Supermarket Juice Wine How To guide and Recipes.

[Wynott]

Today's experiment:

2 x litres Waitrose Apple Juice
1/2 bottle Young's WGJ (left over)
1 x pack of Tesco grapes (on offer), warmed through and squeezed through muslin for juice
1/2 jar of preserved ginger & syrup (left over from cake making)
750g sugar
Yeast, Nutrient, Pectolase, Tannin, Citric Acid

...in this weather it should start well!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

1/2 bottle Young's WGJ (left over)

How long ago did you open the WGJ as ll the ones i have used only had a 3 day shelf life once opened.

 

[Wynott]

Err....a little while ago. It's been lurking in the back of the fridge. Fx...

 

[Chippy_Tea]

We use WGJ as it's 100% juice with no preservative so it has a short shelf life once opened fingers crossed it doesn't ruin it.

 

[Wynott]

Seems fine at the moment, I'll keep you posted.

 

[Wynott]

White Peach, Mango & Passion fruit W.O.W.
2 ltrs juice (Morrisons)
WGJ
700g sugar
Pectolase, Tannin, Citric Acid, Yeast, Nutrient

Grape, Apple & Raspberry W.O.W.
2 litres juice (Morrisons)
ditto for additions

...since I started W.O.W's someone keeps drinking them......oh.......it's me!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

SWMBO always helped me.

 

[Pete21]

just started 1.5 ltr of lidl apple juice and 1 litre of sainsburys red grape juice
and 1ltr of red grape juice 1ltr of apple and 1ltr of pineapple. both had 750grams of sugar
my question is
once the initial vigorous fermentation has been completed how high do you top up the demijohns with water , (mine are 5ltr Iceland water bottles) do you go right to the top to get the full 5ltr or do you leave it short

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I wouldn't go the full 5 litres as it will thin the wine too much stick to 4.5 litres, i always leave mine short (only fill to the shoulder of the demijohn) until you degas if you don't you risk it coming out of the airlock and you have no space when degassing, i always top up when i rack to the second demijohn for clearing.

 

[Pete21]

I wouldn't go the full 5 litres as it will thin the wine too much stick to 4.5 litres, i always leave mine short (only fill to the shoulder of the demijohn) until you degas if you don't you risk it coming out of the airlock and you have no space when degassing, i always top up when i rack to the second demijohn for clearing.

thanks chippy. I am using the plastic 5ltr water bottle that is 5 ltrs at the cap, I thought I was hoping for too much on filling it near the full 5ltr, I have a spare bottle of water so I will tip half a litre away and get a guesstimate of what 4.5ltr looks like in the bottles & then mark the demijohns ,

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Most modern DJ's are 4.5 litres to the base of the neck so no need to measure just fill to the base of the neck when topping up.

 

[Pete21]

Most modern DJ's are 4.5 litres to the base of the neck so no need to measure just fill to the base of the neck when topping up.

not this one

it only cost £1.00 full of water, it's 5ltr to the cap

 

[Frogbrew]

If using the 5ltr plastic bottles just fill to the shoulder then once racked to glass demi top up just below neck, works for me.

 

[Frogbrew]

I ferment in plastic 5ltr for the headspace then rack to glass for clearing.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I started out using 5 litre water bottles i also bottled into 1.5 litre plastic sparkling water bottles, i slowly moved over to glass DJ's (most from charity shops) and eventually moved over to 750 ml screw top glass wine bottles with Novotwist reusable caps.

Novatwist caps - https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...le-plastic-screw-caps-for-wine-bottles.56326/

 

[Gerryjo]

I have 2*5l kilner dispensing jars and wonder if anyone has used them Was thinking of giving them a go as I would leave the lid slack and cover with cling film and some cotton wool to keep nasties out.

 

[Pete21]

Has anyone made the WOW without the Grape juice base, if so, what results did you get
Taste?
Body?
feel?
flavour?
strength.?

feedback from guest drinkers/tasters/lab rats that sampled your wine
& recipes please
thank you

 

[Wynott]

I made a WOW with white grape juice (when I could get it), not concentrate, and it had less body, though the taste was ok. Also a WOW of pineapple and apple juices, with only a small amount of leftover WGJ concentrate, which went like a bomb, and had a more pronounced flavour. Haven't yet had the courage to try any of my wines on friends, as I can't afford to lose any

 

[Pete21]

I made a WOW with white grape juice (when I could get it), not concentrate, and it had less body, though the taste was ok. Also a WOW of pineapple and apple juices, with only a small amount of leftover WGJ concentrate, which went like a bomb, and had a more pronounced flavour. Haven't yet had the courage to try any of my wines on friends, as I can't afford to lose any

Ok , I used to make wine back in the day from whole fruit or root vegetable, I was just wondering does the packet fruit juices have enough substance to stand alone or do we need to use grape juice as a base to make a decent wine

 

[Wynott]

Ah now, there's the question - what does one regard as 'decent'.... but I would say it depends on how robust the juices are. I can't, myself, see a WOW being very substantial without some grape juice. On a different tack, I made two flower wines this year - Dandelion and Marigold. The Dandelion had WGJ, the Marigold didn't. On racking, the Dandelion was far nicer than the Marigold. Keep us posted, will be interested to know how you get on if you decided not to include grape.