Purple grape Juice

[latchy]

Hi there,

The vine in my greenhouse has got several bunches this year, the first harvest since I planted it 4 years ago,
I know very little about making wine and even less about keeping a vine. Some basic equipment has been purchased but there wont be enough grapes to make enough juice to fill my demijohn.
My 1st question is; Is Welch's Purple Grape Juice Light (currently :) £1 litre in asda) any good to make the must up to a gallon?

 

[GerritT]

Does 'light' mean it's without natural sugars?

 

[latchy]

I've found the ingredients
Water, Grape Juice from Concentrate (25%), Sugar, Acid (Citric Acid), Vitamin C, Flavouring, Sweetener (Sucralose).

 

[latchy]

Think that asda red grape juice would be a better choice as it's 100% Red Grape Juice. £1.10 Ltr

 

[joel]

Avoid anything that says 'juice drink' or anything low calorie. The higher the sugar content the less sugar you'll need to add to compensate, also any added sweetners won't ferment out, and watch out for anything with potassium sorbate or sulfites, sometimes listed under their 'e' numbers as these inhibit or prevent fermentation. I've not used them yet but Asda do an own brand red grape juice (in the chilled juice section), there's also the Don Simon brand that is a bit more expensive. I've used Sainsburys red grape juice for making red wines up to a full gallon and it did the job.

 

[stan.distortion]

Give it a go with what you have? I was wondering about fermenting very small batches, a wine bottle or smaller for unusual things to see how they came out and a friend suggested the push in porers for spirits and a pipe from them into water for an air lock. Might be worth trying with what you have to plan for better harvests :)

 

[latchy]

It would be preferable to just use what the vine has to offer rather than adulterate it with juice, hopefully there are enough grapes to make a couple of bottles.
Would it be ok to make such a small quantity in a demijohn?

 

[stan.distortion]

It would be preferable to just use what the vine has to offer rather than adulterate it with juice, hopefully there are enough grapes to make a couple of bottles.
Would it be ok to make such a small quantity in a demijohn?

What do you think, maybe a liter or two? In theory it should be perfectly fine to do just a pint in a demijohn, the co2 forms a blanket but the only time I'd ever had a batch go bad was in a half full one so I avoid usng them part full. If you go with small vessels like clear wine or beer bottles and you've enough to fill a few then you could try some different options at the same time, different yeasts or with/without pectic enzyme for example.

Do you know what verity of grape? Not that I'd know one from another, I've only ever done fruit wines and cider and not much of either but some folk on here really know their... stuff and maybe could give pointers on it.

EDIT: And fill the demijohn with wine from juice! Haven't tried it but probably will through the winter months after reading here :)

 

[Dutto]

In Tesco they describe "Welch's 100% Pure Purple Grape Juice 1 Litre as:

"Ingredients
American Concord Grape Juice from Concentrate (65%), Grape Juice from Concentrate (35%)"

It sounds as if it's much better for brewing a higher ABV dry wine than the "Light" version you mention. The "Sucralose" you mention in your description is a non-fermentable sweetener. I use it in the form of Splenda if I want to sweeten something so if you use it the finished product should be a sweeter wine that normal.

The bad news is that the Tesco version is £2.49 a litre!

The good news is that each litre contains 165g of fermentable sugars and the dark purple colour may produce an almost black wine similar to a French Olonzac; which is absolutely delicious!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Most supermarkets stock red grape juice which is 100% juice some stock 100% white grape juice but it's a bit like finding hens teeth.

 

[Cwrw666]

If you have less than a demijohn full then just ferment it in smaller vessels.
Me, I started my homebrew career age 13 or so with a jamjar full of bleaberry juice after my mother had been making pies. And very nice it turned out too.

 

[Frogbrew]

Ferment it in a 2ltr water bottle, just loosen the cap a little for the co2 to escape. You'll only need 1 Ltr of your grape juice this way.

 

[latchy]

Great response folks thank you. Certainly some decisions to make.
As to the type of grape I'm not sure I've looked at pictures on go ogle and think it might be pinot noir.

It's certainly not a chardonnay as per the label on it in Aldi when it was purchased 4 years ago.

 

[latchy]

Got 2 kilos of grapes which became 2 litres of juice. I added 115g sugar to take hydrometer from 1.070 to 1.090.
Added approx half a sachet of general purpose white wine yeast and left for a week, then siphoned into 2 bottles as there didnt seem to be any activity in the bucket (10 litre)

My effort to create something of an airlock had no bubbles into the demijohn at all.
1 week later down to 1 litre with hydrometer reading of 0.095. Done the maths and it should come out at approx 12.5% thats using lovetobrew.
I'm not expecting it to be drinkable but you never know. I will let you know next october

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Are you fermenting in the bottle?

If the answer is yes you have too much water and the tube is too low causing too much pressure for the CO2 to push through.

 

[latchy]

Thanks for the advice chippy.
I've moved tube as far up as I can.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Could I ask why you are making something in a bottle?

 

[latchy]

Its that time of year again, got about 6 kilos of grapes this year, all crushed with a couple of litres of asda red grape juice, in bucket with a sachet of white wine yeast

 

[latchy]

Looks like a giant black pudding floating on the top with all the skins, pips etc. is that normal?

 

[Willshill1]

Hi is that a temperature controlled plug socket in the background, do you use it for keeping temp up , how effective is it was thinking about that technique but unsure if it would work well.