Let us know how it turns out.
Supermarket Juice Wine How To guide and Recipes.
- Thread starter Chippy_Tea
- Start date
Help Support The Homebrew Forum:
Let us know how it turns out.
I have had a few bottles of the RGJ + RGJ and its not bad, Mrs Tea prefers the RGJ and Apple version and as she orders and pays for it who am i to argue. :wink:
Gorty
Well-Known Member
You should be fine, I brew 25lt lots most of the time, the only thing I have found is that although 'KwikClear' and 'Clearit' are great at clearing single gallons that you have racked off most of the sediment, they can take about a week with a 25lt that hasn't been racked off. So I now use Wilko's 2 part wine finings, clears the batch in 2-3 days, sometimes sooner. At a quid a time it's good to go. I will add that as long as you have the time to,leaving the cleared wine for about a week gives a firmer sediment so less risk of disturbing it as you get to the bottom.
As most of the regular readers of this thread will know the original supermarket juice wine instructions advise you to leave the wine a week after fermentation has stopped for the yeast to clean up after itself, the reason being the fermentation process produces aldehydes which can give you a bad head and worse bad guts if you don't give the yeast time to clean up after itself, a member recently put this theory to the test and he was fine after a few different bottles, i have also tried an 11 day old wine and have had no problem, i am not saying don't leave it the extra week but am saying maybe its not necessary.
This thread goes into far more detail - http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=54157
.
This thread goes into far more detail - http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=54157
.
Bottled of 2 WoW's today, first is a RGJx2 and the second is a RGJ and Pomegranate x2, just sampling them both with the 1/2 glass or so that was left over and these will both be done again, pomegranate has a nice after taste to it, both came in at about the 12% mark.
I wasn't keen on the 2 litres of RGJ on its own version, pomegranate and WGJ was one of the first ones i made and i remember it was great, that was before the great WGJ shortage hit, i never got round to trying it with RGJ, one for the future there. :thumb:.
The two red grape where in fact i think 1 tesco RGJ and one lidl (vitafit) which i think is a blend of red and white at least going by the photo on the pack. The pomegranate comes from your recipe 100 odd pages ago:). I have a sainsburys RGJ, pear and apple on the go to atm, should be ready to bottle by start of next week. With regard to the lidl juice i've seen a few posts on various forums where people are using it to good effect.
Edit in, just noticed B&M have Tate & Lyle white gran sugar at 45p per kilo if anyone needs.
Edit in, just noticed B&M have Tate & Lyle white gran sugar at 45p per kilo if anyone needs.
winenewbie
New Member
Hi
I discovered this thread a few days ago. It has been very helpful to someone like me who wants to keep costs down. I have done a celler 7 wine kit before but this is way cheaper and I'm hopeful that I can just do these instead if they turn out well.
Yesterday I started my first batch thanks to the guidance in this thread:
Recipie 1 - 1 litre of apple juice and 1 litre of red grape juice,
Recipie 2 - 1 litres of apple and elderflower and 1 Litre RGJ
Recipie 3 - 1 litre of RGJ, Strawberry and Kiwi and 1 litre of Red Grape and Berries
All are 100 percent juice.
So far so good. They are all bubbling away, some faster than others.
I only had one glass demi john and have used several 5 litre water bottles for the others.
I have a number of questions and would be grateful of any thoughts people have.
1) The Apple and elderflower and RGJ is bubbling at a much slower rate, (1 bubble every 40 secs as against the RGJ and apple which is going like the clappers) does this indicate that it will take longer to ferment?
2) When it comes to topping up, the video shows it happening after a few days when the juice has settled down. I get the impression that there is also sometimes a secondary topping up as well when it is racked if there was a lot of sediment like with the strawberry,kiwi juice. Is that the case? Someone mentioned topping up at that point with apple juice, I assume that is after it has been stabilised?
3) On the subject of back sweetening at the end, is this done just by tasting it and if so is there any concern about it tasting different after its been in the bottle a few weeks? Someone on this thread indicated they had stopped back sweetening because after a few weeks they thought it was better without. Is the back sweetening done using sugar water only or would you ever use juice at this point?
4) As a guide to back sweetening, what kind of gravity reading would be good for an RGJ & apple combo for example or a RGJ with berrys and strawberry, kiwi combo. Something around 1.000 or do these wines tend to be better a little sweeter?
5) I have used some 5 litre water bottles but I think this recipe is to make 4.5 litres. If I topped up to the full 5 litres do you think it would make the final product watery? I could potentially top up with more juice if it would help.
6) I don't have any glass wine bottles, is there an issue with using some of the original plastic juice bottles? I read that plastic bottles tend to only be good for storing wine for 6 months but I read on the thread too that plastic makes the wine age faster so there seems to be pros and cons to it.
Thanks
I discovered this thread a few days ago. It has been very helpful to someone like me who wants to keep costs down. I have done a celler 7 wine kit before but this is way cheaper and I'm hopeful that I can just do these instead if they turn out well.
Yesterday I started my first batch thanks to the guidance in this thread:
Recipie 1 - 1 litre of apple juice and 1 litre of red grape juice,
Recipie 2 - 1 litres of apple and elderflower and 1 Litre RGJ
Recipie 3 - 1 litre of RGJ, Strawberry and Kiwi and 1 litre of Red Grape and Berries
All are 100 percent juice.
So far so good. They are all bubbling away, some faster than others.
I only had one glass demi john and have used several 5 litre water bottles for the others.
I have a number of questions and would be grateful of any thoughts people have.
1) The Apple and elderflower and RGJ is bubbling at a much slower rate, (1 bubble every 40 secs as against the RGJ and apple which is going like the clappers) does this indicate that it will take longer to ferment?
2) When it comes to topping up, the video shows it happening after a few days when the juice has settled down. I get the impression that there is also sometimes a secondary topping up as well when it is racked if there was a lot of sediment like with the strawberry,kiwi juice. Is that the case? Someone mentioned topping up at that point with apple juice, I assume that is after it has been stabilised?
3) On the subject of back sweetening at the end, is this done just by tasting it and if so is there any concern about it tasting different after its been in the bottle a few weeks? Someone on this thread indicated they had stopped back sweetening because after a few weeks they thought it was better without. Is the back sweetening done using sugar water only or would you ever use juice at this point?
4) As a guide to back sweetening, what kind of gravity reading would be good for an RGJ & apple combo for example or a RGJ with berrys and strawberry, kiwi combo. Something around 1.000 or do these wines tend to be better a little sweeter?
5) I have used some 5 litre water bottles but I think this recipe is to make 4.5 litres. If I topped up to the full 5 litres do you think it would make the final product watery? I could potentially top up with more juice if it would help.
6) I don't have any glass wine bottles, is there an issue with using some of the original plastic juice bottles? I read that plastic bottles tend to only be good for storing wine for 6 months but I read on the thread too that plastic makes the wine age faster so there seems to be pros and cons to it.
Thanks
Some great combinations there.
1 They all ferment at different speeds its normal.
2 I leave topping up till you rack to the second DJ, this makes degassing a lot easier.
3 You can top up with water or juice, i use water as I know the end wine won't be thin, you could always add juice later if you think it needs it.
4 Try it at .995 you might find you like it and you can always sweeten if nessesary.
5 If you are going to make them all 5 litre I would use juice.
6 Don't bother ageing the stuff it doesn't get much better with age, if you are planning on storing it to drink later plastic is fine for short term storage, I used to only have plastic spring water bottles but changed to glass as there is a bedate about chemicals leeching into the wine from the bottles, no one could give a definite answer so I switched.
1 They all ferment at different speeds its normal.
2 I leave topping up till you rack to the second DJ, this makes degassing a lot easier.
3 You can top up with water or juice, i use water as I know the end wine won't be thin, you could always add juice later if you think it needs it.
4 Try it at .995 you might find you like it and you can always sweeten if nessesary.
5 If you are going to make them all 5 litre I would use juice.
6 Don't bother ageing the stuff it doesn't get much better with age, if you are planning on storing it to drink later plastic is fine for short term storage, I used to only have plastic spring water bottles but changed to glass as there is a bedate about chemicals leeching into the wine from the bottles, no one could give a definite answer so I switched.
winenewbie
New Member
Thanks Chippy
Yes I can see the wisdom of having the extra headroom for the degassing, i have a drill attachment like you use. Okay, I will top up with juice for the 5 litre ones - just to clarify though, should I add it while it is still fermenting so that the sugar can be turned to alcohol or after it is stabilised simply to give it a fuller flavour? I am thinking I should add it while fermenting in this case. In future I will add the extra juice from the beginning to make 5l
Oh, one last question I forgot to ask. Is it still your thinking that after fermentation has finished you should wait seven days for the yeast to clear up after itself. I know you were saying that for a good long time but did you change your mind on that?
Yes I can see the wisdom of having the extra headroom for the degassing, i have a drill attachment like you use. Okay, I will top up with juice for the 5 litre ones - just to clarify though, should I add it while it is still fermenting so that the sugar can be turned to alcohol or after it is stabilised simply to give it a fuller flavour? I am thinking I should add it while fermenting in this case. In future I will add the extra juice from the beginning to make 5l
Oh, one last question I forgot to ask. Is it still your thinking that after fermentation has finished you should wait seven days for the yeast to clear up after itself. I know you were saying that for a good long time but did you change your mind on that?
If you put it in after stabilising it'll be sweeter if you don't like a sweeter wine you may not like it.
Look at the first post in this thread, I edited it to add the part about Roddy's experiment.
Look at the first post in this thread, I edited it to add the part about Roddy's experiment.
Bottled of my Sainsburys RGJ, pear and apple with 750g white sugar, small taste test and it is like a very fruity rose, gravity was about .995 when i stopped it and it has i would say a slightly less than medium feel about it. Will probably do this one again but will know better after a bottle.
Came across this stuff on sainsburys website whilst looking for a WGJ http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/natural-gold-grape-juice-650ml Just curious if anyone has used it, bit more expensive than regular supermarket juices but cheaper than HB concentrates and it does look like a pure white grape juice, Asda do stock it as well but at �ã2.50 for the same size jar as sainsburys (�ã1.75). Asda do seem to have it in stock though atm.
They are having a laugh, 650ml for ��ã1.75 and already reduced by 75 pence, wow.
I would advise everyone who struggles to find white grape juice to try a red grape juice and apple (1 litre of each) you may never look for white gtape juice again.
I would advise everyone who struggles to find white grape juice to try a red grape juice and apple (1 litre of each) you may never look for white gtape juice again.
winenewbie
New Member
For the strawberry one I was going to get a sterilised spoon and take off a lot of that thick residue at the top before racking. Is that the best way to deal with it would you say?
In a FV it would be easy but in a DJ not so, i have made this before and there is a lot of sediment at the bottom and top, if you have a sediment trap on your syphon tube syphoning doesn't let that much through and mine cleared fine.
winenewbie
New Member
Don't think my syphon has a sediment trap unfortunately.
I think though this is one advantage of having used 5 litre water bottles rather than glass demijohns, as unlike a glass DJ, the containers have a wide hole at the top and a short neck meaning that it should be much easier to spoon out sediment.
I think though this is one advantage of having used 5 litre water bottles rather than glass demijohns, as unlike a glass DJ, the containers have a wide hole at the top and a short neck meaning that it should be much easier to spoon out sediment.
Let us know how it goes.
I am back on the red grape and strawberry juice from asda as they are either stocking less red grape juice or its getting more popular, this is the second month we have ordered several bottles of RGJ and have only had half delivered with RGJ and strawberry being the alternative sent.
HarrowBrewer
Regular.
I've used this for a few WOWs when it's been reduced. Works very well. I did boil it up once to remove any preservatives but it was no different to the unboiled batches. I also picked up 4 litres of Carmel white grape juice, which is similar stuff, they were knocked down to 45p a litre so well worth it.
Similar threads
