Ribena Wine - Calculations From Existing Recepie

[HomeBrewPower]

Big hello from Ruskington Lincolnshire!

This is my first post on here, was at another homebrew forum but the posting system never worked so I found this place!

Question for you.

I have heard from another forum that a lot of people are using Ribena Black currant juce to brew red wine from.

I found the following recipe as shown below...

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12oz bottle of ribena,must be ribena and not sugar free!!!!!!!
1.5 kilos sugar
1/3 tsp citric acid
yeast and nutrient
dissolve sugar in some water in a saucepan and add ribena bring to boil and simmer for 10 mins (to drive off preservatives)
allow to cool and add to dj,top up to shoulder and add citric acid,yeast and nutrient,fit airlock and let ferment
When it has calmed down top it up to the top
ferment out and enjoy

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Now taking the above into consideration I decided to make a little excel file to work out how much sugar, water and Ribena is needed depending on what amount of wine I wanted or the amount of Ribena is at hand.

My problem is that if I want 25 Litres of Ribena wine I need the following measures (Could someone advise if this is correct as it seems to be way high in Sugar!!)

1,895 ML Of Ribena
8,335 Grams of Sugar?
23.112L of Water
Total Mash 25,01L

Any help here would be greatly appreciated prior to starting the brew off

Andy Mahoney
http://www.homebrewpower.co.uk

 

[Moley]

I just found a bottle of Ribena in our cupboard, looks like it's around 55% sugar, I make 12 oz about 340ml, 55% of that is about 190g, for an average wine of around 13-14% abv you're looking at about 275g sugar per litre, times 4.5 = 1237, less the 190g you've already got.

I'd say 1kg added sugar per gallon would be plenty, or 5.5kg for your 25L.

If you particularly want to make rocket fuel you could always add more sugar later.

 

[prolix]

No way!

A Rusko boy! :

Thats where I am from! originally.

Any ways best thing to do is use a hydrometer. I followed the recipe for 5L and overshot by about 90pts

You need to hit 1090 og for a good wine I believe mine was 1180 :shock:

also use some glycerine will increase mouth feel and smoothness so 10ml per 5L is about right, but check first

 

[Moley]

The quantities I calculated would hit around 1.100, so reduce that by 30g/l for 1.090
That brings sugar down to 4.75kg for your 25L.

Agreed with prolix re. glycerine, but I only use 5ml/gallon.

 

[corby_brewer]

i recently made this - viewtopic.php?p=48314#p48314

it started at 1.100 and finished at.990 which works out to about 14.4% ABV which in my personal opinion i was to strong, if i was to make it again i would cut down on the sugar.

 

[HomeBrewPower]

Many thanks for all the info. Really helps me out.

So to make 25L of Ribena wine how much Ribena do I need to start with? (Just to clarify)

It is half price in Tesco's at the moment for the 1L bottles!!!

 

[corby_brewer]

i used a 1ltr bottle in a 5ltr DJ so i recon you should use about 4 x 1ltr bottles in 25ltrs.

 

[HomeBrewPower]

Many thanks Davesiv, with all the above information I am ready to start brewing!