Wine ideas

[Craig57]

Good afternoon, as im very new to this wine making and wine ideas ive read on here i am wondering if someone has any ideas if i can make a half decent wine from the ingredients im listing. I have just bought 11/2 litres of Apple Juice, 1 ltr or cranberry juice, a bottle of blackcurrant high juice and a bottle of blackcurrant ribena (both litre bottles). I could not find any red grape juice or white grape juice anywhere, so was wondering if there are recipes for what i have here or do i actually need those other 2 juices to make a nice one? Thanks in advance

 

[kelper]

You should use 100% fruit juices, not fruit drinks. They are quite different. Some juices or juice 'drinks' contain preservatives which can stop the yeast fermenting.
You probably want to add some sugar unless the juices contain a lot already. This depends on whether you want a particular alcohol content or not.
Look at the thread on WOWs (wurzel's orange wines) Nowadays WOWs may or may not have any orange juice. As well as juices, you can use frozen fruits.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Assuming as Kelper says these are 100% (or at bare minimum 50% in which case you'll need to double up)

Don't use Ribena or any juice that has preservative in it basically if it doesn't say drink in 3 - 5 days after opening it has preservative in it.

If that is 11 x 2 litre cartons of apple juice i would try using it all with any of the other juices that have no preservative, you need to add up all the sugar in the cartons and bottles and subtract that from 4000g this will give you the amount of sugar you need to add for 13%.

You will also need.

4 teaspoons of yeast

5 teaspoons yeast nutrient

1.5 litres of black tea or powdered tannin

5 teaspoons of pectolace.

 

[kelper]

I think he meant one and a half litres, not eleven and a half! 1 1/2 instead of 11/2 which would only be 5.5L

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I think he meant one and a half litres, not eleven and a half! 1 1/2 instead of 11/2 which would only be 5.5L

He uses an X so that's not the way i am reading it.

11 x 2 litre cartons of apple juice

 

[kelper]

He uses an X so that's not the way i am reading it.

he may have edited it since? It has no x.

 

[Craig57]

Tad confusing as other folk say you can boil juices such as ribenna etc to rid of the preservatives? As a newby i dont know to turn left or right at the minute.
I really like the video of the WOW recipe and how simple it looks, but i do like a redder type of end product which is why i asked about the red grape juices etc? Do i really need to use these when doing the WOW ideas?
Thanks

 

[kelper]

No, you can use other fruit juices but the wine will look like a rosé. If you want a dark red wine use black cherries or elderberries. Ribena is full of artificial sweeteners which don't ferment so you end up with a sweet wine which will be DISGUSTING.

Why not follow a recipe? You can still get red grape juice if you shop around. Health food shops are your best bet.

https://www.healthpharm.co.uk/products/stu-185619?_pos=2&_sid=da81d2976&_ss=r

 

[Craig57]

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Tad confusing as other folk say you can boil juices such as ribenna etc to rid of the preservatives? As a newby i dont know to turn left or right at the minute.

There is lots of crap advice on the internet and i fell for the boil it it'll get rid of the preservative rubbish and ended up poring mine down the sink after 6 weeks of slow fermentation so we have all been there mate, stick with the lads (and lasses) in the forum and you wont go far wrong.

 

[Craig57]

yeah thats my thinking too, very difficult when your starting out who to trust in regards to who is stating facts or 'their' slant on things.
So getting back to the original post then i still do need that red grape juice?

 

[kelper]

Why not use pomegranate, pineapple, apple or any other 100% juice? Or order the red I suggested?

 

[Craig57]

i did get apple and cranberry this afternoon but not sure if thats a nice combo. The red grape does sound the way forward so i will make an effort to source that tomorrow. Thanks

 

[Chippy_Tea]

We always used at least one litre of grape juice in all my wines and we prefered them to one's without grape juice.