Variations of WOW!

[Banksy]

Right! 5 gallons of WOW are now on the go, and I have racked both the 1G of WOW and the 1G of passionfruit WOW.

I hame made a couple of (possible) shortcuts and I was wondering if any of my actions could cause a problem.

1) I shoved all the ingredients in then stirred for a few minutes, and thats it. I didn't heat the sugar first. I put the yeast in last. I can't see how this would make a difference.

2) I racked into a sterile empty 5L H2O bottle, then kept it in there to degas, stabalise and fine, then I put it back into the DJ. The plastic thing makes it really easy to degas. You can squeeze it small, fix the lid, and just keep shaking.

Do others do this, or am I putting my wine at risk? Are there any other tips to speed things up. It still takes me ages to do, esp the sterilising.

 

[Moley]

1). The order in which you add the ingredients makes no difference whatsoever. If the sugar isn't properly mixed you can't take a true OG reading, but unless you adjust for volume changes any hydrometer reading is going to be false.

2). Every racking or change of DJ/PET is a potential opportunity for infection, but if your hygiene regime is sound there's absolutely nothing wrong with what you're doing. PETs can be a pain during the clearing stage because of the sediment which collects on the internal ridges, that problem doesn't occur when using smooth walled DJs.

 

[Banksy]

Thanks for the reassurance Moley.

I did mean to add:

3) I don't take hydrometer readings, probably due to both the hassel, and the risk of adding infection. I add 900g of sugar per gallon and ferment till it completely stops. The last ones took 3 weeks. At this early stage I'm not really fussed how strong it is. Rather, I want it to taste good.

4) Once ready to clear, I top up with water to the neck. Only a small amount, and really just to prevent too large a surface area for oxidisation to occur. Is this a bad idea?

Thanks.

 

[Simon2822]

I picked up the WOW bug from this forum a while ago and have been making them ever since. Ones I've done so far:

Red Grape plus:
Cranberry
Cranberry and Rasperry
Cranberry and Blackcurrent (very good)
Cherry
Blueberry (the favourite so far)

Standard WOW

And currently fermenting, white grape plus:
Orange and Mango
Apple
Exotic Juice drink
Apple, Mango, passion fruit and peach

Simon

 

[Moley]

A nice list there Simon, and welcome to the forum :


I think I've tried all of them, plus a few, and your list has a couple of sensible omissions: WGJ or RGJ + Prune can be .... er.... well....errrm ... unusual, while WGJ + grapefruit can probably rank well against any £2.49 supermarket Hock :sick:


Look out for Tymbark multifruit juice drink in the Polish / World Foods aisles, I think it's about £1.34 for 2 litres in Morrison's, that works well + WGJ. It starts out quite strikingly orange in colour due to about 1% carrot juice, but that does fade away later.

 

[Titch]

are all these drinks fruit juice as normal
or can i do a WGJ + a juice drink?

wife came home with some from aldi yesterday that look quite interesting

 

[Mr.Everready]

I made one using 5 Alive. :thumb:

 

[Banksy]

are all these drinks fruit juice as normal
or can i do a WGJ + a juice drink?

From what I have previously been told 'a juice drink' is also fine. The example that was given was Cranberry.

 

[Simon2822]

I'm glad you mentioned not to do prune juice Moley. I usually browse the juice section when shopping with an eye on future WOW's and had considered getting a prune juice .

are all these drinks fruit juice as normal
or can i do a WGJ + a juice drink?

wife came home with some from aldi yesterday that look quite interesting

All the juices I use are either the 1 litre long life juice cartons or the fresh juices, either from concentrate or not. All the WOW's include either WGJ or RGJ (in the case of the blueberry one I did, 2l RGJ + 1l Blueberry juice)

Simon

 

[Titch]

mmm missus came home with a blueberry from aldi last night and i have DJ's and a WGJ

so me thinks a plan is afoot

thanks chaps

 

[Moley]

are all these drinks fruit juice as normal or can i do a WGJ + a juice drink?

You can make to the WOW method using one white or red grape juice plus one ‘other’, whether it's 100% juice like apple or pineapple, or one of the ‘juice drinks’ like cranberry or blueberry. I rather assume that if you had 100% cranberry or blueberry, those would be just too strong, which is why you will rarely find more than 25% juice in those.

Read the ingredients labelling though and check for preservatives or stabilisers. For example, Ocean Spray or Lidl's cranberry juice drinks are fine but the Co-op's isn't.

 

[bullseye]

I have made a few WOW type wines now, and have been very pleased with the results. My first couple of DJ's were original. Then made a Tropicana Tropical varient which went down even better with those i shared it with, and suits my taste better.

I have a varient maturing in DJ's that tastes spot on for me. I made a 15 litre batch using an asda water bottle.

4lt white grape juice
1lt pineapple
1lt orange
1lt Grapefruit
2kg sugar
2tsp tartaric acid
2tsp nutrient
lalvin k1-v1116 yeast

Thanks to moley and others for their fantastic 'how to guides' it has given me the confidence to try many a new recipie. So thanks again chaps, i may not post much, but reading the forum has helped me no end.

 

[Banksy]

I'm just nursing a significant hangover :sick:

Had a BBQ (B'day) yesterday and served home brew wine. We got through 3 gallons, and it went down tremendously.

1G WOW
1G Passionfruit
6 bottles of homebrew Merlot from a kit

The passionfruit wine went own very well despite my fears. Detectable on the nose, and good on the palate.

Now I have 12 bottles of shop baught wine that were brought by guests to get through. :drunk:

Thanks to everyone who has helped get me this far. :thumb:

 

[SIRUSKEY]

All are using the WOW method

1/ WOW
2/ Red Grape and Orange
3/ Original White Grape and Apple
4/ White Grape, Cranberry and Orange
5/ Red Grape and Apple
6/ White Grape and Mango
7/ White Grape and Passion Fruit
8/ Red Grape and Tomato :sick:


Im having issues with the tomato. Keeping it in the DJ being the first. 4 inches of sediment the second. Im not really sure what to do when racking? (moley :hmm: )

 

[Moley]

I'm having issues with the tomato. Keeping it in the DJ being the first. 4 inches of sediment the second. I'm not really sure what to do when racking? (moley :hmm: )

If in doubt, leave it for another week or two to see if it settles out any more.

You could always skip the racking, clearing and bottling and just pour it down the drain now

I've tried using tomato juice, just the once, and IMHO it has absolutely no place in winemaking.

 

[SIRUSKEY]

I'm having issues with the tomato. Keeping it in the DJ being the first. 4 inches of sediment the second. I'm not really sure what to do when racking? (moley :hmm: )

If in doubt, leave it for another week or two to see if it settles out any more.

You could always skip the racking, clearing and bottling and just pour it down the drain now

I've tried using tomato juice, just the once, and IMHO it has absolutely no place in winemaking.

It smells bloody horrid. Im going to keep it a while. It can be used for the inlaws at Xmas or those people who seem to think that because I made homebrew they are entitled to free alcohol !!! :nono: :nono: :nono:

 

[mickthetrick]

send it to me. my mother in law thinks she has a right to everything Ive brewed up till now. she will drink cats pxss if its bottled and for free :thumb:

 

[bluebell]

Any of you tried one with apricot as a WOW variation or on its own? Ocado have 3 litres for £5 thought it may be worth a try?

 

[sueelleker]

What sort of apricot-;juice, drink or nectar?

 

[bluebell]

50% Roussillon Apricot Puree, Water, Sugar, Antioxidant: Ascorbic Acid

Just seen they also do a peach