Juices for first WOW

[acuk63]

Popped into Lidl and picked up 2l solevita Cranberry juice drink (minimum fruit content 25%) and 1l vitafit red grape juice (100% fruit content) to try out my first WOW variant.
Is 25% juice on the cranberry ok, or have I picked up the wrong juice?
If ok to use I reckon the cranberry has 220g sugar and the RGJ 161g, so was gonna add 700g sugar, does that sound OK?

 

[Frogbrew]

A bit low on the cranberry side, best to use 1ltr100% grape and 1ltr of 100% other juice or equivalent. You only have 50% cranberry, give it a try it may be fine.
Sugar content sounds fine to me, should get you around 11% i reckon, i usually aim for the 1100g totals or slightly under.

 

[BruinTuns]

My first Wow was made with 1l 100% grape juice and 2l of Fruits of The Forest drink and I think they were only 25% juice. It's decidedly thin on taste. Even the second one with rgj and 1l pure AJ isn't quite as tasty as I was hoping. From now on I'm always going to use a minimum of 2.5 l pure juice.

 

[acuk63]

thanks for the replies, just been googling cranberry juice and so far as I can find (princes, ocean spray, tesco and asda ) max juice is 25% , so maybe I'm better off finding another flavour with a bigger %

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Popped into Lidl and picked up 2l solevita Cranberry juice drink (minimum fruit content 25%) and 1l vitafit red grape juice (100% fruit content) to try out my first WOW variant.
Is 25% juice on the cranberry ok, or have I picked up the wrong juice?
If ok to use I reckon the cranberry has 220g sugar and the RGJ 161g, so was gonna add 700g sugar, does that sound OK?

Yes 700g will be fine.

You will find cranberry, raspberry and pomegranate type juices are usually under 100% juice, as they are strong tasting they work well especially with red grape juice as that also has a strong taste.

I have noticed the bottled red grape juice from ASDA is a lot darker than the carton version i had been using and it tastes a lot stronger when it is finished so worth a try if toy have a local branch.

At the end of the day its down to personal taste, i like my juice wine to have a hint of flavour and not to be overpowering, some members like a strong flavour which is easily achieved by adding more juice, this can be done before or after fermentation.

 

[acuk63]

thanks Chippy, I'll try as is, then adjust to taste on later brews me thinks, didn't wanna make the first batch and find it was watery and tasteless.

 

[acuk63]

Many thanks for the help, love this forum, trouble is it's damned addictive, anyway just thought I'd upload a piccie of my first WOWs I started Sunday.
RGJ + 2L cranbery and WGJ + 1L pineapple and passion fruit

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Looking good, keep us posted.

 

[goodolpete]

@acuk63.
Looking at your photo, if that plastic bin is watertight
you could fill it with water and put in a thermostatic
aquarium heater set at 20 degrees to give better,
quicker results.

 

[acuk63]

Day 6, just topped up halfway, will fill to 5L later today, cheers Pete for the water/aquarium heater idea, the bin is sat on a heater keeping it 20 degrees, I added the bin in case I got the volcano effect, but luckily not!!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I have never used a heat pad, belt or aquarium heater, i wrap my FV in a big towel (folded over a couple of times), i have never had a wine fail to ferment fully although it does take a little longer.

 

[acuk63]

Hi all, quite the difference in the fermentation length of the two WOW's , WGJ + pineapple and passion fruit finished bubbling after 9 days, I left it another 7 before racking, its now clearing nicely. the RGJ + cranberry took 16 days, just waiting for the 7 days (this Tuesday) till I rack it

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Was the wgj 100% juice or mixed with the other juice?

 

[acuk63]

yep 100% WGJ with pineapple (93) and passion (7 ) smells lovely, I think it bubbled quicker than the other one, cant wait to bottle and try another, your RGJ with strawberry and kiwi tops the list me thinks Chippy

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Where did you get the WGJ as many members are struggling to get hold of it?

 

[acuk63]

Waitrose, I left a post on the WGJ shortage thread about it, it's very dear, but I wanted to do one red and one white for my first wows as a taste test. Being a scientific test I felt it would justify the extra 15p a bottle

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Let us know how you get on.

 

[acuk63]

Bottled the WGJ + pineapple & passion fruit on Wednesday, piccie attached. Very very nice, the pineapple comes across quite strongly and the other half loves it, amazing what you get for about 50p a bottle, RGJ + cranberry will be ready to bottle on Tuesday :