New(?) idea for red wine from supermarket ingredients

[Babs]

This might be a hare-brain scheme or it may be a brainwave (or it might already be common practise!) Please be aware I am a novice and this is surely something that someone's tried (and perhaps failed at!) before.

I was hoping to make some decent home brew red wine from supermarket ingredients. (I've been told on here that you can only get good results if you want white or rose).

How about if I used 20 litres of Sainsbury's Red Grape Juice (https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/sainsburys-red-grape-juice-1l) and followed a standard forum recipe using sugar, yeast and perhaps pectolase. I would add the sugar and take SG readings till I got it to about 1.095, then let it ferment away to 1 or maybe less, resulting in a 12.75% or thereabouts result.

Has anyone tried this? What were the results?


Babs.

 

[Graz]

It'll turn out like a Rose but will still taste good. The red grape juice in the supermarket isn't quite the same as that from which they make wine. For starters I don't think the generally use wine grape varieties to make the juice and secondly when they make red wine the whole grapes are crushed and the whole lot is fermented i.e. skins, pips, etc. (called "must"). A lot of the colour and body of the wine comes from the skins.

Waitrose do a Merlot juice if you want to get close: https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-merlot-grape-juice/429668-166657-166658

 

[Frogbrew]

24.2g sugars in 100ml in the merlot is high compared to the asda red grape I've just used at at 16g.
I might try this juice myself.

 

[Nicks90]

If you want to make it a red, you can always add beetroot

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Babs I tried using red grape juice on its own and as has been said it turns out like a Rose wine and it was a bit bland.

 

[Babs]

Thanks guys. I'm interesting in trying some beetroot maybe......

 

[tim1699]

hi i have a red wine kit and as mentioned they are a bit like a rose wine i was thinking of using an amount[not sure how much yet] of elderberries to give it some body anybody got any thoughts on this idea please

 

[Babs]

Just got back from Tesco's armed with some apple juice (own brand), Red Grape Juice (Welch's), and some Beetroot Juice (Cawston Press)! Beetroot is here at https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/291645022

Will try a new project tomorrow (no spare DJ's at the mo, have to get another one!).

Anyone got any ideas of what extras to use? I've just stocked up on pectolase, yeast nutrient and Glycerine.

Thanks!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

If you have a 5 litre water bottle you can drill a 9 millimetre (check the size as its a long time since i made one) hole in the lid and fit an airlock you can also buy grommets on eBay cheaply that make them a better seal if you intend to use them regularly.


Picture courtesy of google images

 

[soupdragon]

9mm? I thought it was 12? Maybe that's why I can't get a good air tight seal

Cheers. Tom

 

[Chippy_Tea]

9mm? I thought it was 12? Maybe that's why I can't get a good air tight seal

I have measured my handy airlocks (like the one in the picture) and they look close to 9mm definitely not 12mm.

.

 

[soupdragon]

Just re read your post. Might that be 9 without the grommet and 12 with?

Cheers. Tom

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Just re read your post. Might that be 9 without the grommet and 12 with?

Good point Tom mine was 9mm without a grommet.

I later found a step drill will make a hole large enough to fit a standard bung (28mm) the one below (CLICK HERE) is £3:99 posted.

.

 

[soupdragon]

Didn't have much luck drilling the holes though, they ended up a little "wonky"

Cheers Tom

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Didn't have much luck drilling the holes though, they ended up a little "wonky"
Cheers Tom

Try drilling them when you are sober.

 

[soupdragon]

 

[mgrds]

You can make an alcoholic drink from just about anything - but I'm not sure why anyone would want to !

There are two sorts of fruit juices
from concentrate - cheaper and is a reconstituted grape concentrate like dedicated wine kits - but probably working out more expensive for the same amount of concentrate and having the wrong grapes in it
not from concentrate - in theory this sounds better but it isn't ! The not from concentrate preserving involves a process that removes most of the taste from juice - this is them added back with a flavour pack (an industrial flavouring product that is made from the original ingredient - but does not need to be declared in packaging laws.

You are better off in terms of cost and quality with a dedicated homebrew kit !

Mark

 

[gar]

I'd like to make red wine from a kit, but refuse to use or buy any animal products. do you know of any kits available without the finnings?

 

[LED_ZEP]

I'd like to make red wine from a kit, but refuse to use or buy any animal products. do you know of any kits available without the finnings?

I've made some reasonable red from red grape powder bought on ebay. They do sometimes throw in finings even though it's not mentioned in the listing but you could always ask them not to include it.

 

[Babs]

Led Zep, how much red grape powder do you use for a 6 bottle brew?