Brew No3 Cowboys Strawberry Ribena

weepete · Sep 26, 2012

Awrite Folks,

Apparently "everything comes to he who hustles while he waits" (Edison I think!) And seeing as I am waiting on my rhubarb brew finishing, I got a bit bored and decided to make another brew while I was twiddling my thumbs. I read Equaliser's post about strawberry Ribena wine (here viewtopic.php?f=39&t=29138 ) and decided to have a bash myself. Now, having left it too late to get to the local homebrew shop on Saturday I decided to do a fly by night version with the couple of bits I had left over from the last brew and stuff I could get from the nearby supermarket.

So I went and got:

A 5 litre bottle of water (to be used as a demijohn)
A tub of yeast (breadmakers stuff, as I had no wine yeast left...lol)
500g Granulated sugar
A litre of Strawberry Ribena Concentrate
A pack of balloons (for the airlock)
I had in the cupboard:
Pectic enzyme
Yeast nutrient

So more or less I followed the instructions in the video and now have a gallon or so on the go. As a wee experiment I'm leaving the top of and giving it a swirl a couple of times a day in order to introduce some oxygen in the hope that it helps the yeasties multiply. The plan is to fit the airlock when the SG hits 1.030 or there abouts. At the moment it's got down to about 1.050 after 3 days and has a wee layer of foamy bubbles on top which die down, then I give it a shake and the bubbles appear again!

RobWalker · Sep 26, 2012

come on now, that pack of balloons must have cost the same as the airlock :lol:

good luck dude. :thumb:

weepete · Sep 26, 2012

Price wasn't the issue mate, the one I have is on my carboy with the rhubarb wine in it and I couldn't get another one easily.

thanks tho!

weepete · Sep 28, 2012

Update:

That's it been fermenting for a few days now, steadily dropping by approx 0.008-0.01 per day so far. I tasted a wee bit of the juice today and must say though smelling really good it's lacking body and has got a weird nasty tang that I've never tasted before. I'm hoping still hopeing it'll work out ok, but fermenting too fast and using inferior products may have taken its toll. Either way we will see as the airlock is due to go on tomorrow as the SG should reach 1.030. I'll look at it again in a few days and see if any sediment has formed and then taste again and consider racking before I hope it clears.

weepete · Oct 9, 2012

Took a hydrometer reading tonight and its reading around 0.940 and still fermenting, shoudnt be long now till its done!

Tasted it too and has a bitter taste to it, i'm thinking it might be too much tanin, or mibbbies just dead yeast as its yet to clear and a few other of my wines have a similar bitterness. Hopefully it'll disappear when it clears, or after a bit of ageing!

stevie1556 · Oct 9, 2012

Fingers crossed it turns out ok!

I've got a Ribena and strawberry Ribena wine on the go, although I used a slightly different recipe to yours.

I haven't tasted mine yet, but I think it will have near enough finished fermenting now. Gonna check it tomorrow, and will definitely have a taste test to see if it's bitter.

weepete · Oct 11, 2012

How'd yours go Stevie?

stevie1556 · Oct 12, 2012

I checked them 2 days ago and they were reading 1.000. I was hoping they would have finished as I started them on the 21st, and as the other half was out she wouldn't moan that I had taken over the kitchen! I'm going to check them again mid next week so hopefully they would've finished by then. They do smell rather good so far though!

Will the bitterness of yours disappear when it matures? I'm just wondering as I put a cupnof black tea in eachbof mine, made with 2 teabags. I didn't do a taste test on either of them though

Gayle · Oct 12, 2012

I would like to make a ribena wine, will be watching this thread with interest. Might a carton of grape juice add to the body of the wine?

stevie1556 · Oct 12, 2012

Gayle, ice got no idea about adding white grape juice, but if you want it, here is the recipe I used:

Ingredients:
1 litre bottle of Ribena (the concentrate stuff that you mix with water)
Juice from 1 lemon
680g of sugar
Yeast
Yeast nutrient

Method:
Simmer/boil the Ribena for 10 mins to get rid of the preservative
Mix the suger in 500ml warm water (I did it in a saucepan)
Put the Ribena and sugar water into a DJ when cooled down
Put in the lemon juice and top up with water
When fully cooled add the yeast and nutrient
Fit a good shake and fit the airlock

My Ribena wine started out at 1.9 and my strawberry Ribena wine was 1.7 and both were started on 21st September.

Edit to my above post, I didn't use black tea, getting mixed up with a different wine I made.

weepete · Oct 18, 2012

Update: i bottled my cowboy ribena on monday 15/10/12. Tasted it and its just about palletable, very bitter aftertaste though still hanging around so I wouldn't reccommend doing it the same way I did! Anyways its in some old 2ltr plastic bottles to see if it will get any better with age. Lets hope so, but have my doubts. Lesson learned, proper ingredients are probably used for a reason!

Brew No3 Cowboys Strawberry Ribena

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