Supermarket Juice Wine How To guide and Recipes.

[DanielB]

Indeed. I only have my wife's blessings for this as long as I'm not making any mess!!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I used to dissolve the sugar in a pan of boiling water on the cooker and always managed to splash it on the cooker and it set like glue, i got many a bollocking before i started using my degassing wand to mix it in warmed water in the DJ's.

 

[DanielB]

Oops...spoke too soon!

What's the fix for overflowing foam!? Pour some liquid or the DJ?

Or just let it go crazy then replace the airlocks after a day or so?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

If you don't mind the mess and there are no flies about let it go the alternative is clean the outside of the DJ then the airlock, use boiling water on the bung to sterelise it each time, have a look at the blow off tube in the wine forums always handy to have on standby.

 

[Scaggs]

Some of my fruit juice wines are getting ready for bottling.

 

[Bigcol49]

Geordie jumpers

 

[Scaggs]

Not these ones?

 

[DanielB]

Oops...spoke too soon!

What's the fix for overflowing foam!? Pour some liquid or the DJ?

Or just let it go crazy then replace the airlocks after a day or so?

Now my foam has decided to remain inside the DJ...should I too up with water or just leave it. It's about 500ml short...?

 

[Dutto]

The first thing to do is to change out the air-lock. Replace it with one that is clean and sanitised and then make sure that you thoroughly clean and sanitise the one that has just got filled with foam.

If you top up the DJ you will get a lower ABV and a thinner brew so personally I would just leave it as it is and make sure that I don't overfill the next one!

Welcome to 'The Learning Curve"! I'm still on it after many years!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I always leave topping up until I have racked for clearing as you need a gap when you degas especially if using a degassing wand, it's up to you whether you follow the above advice but as this was to be 6 bottles there is no reason to leave it short.

 

[dogman]

When it comes to using sugar, are there any particular types to avoid?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I would imagine brown may add flavour you might not want but have never used it so don't know if that is true.

 

[dogman]

Just wondering if a standard granulated Tate and Lyle type sugar, or a fine powdery type would affect a homebrew. Or even a Brown Demerara? I've stuck to fine powdery sugar marked for wine making so far.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I have used Tate & Lyle (or the cheapest equivalent i can find) since day one and think most of us do.

 

[dogman]

 

[Dutto]

I quite often use a 900g tin of Golden Syrup instead of granulated sugar. It adds a slightly different taste to the finished brew and also keeps the ABV down a bit when compared to 1kg of granulated sugar.

 

[dogman]

Interesting. I'll give it a go sometime.

 

[DanielB]

Hi, so, I have racked my mango WOW - and "wow"...it tastes, at this point, pretty good! It fermented down to about 1005....with no airlock activity for a few days. And has a lovely, and fairly strong mango flavour. And has a slight sweetness that I like. This is giving me an ABV of about 13%. I now need to degas...

I was in the supermarket last night and was considering more WOWs - using Rubicon fruit juice as they are again on offer (which is what I used for the above); however I noticed that teh 'new' cartons all boasts that they are half the sugar (and now show 4.8g/100ml). They are "sweetened" with steviol(?)...

My question is, does this artificial sweetener affect my SG reading....or will it not matter? One assumes it is "equally as sweet" but with half the sugar, so that must effect the fermentation?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Don't get too hung up on starting gravity readings with supermarket juice wines if you aim for 1100g of sugar (total) per DJ it'll end up at 13% ABV or there abouts if you let it finish fermenting (below .995)

 

[Frogbrew]

The artificial sweetener will still be there once fermentation has finished and could leave you with a sickly sweet tasting wine. You're still going to have to add more sugar to reach the SG you need. I would stick to juices with just sugar if I were you.