If it doesn't taste good I would bin it rather than spend more money trying to improve it

Agree entirely.
But lets have some more details. Sherry is normally associated with oxidation, but with your recipe (you forgot to mention the kitchen sink) and what you say about brandy-like, hot alcohol, it;s probably just too young. How long has it been in the demijohn?
I think @jof is right- bottle it up and leave it a year. It could well turn out lovely. Mango and pineapple are not going to settle down quickly.

 

[becca]

The dryness can be lifted with a bit of sweetener. During artificial the big yellow top cheapy that most supermarkets carry is good.

Do you know the %?

Did you leave it with a bit of air in the DJ?

Using a 10 litre wine bucket, started with 9 litres so plenty of room at top, lost some with during fermentation stirred and it went a bit mad and bubbled out of bucket, lost a litre that way, racked twice so now down to around 7 litres. Last time checked hydrometer, it was touching bottom of bucket, tilted and right up to 980, so strong!!!!

 

[MashBag]

We have a winner. The sherry taste is oxygenation.

Best to ignore fermentations once they have started, unless there is fruit solids in them.

As soon as possible after fermentation, get the wine into bottles or jars with little or no airspace. And sulphite.

 

[MashBag]

Do you have any potassium metabisulphite?

 

[old dog new tricks]

As said sweetener can really help dry wines don't use too much tho

 

[becca]

Agree entirely.
But lets have some more details. Sherry is normally associated with oxidation, but with your recipe (you forgot to mention the kitchen sink) and what you say about brandy-like, hot alcohol, it;s probably just too young. How long has it been in the demijohn?
I think @jof is right- bottle it up and leave it a year. It could well turn out lovely. Mango and pineapple are not going to settle down quickly.

Thank u,will do that this weekend and just leave it, see how it turns out!!!

 

[becca]

Do you have any potassium metabisulphite?

Not at the moment, will make sure put less sugar in next time.e so not as strong, thank u for your advice

 

[jof]

The thing to remember is:
Beer brewers take about 6 weeks to finished product. So they can adjust & refine their techniques quite quickly.

If you make cider (traditionally from apples, not supermarket juice), your looking at 1 attempt per year at harvest time, so it takes longer to improve your technique.

For wine making, if you're not using kits, the cycle is often a minimum of 6 months. So don't be put off.
If you have space, time & spare containers(5l spring water bottles are a lot cheaper than demijohns), it might be worth making a batch every couple of months.
Also with wine, there are many fruit combinations to try before you get something that works for you.
I had reasonable success with blackberry & apple made with apple juice & foraged blackberries. Ready in about 6 months & blackberry season should start in a few weeks.

Mashbags advice about oxygen getting in is good too.
If you're working with a 10l wine fermenter, start it with 8l, to allow space for frothing up at the start.
After a couple of weeks, you can top it up to 10l with water (or split into 2 demijohns & top them up)
This is why wine recipies are often 'strong/have a lot of sugar' as you need to dilute them a bit each time you transfer/rack them so the container is full.

 

[becca]

The thing to remember is:
Beer brewers take about 6 weeks to finished product. So they can adjust & refine their techniques quite quickly.

If you make cider (traditionally from apples, not supermarket juice), your looking at 1 attempt per year at harvest time, so it takes longer to improve your technique.

For wine making, if you're not using kits, the cycle is often a minimum of 6 months. So don't be put off.
If you have space, time & spare containers(5l spring water bottles are a lot cheaper than demijohns), it might be worth making a batch every couple of months.
Also with wine, there are many fruit combinations to try before you get something that works for you.
I had reasonable success with blackberry & apple made with apple juice & foraged blackberries. Ready in about 6 months & blackberry season should start in a few weeks.

Mashbags advice about oxygen getting in is good too.
If you're working with a 10l wine fermenter, start it with 8l, to allow space for frothing up at the start.
After a couple of weeks, you can top it up to 10l with water (or split into 2 demijohns & top them up)
This is why wine recipies are often 'strong/have a lot of sugar' as you need to dilute them a bit each time you transfer/rack them so the container is full.

Oh right, I didn't like to add anything once I had the original mix, reading your post makes sense though. I have a glut of strawberries will be using in a month or so will learn from errors