Supermarket Juice Wine How To guide and Recipes.

[the_kitchen_brewer]

I had a quick taste of my first ever WOWs when transferring to the secondary.

I'm not much of a white drinker these days, but the white (Wilko Grape Concentrate and 1L of Apple juice) tasted fantastic (WOW is an appropriate name!)

My Rose, which took 4 days to start bubbling (1L of RGJ, 1L of Raspberry and Apple, and half a bottle of Lowicz Raspberry syrup) is a bit of an aquired taste (I think Chippy Tea was right when he said I didn't need the syrup) but I've certainly had worse, and if it improves with time as most wines seem to then I'll be well impressed!

Gotta admit I only did them out of curiousity, but I reckon I'll be making a lot more of these!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I had a quick taste of my first ever WOWs when transferring to the secondary.

I'm not much of a white drinker these days, but the white (Wilko Grape Concentrate and 1L of Apple juice) tasted fantastic (WOW is an appropriate name!)

My Rose, which took 4 days to start bubbling (1L of RGJ, 1L of Raspberry and Apple, and half a bottle of Lowicz Raspberry syrup) is a bit of an aquired taste (I think Chippy Tea was right when he said I didn't need the syrup) but I've certainly had worse, and if it improves with time as most wines seem to then I'll be well impressed!

Gotta admit I only did them out of curiosity, but I reckon I'll be making a lot more of these!

If you liked the plain 1 litre of white grape juice and 1 litre Apple juice i think you will like the 1 litre of red grape juice and 1 litre of apple juice version. :thumb:

 

[Cobra427v8]

Just a question, I have made many variants of wurzels orange wine but due to the difficulty of getting hold of wgj I have tried something else. Not sure if it's going to work at all but I have a demijon on the go with a litre of 100% concentrate pineapple and a 100% concentrate of grapefruit. I haven't added wgj or rgj. Just wondering what the outcome I am likely to see due to not having any grape juice at all. Any ideas what I can expect...?? Any input would be much appreciated. Just want to add that there is activity already as it's already started to bubble through the airlock.

Darren

 

[pookiehair]

Ive been wondering what a WOW would be like without any grape juice too Darren. Be very interesting to hear the results.
Ive just mixed my 4th & 5th WOWs and they are bubbling away in the airing cupboard along with an Elderflower kit wine.

Just a question, I have made many variants of wurzels orange wine but due to the difficulty of getting hold of wgj I have tried something else. Not sure if it's going to work at all but I have a demijon on the go with a litre of 100% concentrate pineapple and a 100% concentrate of grapefruit. I haven't added wgj or rgj. Just wondering what the outcome I am likely to see due to not having any grape juice at all. Any ideas what I can expect...?? Any input would be much appreciated. Just want to add that there is activity already as it's already started to bubble through the airlock.

Darren

 

[Chippy_Tea]

We use grape juice mainly to add body I imagine without it you would end up with alcopop, mixing the grape juice (especially red) adds a lot to the flavour.

 

[Cobra427v8]

Ive been wondering what a WOW would be like without any grape juice too Darren. Be very interesting to hear the results.
Ive just mixed my 4th & 5th WOWs and they are bubbling away in the airing cupboard along with an Elderflower kit wine.

I'll let you know how I get on with it mate, chippy tea has also replied as to why the grape juice is added. Be interesting to see how it pans out anyway, reason I tried it is because the wgj is like rocking horse poop to get around where i live. If its not that nice ill buy the grape concentration in wilkos for future brews.

 

[Cobra427v8]

We use grape juice mainly to add body I imagine without it you would end up with alcopop, mixing the grape juice (especially red) adds a lot to the flavour.

Thanks chippy for the info, I did wonder why the wgj or rgj was added.

 

[BruinTuns]

I got my first two started yesterday, one is RGJ and apple juice (1 l of each), the other is OJ from concentrate and Fruits Of The forest juice drink, which I thought was pure juice (note to self:: wear glasses when shopping!)

I haven't read every post so aplologies if this has been asked but why no campden tablets in these brews? Don't chloramines affect wine?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I have never read of anyone adding campden to get rid of chloramination only at the end of fermentation when racking to help preserve the wine.

 

[andycole]

I got my first two started yesterday, one is RGJ and apple juice (1 l of each), the other is OJ from concentrate and Fruits Of The forest juice drink, which I thought was pure juice (note to self:: wear glasses when shopping!)

Makers of these 'juice drinks' rely on people not realising that anything with the word 'drink' in the name is roughly 50% added water, and less than 50% juice!

Andy

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I used to double up the juice drinks like pomegranate as they were usualy less than fifty percent juice and use one litre of white grape juice, this makes a great tasting wine.

 

[BruinTuns]

I've left the recommended generous space to allow for potentially vigorous fermentation. Was planning to top up with water after things die down again but if the forest fruits is only 500ml juice it might taste a bit thin. Could I top up with more juice instead? Or would it be too late in the process by then?
Or do you think I should do it now but maybe use something more concentrated like strawberry Ribena to leave more space for activity?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I would let it ferment then stabilise and add more of the juice to taste.

 

[BruinTuns]

Thanks Chippy., I'll try that and see how it goes. That's obviously one of the big plusses with these recipes, so cheap and easy that you can have several on the go at once and, if any do end up down the sink it's no great loss,
Re my previos question about campden tabs, I'm more into beer so did most of my pre-brewing research based around brewing stouts and IPAs.
The lads disagree about some aspects but everyone seems to agree that chlorinated water is bad for beer, so campden tables are strongly recommended by pretty much everyone. I guess wine must react differently.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I cannot remember reading any thread about juice wine where members have used Campden tablets for any other reason than to preserve it.

 

[andycole]

Hi folks

I have a demijohn of Rgj and apple (rose) on the go, I started it on the 2nd Nov. It is still fermenting slowly, I checked the gravity today and it's at 0.984 - 0.986. This seems quite low to me, I am used to fermenting stopping at 0.99 something, although this is the first time I have made one of these WOW variants. Should I just leave it to do its own thing or should I think about stopping it?

Cheers

Andy.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

They usually end around .990, i don't bother using my hydrometer any more i wait until i only see a single bubble every couple of minutes then call it finished, it then needs another week for the yeast to clean up after itself (don't skip this or you could end up with a wine that could give you a bad head and worse bad guts) then i move on to racking onto a crushed campden tablet, degassing, stabilising and clearing.

 

[BruinTuns]

Hmm..
My two are now on their fourth day and after a lacklustre start now look almost dead. Within 48 hours a thin layer of froth had appeared but this has now almost disappeared.
I have a balloon over each 5l container in place of a bubbler and they are still both almost flat.
Are these brews a lost cause?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Hmm..
My two are now on their fourth day and after a lacklustre start now look almost dead. Within 48 hours a thin layer of froth had appeared but this has now almost disappeared.
I have a balloon over each 5l container in place of a bubbler and they are still both almost flat.
Are these brews a lost cause?

How much sugar did you add and how much was in the cartons?

I got my first two started yesterday, one is RGJ and apple juice (1 l of each), the other is OJ from concentrate and Fruits Of The forest juice drink, which I thought was pure juice (note to self:: wear glasses when shopping!)

RGJ and apple does not ferment vigorously but you should be seeing a bubble every couple of seconds, you will have to get a hydrometer if you don't already have one as its the only way to know for sure its fermenting or finished.

 

[BruinTuns]

I used 800g of sugar for each..
Bought more grape juice this morning (Welch's 100%) and only just realized that it's only 750ml, not the 1 l that they hope people like me will think it is without our specs on. It's also purple (pgj?), not red. Sorry, my mistake. I would have preferred to use white as you recommend but so far I'm unable to source it.
The grape and apple brew is now showing no visible sign of activity at all, though when I took the balloon off briefly and listened closely I could heart a faint hiss. The orange and forest fruits is actually frothier but hard to tell if this is residual or ongoing, although again I can hear a soft hiss.
So maybe it is ok? I should have tried listening to it before my last post (sorry) but never thought to because I basically followed the video and his fermentation was positively Vesuvian.
The orange one also has lots of small bits in it, although the OJ was smooth (from concentrate).
I don't yet have a set of measuring spoons but apparently the recommended 1 tsp of yeast weighs approx 3 grams so I weighed it ( I have accurate scales).
Temperature in kitchen has been a fairly consistant 19 degrees.
Thanks again