Supermarket juice red wine WOW without grape concentrate

[Flan]

Hi, you can upscale and downscale this recipe however you like. It will work exactly the same. Definitely you can half this recipe and it will work fine in your demi John's.

I add the glycerine right at the end just before bottling.

I’m almost ready to do this, just got to get some berry tea bags, it sounds great, a couple of questions. When did you add the rest of the grape skins and did you de gas the wine at any time?

 

[Berry454]

I’m almost ready to do this, just got to get some berry tea bags, it sounds great, a couple of questions. When did you add the rest of the grape skins and did you de gas the wine at any time?

I added the rest of the grape skins just before adding the finnings. Providing you add the grape skin powder to the wine before using finnings then you should be fine. The grape skin extract leaves some sediment behind hence it shouldn't be added after you clear the wine.

I degassed the wine after adding stabilizer, before adding the finnings.

Only bit of advice I would give you. If you're looking for a quick easy drinking red that you won't be aging then I'd recommend adding maybe 1-2tsp of citric acid instead of the 5 that I used.

The little less acid will just mean that the wine will be more drinkable immediately after bottling without needing to bottle rest or age.

 

[Flan]

I added the rest of the grape skins just before adding the finnings. Providing you add the grape skin powder to the wine before using finnings then you should be fine. The grape skin extract leaves some sediment behind hence it shouldn't be added after you clear the wine.

I degassed the wine after adding stabilizer, before adding the finnings.

Only bit of advice I would give you. If you're looking for a quick easy drinking red that you won't be aging then I'd recommend adding maybe 1-2tsp of citric acid instead of the 5 that I used.

The little less acid will just mean that the wine will be more drinkable immediately after bottling without needing to bottle rest or age.

Brilliant berry thanks, I’m not in a rush to drink it quick so I don’t mind aging it, how long did you age it for?

 

[Flan]

Hi, you can upscale and downscale this recipe however you like. It will work exactly the same. Definitely you can half this recipe and it will work fine in your demi John's.

I add the glycerine right at the end just before bottling.

I’m ready to do this today, just one more question for now, when did you add the citric acid?

 

[Berry454]

I’m ready to do this today, just one more question for now, when did you add the citric acid?

The citric acid gets added right at the start along with the sugar, yeast and nutrient. The citric acid corrects the PH. Yeast needs the correct PH to complete fermentation.

The wine will need a good few months to age to tame the acidity down and mellow out. I've made this recipe a few times. If you want a wine which you can drink straight away then half the citric acid works well.

Just remember, high acidity wines age out well which is why cabernet sauvignons age really well. The less citric acid you add the less it will age well.

 

[Flan]

The citric acid gets added right at the start along with the sugar, yeast and nutrient. The citric acid corrects the PH. Yeast needs the correct PH to complete fermentation.

The wine will need a good few months to age to tame the acidity down and mellow out. I've made this recipe a few times. If you want a wine which you can drink straight away then half the citric acid works well.

Just remember, high acidity wines age out well which is why cabernet sauvignons age really well. The less citric acid you add the less it will age well.

Brilliant, thanks berry, my first 11litres is in the fermenter now.

 

[Flan]

Just thinking on your point about glycerine, i have a 23L winExpert kit on the go at the moment do you think it would benefit from a glycerine addition before bottling?

 

[Berry454]

Just thinking on your point about glycerine, i have a 23L winExpert kit on the go at the moment do you think it would benefit from a glycerine addition before bottling?

If it's anything like the Winexpert Cabernet Merlots I definitely wouldn't add the glycerine.

I just finished bottling 150 bottles of the Winexpert Cabernet merlot and I can say for sure that it's got more body than it needs without the addition of glycerine.

The Winexpert kits come with about 10 litres of grape concentrate if I remember right? With that much concentrate they should have plenty of body.

Of course you can always add a TSP of glycerine to a bottle, fill it up, give it a shake then try with and wlthout glycerine. You never know, you might actually appreciate even more body!!

 

[Flan]

Just a quick update on my progress, i went away for 10 nights so it’s been fermenting for around 17 days, I’ve just checked the gravity and it’s .988 down from 1086, so it’s sitting at around 12.8% at the moment, I’ve added the rest of the grape skins and will add the stabiliser in 24hrs then leave another 24hrs move to another bucket to get it off the drop out then de gas and add finings leave for a couple of days and move to demijohns for conditioning for a month or so before adding glycerine and bottling. Does this sound about right or too many stages.

 

[Berry454]

Just a quick update on my progress, i went away for 10 nights so it’s been fermenting for around 17 days, I’ve just checked the gravity and it’s .988 down from 1086, so it’s sitting at around 12.8% at the moment, I’ve added the rest of the grape skins and will add the stabiliser in 24hrs then leave another 24hrs move to another bucket to get it off the drop out then de gas and add finings leave for a couple of days and move to demijohns for conditioning for a month or so before adding glycerine and bottling. Does this sound about right or too many stages.

Sounds good to me @Flan

You have the process and that's all you really need.

I'm often lazy with my brews as I really just don't have much free time.. Like with the wine expert reserve kits. I didn't even rack them off the sediment before stirring them up and adding the finnings. These sort of practices are of course not ideal. Hence adding a few extra steps is NEVER a bad thing and can only give you a better end drink!

 

[Flan]

Sounds good to me @Flan

You have the process and that's all you really need.

I'm often lazy with my brews as I really just don't have much free time.. Like with the wine expert reserve kits. I didn't even rack them off the sediment before stirring them up and adding the finnings. These sort of practices are of course not ideal. Hence adding a few extra steps is NEVER a bad thing and can only give you a better end drink!

Well i followed the recipe and scaled it down to 10litres, i bottled it around end of october and tried a glass from the demijohn i was bottling from. It was very young, shall we say, pretty thin and a bit watery, the only thing i can put it down to is coming straight from the demijohn because a few weeks later and 4 bottles in it’s absolutely gorgeous, very fruity, i’d say on the sweet side of dry but the sweetness tastes of fruit not sugar, if that makes sense, i only have one gripe about my first fruit juice wine and that is that i only made 12 bottles of it. I’ll definitely do this one again and do a full batch. Cheers for the recipe and advice berry much appreciated. Oh btw it finished at 12.8% and took about 8 weeks from bucket to drinking.

 

[Garan]

Honestly Stevie I think the tannin should be about right! The red berry tea bags don't really contain much tannin. I've successfully used 20 of these along with 5 black tea bags in a 5L DJ and the tannin was pretty perfect.

Though if the tannin is to high I'll let you guys know on the taste test so you know to tone it down if anyone decides to do the recipe themselves.

Of course, this is entirely experimental and although I have used all these other ingredients in different recipes in the past, I wouldn't recommend anyone to try this until I finish the batch and give the verdict!

It could be awesome, it might be awful, you never really know until it's been racked!

sorry ive only just come across this brilliant thread, can i ask, what your tea liquid to juice ratio would be in a 5L DJ? im just starting out and this is the first thing im going to try, thank you