Wow variant (dry white wine)

[Ajt125]

Hi all

So my father in law has asked for a dry white wine so I thought 5 litres of a wow variant would be perfect, this is my recipe:

1L of wgj
500ml of apple juice
500ml of co-op orange & pineapple juice (60% oj 40% pineapple)
900g sugar
Mug of Strong tea
1/2 tsp of glycerine
1/2 tsp of bentonite
1 tsp of pectolase
1tsp of yeast nutrient
1tsp of youngs super wine yeast

I forgot to take a sg reading so adding up the sugars:

98g in the oj&pine combined
172g in the wgj
900g of sugar
Total = 1170g divided by 5 = 234 which should give me a reading of around 1.086 :)

I'm gonna let this ferment right down dry and not back sweeten at all, hopefully it turns out ok

Thanks
Ant

 

[Ajt125]

Here's a pic, I filled it up to hight lol so expecting a volcano

 

[Ajt125]

I have some Wilko grape juice concentrate, has anyone used this in a wow?

Ant.

 

[Ajt125]

It's started bubbling and has a slight lava lamp effect :thumb:


Ant.

 

[stevie1556]

Love the lava lamp effect!

I ferment all my WOWs to dry then back sweeten them, but I've read that a WOW made with apple juice works well. Would assume it makes a nice dry white wine.

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread as my bro in law likes a dry white.

 

[oldjiver]

I have found that when doing the final racking of the clear wine, topping up the demijohn with a quarter pint (or whatever your racking space is) with either apple or grape juice ( I use Tescos cartons) will take the harshness off the bone dry wine. This is the time to add campden tab and sorbate.

 

[Ajt125]

Wouldn't the extra added grape or apple juice be classed as back sweetening ? Thus making the wine not a dry one?

Ant.

 

[oldjiver]

Wouldn't the extra added grape or apple juice be classed as back sweetening ? Thus making the wine not a dry one?

Ant.

Hardly any commercial wines are completely dry. They are either stopped short of fermenting dry or naturally stop attenuating short of dry. The added juice just rounds of the flavour without making the wine taste sweet.

 

[Ajt125]

Ok so if I stop it at around 0.992 would that stop the harshness ?

Ant.

 

[oldjiver]

Hard to say, it would depend on the makeup of the wine. For instance Parsnip wine has a lot of unfermentable sugars, and would have a high final gravity although it had fermented out. Unless you have a laboratory and a degree in science, wines are so variable that getting a straight answer is not possible. I say the best way is to ferment until it stops naturally, taste it when it is clear, and then adjust for taste, acidity, sweetness etc.
To further confuse matters some yeasts only ferment a % of the must. The yeast called BV7 drove me mad. It is the BEST yeast for preserving the fruity flavour, but it wont ferment dry (in my experience). I made quite a strong wine and it ended up sweet. So I added less sugar next time, and I ended up with a sweet wine with less alcohol??
This hobby is an art rather than a science, otherwise everybody would be making Chateau Lafite, and Le Montrachet!!

 

[Ajt125]

I racked this tonight, the sg was 1086 and the fg was 0991 which gives me 12.6% abv :)
The small amount I tasted was nice and dry. I plan to leave this until this time in January.

Ant.