Rasberry Syrop Wine and a miscalculation

[weepete]

So, my blueberry wine finished and was bottled so I had a spare demijohn lying empty and since I finally managed to get some WGJ at the weekend I got another brew on tonight. Recipe was:

440ml Polish syrup (Rasberry flavour)
3.5l WGJ
0.5l water
700g Sugar
1 tsp Pectolase
2 Tablets yeast nutrient
1 tsp Tannin
1/2 tsp Mixed acid
1 tsp GP yeast

Originally the water wasn't meant to be there but apparently I miscalculated somewhere as the OG reading of the must was off the chart :-[ so a bit of water was added and I eventually got the SG down to 1.122 after topping up as much as I dared but stil leaving a bit of head space. Makes me think my other cherry syrop wine might have been a bit high too. Anyway abv is 16% or there abouts :-P might need to find out a bit more about calculating how much sugar I need!

 

[RobWalker]

that's a lot of grape juice too. most of these types of brews use two cartons of WGJ and about 2.5L - 3L water.

if you do find that this brew is too intense (you might need a high tolerance yeast to get through it too!) I would honestly suggest watering it down by about 1/3rd, leaving it around 11% and with a less vicious flavour profile.

you could even split it between two demi johns now quite comfortably to be honest for a double batch and top up with water, maybe a litre in each and maybe add 100g sugar and 1/2tsp mixed acid to each because of the volume.

heres a good page for sugar volumes - nice and easy for thicko's like me. find your og, find your desired og, then calculate the difference :thumb:

http://mpesgens.home.xs4all.nl/thwp/sugar.html

 

[oldbloke]

might need to find out a bit more about calculating how much sugar I need!

Rule of thumb: 20g/l = 1% 100g/l = 5% 1lb/gallon=5%
For wine I generally aim for about 1kg/gallon total expecting to lose a bit of alcohol when topping up after racking.
I like this chart:
http://www.brsquared.org/wine/CalcInfo/HydSugAl.htm

 

[weepete]

So this one started out not too good with me mucking up the calculation and after some suggestions my intension was to split this into two batches and top up and secondary ferment. However I never quite got round to doing that and it just sat in a corner till the weekend when I decided to rack it off the lees after four or five months. So in it went to a clean DJ and last night I felt obliged to have another wee taste.

AND OH MY GOD THIS STUFF IS FREAKING GREAT!!!

And I don't mean quite nice, nor even good for homebrew, but nectar of the gods stuff, easily as good as any off the shelf stuff. Result! And completley unexpected after the bitter and too stong flavour that was after the initial fermentation, its now the best homebrew I have made.

What its ended up like is a bit more like a Liqueur than a wine, bursting with a sweet rasberry flavour and probably best drunk as shots or sipped out of a large shot glass.