hope my wow gets better!

[Wolverine]

just racked a gallon of wow followed the how to to the letter got an abv of 11.9 % which is good tasted my trial jar and it wasn't very nice. I know it isn't finished yet but will the flavour change much over the next few days /weeks? I will have to sweeten it up a bit is it best to stabilise and add normal sugar or artificial sweeter I have some youngs wine sweetener but it is a weird kind of sweet if that makes any sense?
I hope the wow is ok because I've got another 7 gallOns to drink !

I perhaps should add the wow had fermented for 2 weeks at about 20 - 24 degrees before racking

 

[simonkidder]

My wow didn't turn out the best. It has a strange twang to it. It's been in the bottle for about 2 months now aswel. It was my first wine attempt and I'm reluctant to have another go even tho I would like to make done more wine

 

[Mark1964]

we made it last year and it was excellent ive given some away and they want more

 

[31bb3]

My wow seems to be a right pita fermenting out i followed moleys how to got my sg to 1090 its been fermenting now for 5 weeks still only 1030 no life in the airlock for a few days so ive tasted it and its nice ive given it a stir and it seems to feremting slowly again my recipe was apple and grape rather than orange though

 

[Muddydisco]

Never had any problems with my wow's fermenting or tasting odd mrs loves them, we make 6 gallon at a time, can't keep the stuff on the shelf.

 

[The Goatreich]

I have to agree with muddydisco, I can't brew this fast enough to keep enough in the rack to age. My Mrs loves it!

 

[Wolverine]

Do any of you taste at the first racking stage? Is it nice at that stage for you aswell ? I know it's nowhere near ready but I thought it would taste young rather than almost horrible ?

 

[Titch]

its all in the yeast
was speakign to MD this week about it

ive used generic youngs and ritchies yeasts

but time to use proper yeasts

so people recommend you WOW yeasts please

 

[Muddydisco]

Vinters harvest yeast CL23 1 packet does 25ltr so I split it into 4 Dj's

 

[Wolverine]

I used youngs white wine yeast sachet.
The green packet one there is one that comes in an orange and white packet. It I don't know what the difference is

 

[Moley]

Do any of you taste at the first racking stage? Is it nice at that stage for you as well?

I may have a sip through a drinking straw to check it's ready for racking, and no, it won't be very nice at that stage.

 

[carl_saint]

I used youngs white wine yeast sachet.
The green packet one there is one that comes in an orange and white packet. It I don't know what the difference is

I use this yeast as well, turns out pleasant every time!

 

[oldbloke]

I started a WOW last July, bottled it in September.
It was just about OK, but I wondered why everybody was so into the stuff, coz it wasn't great.
Just had a bottle of it today - about 6 months later - and it's very much improved. Still not fantastic, but very palatable.

I guess it will vary a lot depending on exactly which juices yeasts and other extras are used, and what temperature it ferments at, etc etc etc

 

[Mark1964]

your obviously not making it right then

 

[brews-brothers]

When I made my first WOW I got the quantites of orange juice wrong and it was a disaster. I made it again with Tesco WGJ and Tesco fresh orange juice and followed the recipe down to the dot. Again it was not great, it tasted quite watery really. I thought I would give it ago with WGJ and Tesco Pineapple. It did have a faint pineapple taste but again it was a bit watery. Really not great.

Bit wary about trying again and cant see what I could do different to make it less watery. (maybe try making it up to less than a gallon???)
The yeast I used was Youngs high alcohol yeast.
any ideas to help me improve my WOW's....

BTW I have made lots and lots of similar wines using 2L of grape juice and a box of tea bags and this is always foolproof and very delicious.

 

[simonkidder]

I really want to make a good wine but I'm worried it will come out strange. Anyone got any good Rose wine recipes as the OH loves Rose

 

[Wolverine]

i used 1 liter of asda white grape and one liter of smart price orange from concentrate could it be the cheap orange? I'll wait till its finished before I judge it any further

 

[brizleciderarmy]

I cant remember which grape juice i used. I used the smart price orange juice though. Young's all purpose white yeast. Was gonna store the bottles for 3 months but they never lasted more than 3 weeks . The wine did have a bit of a potion taste and slightly medical. But from tasting and smelling i reckon it just needed time.

Back sweeten your wine with sugar when its ready, don't use none of that sweetener ****.

Mine was 3 weeks in the primary followed by 2 weeks clearing in the lean-to.

It will taste better with time.

 

[aneray]

I really want to make a good wine but I'm worried it will come out strange. Anyone got any good Rose wine recipes as the OH loves Rose

A very palatable Rose wine can be made the WOW way by using red grape juice instead of the white. Adding a few of the raspberry/strawberry and loganberry teabags improves it much further. A must is the addition of glycerin to all WOW type wines because it really does give a better mouth feel.

 

[hillbillycat65]

After reading everyones rave reviews about WOW I did 5 gallon straight off but when I bottled it I wasn't too impressed, a bit harsh i thought, but 2 months later, tried a bottle and then I thought WOW what a transformation, been doing it and variations for over a year now and it just gets better. Time and patience are two of the keys.